welcome to the first orientation lecture
covering the course LGL a 1351 better
known as contracts during this first
lecture we're going to focus on the
syllabus so I'm going to actually get
out of this this is the PowerPoint
presentation then flip on over to the
syllabus I have in this copy of the
syllabus highlighted or yeah put into
yellow certain parts that are especially
important
I guess all parts are important but some
are more important than others to
paraphrase or well a little bit the
version of the syllabus that you see
will not have these sections highlighted
so I encourage you to print up or pull
up electronically a copy of the syllabus
and annotate it as you feel appropriate
to capture these most important sections
also before we get started I suggest
that you put me on pause and go ahead
and get some notebook paper or perhaps
even a spiral notebook to take notes
this is a fairly long orientation and
you're not probably going to want to
listen to it more than once
I'm giving going to be giving you lots
and lots of information though to
hopefully make this course as successful
as possible for you and what I don't
want you to have to do is you know you
forget a certain group or said something
about this during the orientation but I
can't remember what she said and then
you end up having to really watch a lot
of videos my suggestion instead is to
take just a bit more time and take some
careful notes in while you are watching
the orientation that way you'll have
your notes and you won't have to worry
about watching or listening to this
presentation more than once
so let's go ahead and get started
the depending upon the semester that
you're taking the course is the syllabus
may be different in terms of the actual
dates or things like that but the parts
of it will be very very similar on the
first page really the only part of the
syllabus that you're going to be that
interested in honestly is going to be
the withdrawal date and this will be the
withdrawal date whether you are in or
whatever course you're taking if it is a
semester long course in other words a 16
week long course if this is during the
spring or the fall if you are taking the
summer
be nice summer three or ten week course
that will be the withdrawal date that
you see on your copy of the syllabus now
this is an important day to be aware of
because if you decide let's say in early
March that gosh you've won the lottery
you've decided to retire to the South of
France and you're not going to be taking
any more paralegal courses well it would
be smart to go ahead and drop the course
before you move to to France I'm if you
wait until after the date in this case
the date is March 22nd it becomes quite
a bit more difficult for you to withdraw
from the class now certainly I hope that
you don't want to withdraw from
contracts but I know that things happen
in life and sometimes that is a good
choice for students but please don't
withdraw because you don't think you're
being successful in the course I'm glad
to provide some additional support many
times I have seen that students may
think that they're doing poorly and of
course when in fact they're doing quite
a bit better so if you're not sure how
you're doing and of course please don't
hesitate to talk talk with me give me a
call during office hours or stop by and
I can give you a sense as to where you
are in the course and also provide some
support so that you can be successful
nothing will have happened in the course
by March 22nd that we can't work through
and get you to a place where you can be
successful in the course okay let's
continue on the second page of the
syllabus has a lot of Technology
information so we're gonna fly by that
and then we'll get to the section where
we talk about the instructor specific
information you'll see we have my
particular office location my office is
in the library building on the Frisco or
Preston Ridge campus depend upon how
you'd like to describe it it's on the
second floor room 232 below that are my
office hours I typically have two types
of office hours one is your traditional
office hour where I'm actually in my
office in the library building and
you're welcome to come to my office
hours and physically be present there or
you can call during my office hours if
you choose to call my telephone
number is down here another way though
you can participate in office hours is
via zoom these are virtual office hours
what you'll do is you will go to if you
have an Android phone usual go to this
link right here you'll click on it and
you'll go into a room a virtual room
where you can participate in office
hours with me I can see you you can see
me we can share documents over our
computers or smartphones or whatever we
happen to be using at that time if you
use an iPhone then there this is the way
that you go about accessing the the Zoom
virtual office right now I'm actually
using zoom to tape record this convert
this lecture so it's a very user
friendly tool to to use for these
purposes I've never had a student who
has been unable to use zoom but things
can happen and let's say you do
encounter a problem feel free to email
me during my virtual office hours and
we'll figure out what's going on so that
you can be sure to meet with me and get
the information that you need in
addition to my traditional office hours
like I have here and I have sorry that I
have here sorry and then I have here
sometimes I also have my office hours in
different locations you can see in this
particular semester I'm having office
hours in the associate faculty office in
LH LH is a different building than L
building LH stands for Lawler hall it's
also on the frisco campus it's in the
same classroom assume the same building
where most of the paralegal classes are
on the frisco campus i do it here
because there's a class immediately
before that immediately after that class
and many times students find it more
convenient to stop by my office hours if
it's in the same building with the
classes and so that's why I make my
office hours there from time to time so
always be sure to check when you see the
office hours the location and also the
way that I'm having the office hours ok
so let me go to the next section here's
some contact information as I said
before this is my office telephone
number it will work when I am
right here obviously it won't work when
I am here and it won't work while I am
zooming because I'm gonna zoom almost
always from my home I am in my office
very little time I work a lot of hours
but I don't work in my office a lot of
hours I may work from home I've got kids
and other responsibilities and so it's
just more convenient for you for me as a
result my telephone number isn't that
helpful outside of the office hours so
