Policies

GMU Policies For All Courses:

The policies that apply to all GMU courses can be found at https://stearnscenter.gmu.edu/home/gmu-common-course-policies/

Note on Diseases and Mitigations:

As your instructor, my first responsibility is to provide you a safe environment in which to learn. If you experience disease-related or other disruptions to your ability to participate in this course, please feel free to discuss them with me regardless of what point in the semester they arise.

Honor Code and AI:

The use of so so-called AI (which is not actually AI, but that’s a longer explanation that I’m putting in a syllabus!) is not prohibited in this class, however you must cite and acknowledge anything produced by AI, just as you would for a human-authored work. This is because most publicly-available AI programs have been trained through what is arguably intellectual theft, so using them unacknowledged conducts plagiarism by proxy.

Example 1: if you chose to generate language in ChatGPT, use quotation marks and cite it as if it were a human author. You must also send me a copy of the entire prompt/chat string that you quote from, as it is an unpublished work.

Example 2: If you chose to use Midjourney to create images, you must include an image caption indicating that it was generated by Midjourney with a public link to the original image.

By putting your name on your assignments, you are acknowledging the integrity of your work. If you have any questions about academic integrity, please either consult with me or go to https://oai.gmu.edu/mason-honor-code/

Accommodations:

If you have learning needs and have been evaluated or are in the process of being evaluated by Mason’s Disability Services (http://ds.gmu.edu), please let me know so that I may make certain you are receiving the support you need.

Should you require other accommodations during the semester, particularly if it involves obtaining access to the necessary technology to perform your coursework, please contact me as soon as you are aware of the issue.

Communication:

Students must use their MasonLive email account to receive important University information, including communications related to this class. Please also use this email address to sign up for the class Slack.

If you have any questions about how to appropriately communicate in an online environment, begin by checking out these Core Rules of Netiquette. If you still have questions, feel free to schedule an appointment to chat with me via Zoom to talk about it further.

Privacy and Safety:

Because this course’s activities will require you to have an internet presence, please contact me immediately if you have privacy concerns or experience online harassment doing class activities during the course of this semester. Aliases may be an appropriate solution and/or alternative activities may be substituted for required course activities, as necessary. While I believe that your education will benefit from your participation in the online digital history community, your privacy and security is a higher priority than any particular course activity.

For more about your specific legal privacy rights under FERPA, see https://registrar.gmu.edu/ferpa/

Diversity:

My goal is to create a supportive learning environment for students with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences. As such, I fully support the Mason Diversity Statement.

Religious Holidays:

Please inform me during the first two weeks of the semester if you will be unable to participate in course activities at some point this semester due to religious observances. For your ease of reference, I include the link to the following GMU holiday calendar: https://ulife.gmu.edu/religious-holiday-calendar/

Student Services

You may find links to the following student services useful over the course of the semester: