GERO 320 Summer 2024 - Quick Course Orientation

Hello, and welcome
to summer term.

I'm creating some of

these quick instructional
videos just to walk you

through things to expect

this summer in this
particular course,

which is the
introduction to aging,

a six-week online
asynchronous course.

Just to get us started here,

I'm going to show you

the Canvas course and walk

you through what to
expect a little bit here.

We'll go through the
syllabus a bit as

well. This is the home page.

This is now live,

and you can find information
here on the home page,

just very general
information such

as information about me.

You can go to this link here and

see a little bit of
information about me,

including contact information
and my office hours.

At any point, feel free to
drop into this Zoom link.

This will be my
virtual office space,

and I will be there
Tuesdays from 9:00 A.M. to

noon and Wednesdays from
10:00 A.M. to noon.

Going back to the
home page here.

You will also find a
link to the syllabus.

I'm going to go over
this here in a moment.

You'll find a link to the
textbook, which is required.

It is available online
through the library.

Make sure you're logged
into your Wolf Web account,

and go ahead and click
on this link and you can

access the textbook that way.

Then you will see modules
listed down here.

There are only six
modules, one per week,

and each one will be live at
the beginning of the week.

I'll just show you what
that looks like for Week 1,

just to give you a
little bit of an idea.

Also up here, we have

some other modules that just
have some helpful resources

and things that you can

use if you feel like they
will be helpful to you.

But Week 1, I have
posted an overview page.

This is always going to be
the case just to give you

a overview of what to
expect for the week.

We cover a lot of
material each week,

and the term goes
by really fast.

It's important that you
stay on top of all of

your assignments and all of

your readings as
much as possible,

because it's very easy to get

behind in a course like this.

Just want to make
sure that you are

as organized as possible.

We've got some content
here for you to explore.

The focus for this
first week is learning

just generally what
is gerontology about.

We're going to talk about
the longevity dividend,

and how we can think
about population aging in

a more positive way
versus using a lot

of ageist stereotypes
and attitudes.

We're going to talk
about ageism in

general and social
theories of aging,

and the science of aging,

so getting into,

what are the mechanisms
that underlie

the process of aging
physiologically?

We will talk about some
physical changes of aging,

so some of the things that
happen to us physically like

our skin wrinkling and

our hair turning gray,
and things like that.

For each week you're going
to find that you have

a discussion forum as a way for

you to engage with the material.

This week is mostly a
way for you to introduce

yourselves to each other

and get to know
who's in the class.

You also have a quiz.

This will be a way for you to
apply what you've learned,

and then an opportunity to

just reflect back on what
you did for the week,

and make sure that you've

completed all of
your assignments.

We're going to go
over to the syllabus.

Again, you can access this from

the home page by clicking
on this button here,

or you can also access it
by clicking on the panel.

You can do a preview by

clicking here or you can
download this document.

We're going to go ahead and
just do a preview here.

Again, this is a
six-week course.

It runs pretty quickly.

I just have some
information here at

the beginning about
the description,

the required text, the goals.

I'm not going to go
through this in detail,

but if you have any
questions whatsoever,

please feel free to reach
out to me as needed.

This is a course that fulfills
a Gen Ed requirement,

which is one of the really

positive things
about this course.

It also is one of

the requirements for the
gerontology certificate.

Whether you're thinking
about a certificate

or a minor, or a major,

this is the best course to start

with because it
really does give you

that foundational material that

you need for the
gerontology curriculum.

I have some information here
about how to communicate.

Most information is going
to go to your email.

I do post announcements,

and those should be also set up

to go to your email inbox.

Please just make sure to keep

track of any information
that's coming to you.

Again, it's easy to fall
behind in a course like this.

I just want to make sure that
you are staying on top of

all of the information that
I am communicating to you.

I'll be keeping track
of your participation

through your engagement and
your assignment submissions.

If I do notice that
you're falling behind,

I will likely be making

a referral to the student
success in advising.

Just keep that in mind.

I do want to make
sure that you're able

to successfully
complete the course.

My late policy essentially is,

I can't really accept
late discussion posts,

quizzes, or exams.

That being said, make
sure you reach out to me.

A lot of times I can be
flexible and re-open

an assignment and still

allow you to submit
something if it's late.

Papers, I generally will accept

up to four days late with
an automatic deduction

of 10% after the due
date for each day.

Again, reach out to me if

you have any questions on that.

I've got some other information

here about some misconduct,

guidelines, mandatory
reporting, accommodations.

A couple things I want
to point out as well.

This is the grading
scale that we use.

You'll notice like
for assignments,

everything is still
graded on this scale.

At the end of the term,

when you get your final grade,

if it is something
that is below a 63%,

this is a new policy
at the university,

it's actually going to be
reflected as NC or no credit,

rather than a D- or an
F as your final grade.

This is just a way mostly
to help students keep

their GPA up so that if you are

getting something less
than a D in the course,

it will just be a no credit

and will not impact
your GPA ultimately.

You will need to retake
the course if it's

a requirement, but hopefully,

this is a way that
students can be

better supported in terms
of their success overall.

Let me get to our
assignments here.

As I said, every
week you're going to

see opportunities for
engaging and applying,

so that we do those through
discussions and quizzes.

Those are really just
going to be through

Weeks 1 through 5.

Week 6 is going to be a
little bit different,

because that's when you're
going to be focusing on

your final exam and pulling
everything together.

Also your gerontology paper is

something that you'll be
working on throughout the term.

Just to give you a little

bit more information about this.

Again, after you explore
the content each week,

you'll be engaging with
your peers in discussion

and then applying your
knowledge through quizzes.

I just realized I say
Moodle here in my syllabus,

and I really should say
Canvas, not Moodle.

The assignment that I
mentioned is your paper.

You're going to be
writing a research paper

of a topic of your interest.

I will be providing some
video instructions on that,

so you'll get more detail

here very soon about
the gerontology paper.

Then the only exam that you have

in this course is your final.

It's going to be
similar to the quizzes,

but longer, and it will be

cumulative of
everything you learned.

This is something that, again,

I will provide some more

detailed instructions
so that you

feel more prepared as
we get closer for that.

Of course, I have the
outline here that just

shows what to expect
for each week.

The dates of each week,

and also the topics that
we're going to be covering.

You'll see that each week we
cover a variety of topics.

Again, it's a very
quick condensed course.

Your paper will be due
at the end of Week 5,

so just make sure to
be prepared for that.

Then like I said,
your final exam

will be due at the
end of Week 6.

That's going to be Friday,

and you'll have all day to
complete your final exam.

That just gives you a little bit

of an overview of
what to expect.

Again, the course moves fast.

Make sure that you reach out
if you've got questions.

I'm happy to answer
questions as needed,

and I'm happy to
meet with you during

office hours at any time.

Good luck, welcome to summer,

and I hope you all are
doing really well.