in this case really you know it'll be
about two hours a week where this is a
good way to reach me here we go here and
here so instead of leaving me a
voicemail if you don't catch me during
those times a much better approach is to
send me an email now please don't
misunderstand I do want to talk with you
I love to talk with students about
career plans or opportunities that we
can work on to improve your performance
in the class so sending me an email
doesn't mean that we won't talk well
I'll be delighted to set up a time where
we can chat by telephone or face-to-face
to resolve whatever the issues are that
you're confronting but this is an easier
way to schedule a schedule those times
if you leave me a voicemail it might be
several days before I get back to you
let me also share something about emails
there's really two ways to communicate
with me via email the first is actually
going to work and that's using this
email address see groover at Collins edu
but there is a second way you can
attempt to communicate with me and if we
see here on canvas let me go back to
home so you can see that I'm location
there is a box over here called inbox
this looks really tempting click on it
and you'll be able to actually we can't
click on it right now apparently but
ordinarily if I wasn't in student view
you'd be able to click on this and we'd
be able to send messages back and forth
lots of students like this lots of
instructors like it there's nothing
inherently wrong with it I do not happen
to use this tool and unfortunately I'm
not able to turn it off for the class so
it's there but please don't use it I'm
gonna ask that you pause me right now
and go ahead and write
your notes do not use the canvas inbox
it's not really relevant why I choose
not to use it but but just maybe it'll
help you remember a little bit better
not to use it if you know the reason why
many of my students I would say over
half take more than one class with me
and so I like to keep all of the
messages that I've shared with that
student in the same location and that
helps me make sure that if I've shared
something with the student or he or she
seriously I mean the past I can find
that information is as we go forward and
so by doing by sending it through email
I can organize that information in one
place the inbox system ties that message
that I got from the student to a
particular class so let's say Bob is in
my class this semester he's in contracts
we'll say and he sends me a message
about some issue that has continuing
importance then three semesters from now
Bob reaches out to me and I need to do a
little bit of refresher on what that
issue is well I'm going to have to
remember what semester Bob took
contracts and that Bob shared that
information with me in contracts and not
in intro or some other course so what
happens under those circumstances I end
up looking in several different courses
before I find Bob's notes it's just not
a very efficient way of filing the
information so for that reason I ask
that you send things through the C
groover at Collins I edu because I don't
use the inbox I don't even notice if
there are messages there so you could
send me a message at the beginning of
semester and I might not see it
throughout the course of the semester
obviously you sent me the message in the
hopes that I would see it so the way to
to ensure that you will have your
message seen is by sending it to me at C
groover at Collins ie bu I'm a little
compulsive about my email so those that
have send me messages probably 90% of
the time I respond within minutes of the
students whom email message or very very
quickly if I'm in class or asleep for
example I'm not going to but I am pretty
consistent about responding very quickly
if you don't hear from me within
for hours it probably means that your
message somehow got lost or mislaid or
something along those lines the one a
time though that you might not hear from
me sooner is if you send me a message
over the weekends I am NOT handy over
the weekends my family and I spend most
of our weekends in a remote location in
a lake house and we do not have cell
phone reception we don't have internet
it's intentional we don't want to be a
using technology during that time and so
from Friday afternoon through Sunday if
you send me a message I probably won't
see it till Monday and so you're welcome
to send me the message but just keep in
mind that when you want to communicate
with me or you think you might need to
communicate with me better that you do
that probably sometime on Thursday or
early early Friday to make sure that you
get that response that you need or maybe
if it keeps until Monday then that also
works here is our textbook the law of
contracts and the Uniform Commercial
Code
the author is Tepper and the current
Edition I believe is third you certainly
can buy the most current edition you can
also buy an earlier edition I'm not
aware of the author having a made
dramatic changes to the content of the
textbook so that's a way to save a bit
of money other approaches to save money
would be to rent an electronic version
of the book or perhaps to share the book
with another student there are no open
book tests or anything like that so
sharing a book with the student with
another student can be a smart way of
reducing the cost for this course of
course you can also sell the book at the
end of the semester so those are some
things to think about and if you do
happen to choose to buy an earlier
edition and you're concerned well you
know I don't want to make sure that I'm
what might my chapters are correctly
ordered and all that good stuff
please feel free to come by I'll be glad
to provide some support or use to make
sure that you are in fact reading the
right chapters and you have the right
content in the chapters let's talk
about grading information here is a
breakdown of how grades are calculated
you can see that we'll have a discussion
board and that will be worth five
percent of your grade and then we'll
have assignments and we'll have an
assignment for every chapter and that
will be worth 30 percent of your grade
with respect to the assignments each
assignment we're 32 points so within
each assignment is an opportunity to
earn two additional points of credit and
we will also have quizzes and quizzes
are worth 20 percent of your grade we'll
talk more about how you access
assignments and quizzes in a little bit
when we get to the another portion of a
presentation and then we have the
midterm midterms with 20%
final examination is worth 25% so a
little over half of the course is tied
up with tests and the other half is an
activities that you'll do on a chapter
basis before you get bogged down though
into the specifics of the course we have
an orientation quiz this is intended to
