Faculty of Health
HH/PSYC1010C
6.0
INTRODUCTION
TO PSYCHOLOGY
Fall
Winter 2010-11
Below you will find below the answers to some questions you may have about the Fall/Winter section. Please read this information carefully. If you don't find the answers you need, contact the undergraduate office of the department of Psychology or Professor Wilkinson (see below)
What and where is the Orientation Session? What
happens if I can't come?
How is a correspondence course different from an internet course?
What are the secrets to success in this correspondence
course?
When are the exams? Do I have to come to campus for exams?
Why are exams in this course on weekends?
I live a long way from campus - can I arrange to
write my exams elsewhere and how do I do this?
My religious beliefs prevent me from writing exams on
Sundays - what do I do?
What happens if I get
ill right before an exam?
What happens if I feel ill when I get to an exam?
What happens if my work or holiday plans fall on one of
the exam dates?
What book(s) do I need for the course?
Can I buy a used copy of the text?
How do I submit assignments and what happens if they are late?
What are URPP credits and how do I participate if I am not on
campus?
Do I need a York email address?
Who is the professor and how do I contact her?
1. What and where
is the Orientation Session? What happens if I can't come?
The Orientation Session for this course will be held on Saturday September
11 at 1:00 pm in Lecture Hall C of the Computer Science and Engineering Building - #19 on the campus map. (York Keele Campus Map). This on-campus
session provides you with an opportunity to meet the course director and TAs
who will go through all the course requirements with you and answer all your
questions. We strongly encourage you to attend if you are in the
Toronto area. Slides from the orientation session will be posted on this
website after the session. If you cannot attend, it is ESSENTIAL that you
download the course outline (syllabus) which will be posted on the course
website in late August and read it carefully. All the critical information
about exams, deadlines, course rules etc will be found in the syllabus, and
failure to have read it is not considered an excuse for missing deadlines etc.
Most internet courses require you to participate in class activities (listening to lectures, participating in group discussions, etc) on a fixed schedule. Therefore they are more interactive and you are forced to stick to a pre-specified schedule. In a correspondence course, you are working on your own. The only strict scheduling aspects of the course are the dates on which exams are written and assignments are due. Information about the course is communicated via the internet (both through the course Moodle website and by email), and a variety of internet resources are available for the course. The reason we offer correspondence is so that people with demanding and variable work or home schedules or those living outside Toronto will have the opportunity to take this course. However, correspondence is not for everyone. You must be responsible and self-directed. If you have trouble motivating yourself to stay on track, a classroom course would be a better option for you. Correspondence is NOT recommended for students new to university studies, particularly those making the high school-to-university transition.
3) What are the secrets
to success in this correspondence course?
#1 - Keep up
with the reading! You must be self-directed in this course.
There is a large amount of material to cover, and time is very
limited. You cannot afford to put off covering the material
as there is far too much in each module of the course to cover in a day or two
before each exam.
#2 -
Make use of the email support. All email sent to the course help-line
is answered within 48 hours. Details of how to reach the helpline
will be posted on the Moodle website. If you want to talk to us by phone,
that is easy to arrange - if you email us your phone number and a time
when you can be reached, someone will call you within 48 hours. We are
here to help you understand difficult material, clear up questions you have
etc. Don't wait until the week of the exam to call. If you do
badly on one exam, get in touch with us for some help right away. If you
wait until you have done badly on 3 exams, it will be too late!
#3 -
Make use of the web-based resources. For each chapter of the book,
there is an overview prepared by Professor Wilkinson, which gives you some
background and highlights the important concepts in the chapter.
Secondly, there is an excellent publisher's website for your textbook.
Included on the website are practice multiple-choice questions for each chapter
in the book. While it is unlikely that these exact questions will appear
on an exam, the exam questions will be of similar types, so this is excellent
practice. This year the course will have a Moodle
website - You will be able to access this site in early August if you are
registered in the course.
4) When and where are the exams?
The 4 exams in this course are written on campus, except for people taking the
course from distant locations (more than 3 hours from York), who have made
other arrangements with York Distance Education. All exams will be
on weekends (see #3 below) The dates for 2010-11 are:
Exam 1: Sunday October 31 1-3 pm
(note earlier time for this date only)
Exam 2: Sunday December 5, 2-4 pm
Exam 3: Sunday February 13, 2-4 pm
Exam 4: Sunday March 27, 2-4 pm
5) Why are exams in this course on
weekends?
It is a rule
at York that internet and correspondence exams cannot
be held during the week, both because of space limitations and because this
causes conflicts for students taking both classroom and distance courses at the
same time. So, we have no choice.
6) I live a long way from campus - can I arrange to
write my exams elsewhere and how do I do this?
Off-site
exams can be arranged through the Centre for Distance Education ONLY if you
live more than 3 hour travel time away from the Keele Campus. There are
additional charges for this service. If you are eligible to do this, you
should go to the Distance
Education website Under Student Requirements, you will find a link to
Off-site Examinations. Take care of
this early because it takes time to arrange.
7) My religious beliefs
prevent me from writing exams on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays - what do I do?
