The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. One element of this legislation requires that all qualified students with documented disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. I would like everyone to know that I am willing to make any reasonable accommodation for limitations due to any disability, including learning disabilities. If you have or think you have a disability, including a learning disability, please make an appointment with an advisor at the Office of Educational Accessibility as soon as possible. They can assist you with appropriate accommodations for you in your classes. Please see ODU’s Office of Educational Accessibility, and then me, to discuss any special needs you might have. Information about ODU’s Office of Educational Accessibility:

• Web address: http://studentaffairs.odu.edu/educationalaccessibility/ 

• Phone number: 757-683-4655

Attendance is based on presence. Please take participation seriously; since this class is a community of thinkers who will discuss and collaborate on ideas, your lack of participation hurts others as well as yourself. So please participate in class on time and have your homework completed by the assigned deadline. I will not withdraw you from the course; therefore, if you wish to be withdrawn from the course, you must initiate withdrawal procedures. 

Students are entitled to receive instruction free from interference by other members of the class. If a student is disruptive, I may ask the student to stop the disruptive behavior and warn the student that such disruptive behavior can result in withdrawal from the course. An instructor may withdraw a student from a course when the student's behavior disrupts the educational process 

To use the web-based application responsibly please observe all laws and ODU policies that are incorporated into the Codes of Conduct and Academic Integrity. Some specific aspects of law and policy that might be well to remember are prohibitions against copyright infringement, plagiarism, harassment or interferences with the underlying technical code of the software. Some resources to remind yourself about ODU’s policies as well as a digital document about laws on copyright and fair use:

As a student using the web-based applications certain rights accrue to you. Any original work that you make tangible belongs to you as a matter of copyright law. You also have a right to the privacy of your educational records as a matter of federal law and may choose to set your privacy settings to private and only share with the instructor and your classmates. Your contributions to the various web-based applications constitute educational records.  By contributing to the web-based applications, and not taking other options available to you in this course equivalent to this assignment that would not be posted publicly on the Internet, you consent to the collaborative use of this material as well as to the disclosure of it in this course and potentially for the use of future courses.