York had
detailed regulations about exam accommodation in the case of religion. Click
here for details. In order to make suitable arrangements, we need to
know as early as possible if you are going to require religious
accommodation. There are strict deadlines for requesting religious
accommodation (minimum 2 weeks) so be sure to look into this well ahead of
time, ideally at the beginning of term. Since all exams this year will be
on Sundays, if you have a regular Sunday religious requirement, let us know
about this at the beginning of the year so we can plan alternative sessions for
you. Note that you must be able to document this requirement if asked.
8) What happens if I get ill right
before an exam?
If you are
ill, you MUST see a doctor. When you do, you must print out and take with
you a copy of the Attending
Physician's form. A simple note from your doctor is NOT
adequate. Email us as soon as you are able to (within 1 week
maximum after the missed exam) letting us know that you have missed the exam
because of illness, and then complete and bring (or fax) the Application
for Deferred Exam form and Physician's form to Dr. Wilkinson's secretary
(see syllabus for details). It is a good idea to download and print
copies of these forms at the beginning of the course so you will have them
ready if you need them. If some other serious emergency arises (death in
the family, severe illness of your child etc), the same sort of procedure must
be followed - documentation will be required.
9) What happens if I feel ill when I
get to an exam?
If you arrive
at an exam and feel too ill to write, do NOT try to write the exam - instead go
to your doctor or a clinic and get treatment (and have the form completed - see
above). If you write an exam and then come to us saying that you didn't
do well because you weren't feeling well, there is nothing we can do about it,
so you must make the decision before you enter the exam room.
10) What happens if my work or holiday plans fall on one of the exam dates?
If your employment requires you to be out of town on one of the exam days, this should be discussed Professor Wilkinson before the course begins, or as soon as you learn about the conflict. If you can provide documentation of the necessity for you to be away for one exam, you will be granted deferred status. However, if you regularly work on weekends then you should not take this course as you will not be able to defer all the exams.Holiday plans are generally not considered a legitimate reason for a deferred exam (this includes weddings, graduations, tickets for flights already booked, sports tournaments etc etc). If you foresee such a conflict before the course begins, you should contact Professor Wilkinson to determine whether an alternative arrangement will be permitted. Once the term has begun, be very careful about making commitments on exam days - it is very unlikely that you will be allowed to write a deferred exam, and if you are given permission the deferred exam will be on a date set by the department. If you fail to write an exam for which you are not given permission for deferral, you will lose 20% of the course grade, so be very careful about this.
10) What book(s) do I
need for the course?
There is 1
textbook for the course: Weiten & McCann
(2010) Psychology: Themes and Variations (2nd Canadian Ed.)Thompson
& Nelson. This year the interactive CD PsykTrek
3.0 is also required. These can be purchased bundled together from the
York Bookstore. You can purchase the text and CD package from the
York bookstore on-line (www.bookstore.yorku.ca) or you can purchase it at the bookstore in
person. Be sure to tell them the correct section PSYC 1010C as different
sections use different books and not all sections use PsykTrek. It may be
possible to purchase PsykTrek 3.0 separately if you intend to buy a used book -
check with the bookstore about this.
11) Can I
buy a used copy of the text?
This edition
is in its second year so there should be used copies around. However, be
aware that older editions may be sold by some second hand dealers. Older
editions of Psychology: Themes and Variations may not contain all the same
material; exams are based on the required text i.e. Weiten
& McCann (2010) so it is VERYstrongly recommended that you not try to work
from an older edition of the text.
12) How do
I submit assignments and what happens if they are late?
There are two
assignments in this course. Their due dates are clearly indicated on the
course syllabus and the course website. Assignments must be submitted ON
LINE through the Moodle website. You will receive instructions later
about how to upload assignments. The deadlines are firm. You will
lose marks for late papers (details will be in the course syllabus) - you
should plan ahead to have them completed in time. Excuses such as
"the internet went down just as I tried to submit it at midnight on the
due date" are not acceptable. Be sure to keep an electronic or paper
copy of your assignment in case there is any problem in transmitting it to us.
Assignment deadlines for 2010-11 year are posted on the website and are in the
course syllabus.
13) What are URPP credits and how do I participate if I am not
on campus?
The URPP is the Undergraduate Research Participants Pool. All
students taking Introductory Psychology are required to participate in ongoing
research to earn 4% of the course grade. This entails 3 hours of research
participation in the Fall term and 3 hours in the
Winter term. There are a variety of web-based studies to choose from in
addition to studies taking place in York campus laboratories, so it will not be
a problem for you if you taking this course from a distance. Full details
will be available on the course website and in the syllabus.
14) Do I
need a York email address?
Absolutely!
And you should check it regularly while you are in the course.
15) Who is the professor and how do I
contact her?
The professor
for this course is Dr. Frances Wilkinson. If you
have questions before the course begins you can contact me by email. My email
address and other contact information are listed below.
Dr. Frances Wilkinson
e-mail:
franw@yorku.ca
office:
1012D CSEB
phone:
416.736.2100 ext. 33184
Helpful
hint: Whenever you send me email, be sure to sign it, with your full
name. I only reply to signed
emails! If you don't hear from me, check your outbox to make sure you
signed your email, and if you didn't, send it again - with your name!
Also, I have a name too, and it isn't "hey" !
This is university and it is important that you learn to communicate in a professional
fashion; this is a skill that will be important to you when you are out there
on the job market and you should start practicing now! So
"Dear Dr. Wilkinson" or "Hello Professor Wilkinson" would
be a good start!
-updated August 9, 2010 by Dr. Frances Wilkinson-