be a it means it's a it's an easy quiz
for one thing if you are paying
attention and listening to the
orientation material and reviewing it
you'll do great on the orientation quiz
if for some reason you don't do well the
first time you can take it up to three
times during the course of the semester
let me just show you where you'll find
that orientation quiz
you
you
you
I'm not seeing it here I'm gonna have to
track that down by the time I do my next
lecture I will have the orientation quiz
up I apologize for not having it visible
right now I probably turned it off for a
second I forgot to turn it back on by
the way
and while I've taught this course for
this is not my first semester teaching
it invariably there's going to be
moments where things have been changed
or things along those lines so if you
see something that isn't the way you
expect it to be I feel free to reach out
to me send me an email sharing with me
what you think might not be the way that
it is I'll look into it and if it ends
up that you're right I'll make the
change and if it's not I'll give you a
little bit of explanation and hopefully
clarify what you're seeing so that's
always a good thing to keep in mind
we're honest we're a team here this
isn't an adversarial situation so we
ought to be available to help one
another out to make the course as
successful as we can let me go back to
the syllabus let's talk about how you
participate in the discussion board well
you will actually have two posts that
you'll do for each discussion board the
first is a substantive post that you'll
make and then you will reply to one
other students now you can make more
than one reply posts but you're only
required to make one reply post in your
first post which I'm calling the subset
to post you'll need to list your word
count and you'll need to end you'll need
to for that word count to be at least
100 words if you don't list your word
count you're going to get an automatic
deduction if you don't have a hundred
words you're going to get it automatic
deduction if you say you have more than
a hundred words and you really don't
that's gonna be a disciplinary
proceeding so don't do that if you can
only get to 90 right that you only have
90 words you'll get a deduction but a
minor deduction on discussion board is
essentially not going to affect your
grade your second post needs to be at
least 40 words long you don't
technically have to count or do the word
count for that but you certainly can if
you'd like to
let me show you how the discussion board
is set up so I'm going to go to an
example discussion board the first
discussion board we have is in Chapter
one and it's just an introduction board
so I'll open it up here you'll see that
there are instructions about how to do
it so there's a little reminder within
the context if it's each discussion
board so you don't have to remember how
many words you have to have or things
along those lines the instructions will
be with the discussion board and so here
I have an example of how you might make
a post here so I respond to the prompt I
am professor Gruber oh I am drawn to
paralegal studies because I've been the
law very interesting to me the laws of
puzzle
yeah di di going to the end then you can
see at the end I include the word count
and then I pretend that I'm responding
to somebody in the class and you can see
here I have more than 40 words I don't
listen workouts I don't have to for the
second post but before I finish posting
it I did count it so here are some
here's an example about how to proceed
so how do you make your first post well
the first post you won't until you make
your first post you won't be able to see
any of the other posts that's so that
you don't cut and paste some other
person's creative endeavors and then
suddenly change it in and claim it as
your own all you have to do is just
click on this reply button to get
started so even though it's your first
post and you're really not replying to
anything you are going to hit reply to
start which are basically doing is
you're replying to the prompt that we
have so that's what we do for the
discussion board we'll have a discussion
board about every other module I think
it's generally going to be on the
odd-numbered modules okay so
talk about the examinations we'll have
two examinations over the course of the
semester a midterm and a final
examination you'll have two ways that
you can take the final examination in
the midterm and you don't have to do
them both the same way if you don't want
to most of y'all perhaps even all Adele
will choose to use the Colin Testing
Center and even here you have some
choices though what I will do is I will
submit the test to the Frisco a testing
center the one in founders Hall
it's a computer-based test so you won't
need a scantron or anything when you go
to the testing center all you'll need is
your student ID a driver's license will
not work for identification purposes so
be sure you have that student ID and
you'll go ahead and take take the test
if you take in the Frisco Center it's
easy peasy I've submitted it there
there's not going to be any problems
with you completing the test but let's
say you want to take it on the plane now
or the mckinney a testing center that's
also funny let me tell you how that's
gonna work when i turn in the test i'll
be turning it into the frisco center but
i will also alert the frisco center that
it should be shared with the other
testing centers most of the time that
happens seamlessly and students are able
to take the test on whatever campus they
want every now and again there's a
glitch i'm not sure what happens it
causes the glitch maybe it's someone the
frisco center maybe it's someone at the
other centers who miss violet or
whatever it might happens but every now
and again somehow or another the test
doesn't get set up in the other location
for that reason before you go to take
the test at the plano center or the
mckinney center i encourage you to call
ahead hey I'm Bob Smith I'm gonna be
taking the L GLA 1351 midterm or final
exam just want to confirm that you have
it if you're planning on taking the test
on Tuesday you probably should call
ahead on Monday just to make sure that
it's there if it's not then of course
you can ask them here are some
strategies to do if they say don't know
what you're talking about the first
strategy is just to say well
I'm my instructor definitely made it
available to to all the testing centers
would you mind checking again you
wouldn't think that would work before
often than not they find it once you
urge them to look one more time so
that's one possibility but let's say
that doesn't work the second possibility
is to ask them to contact the Frisco a
testing center and to resend it or to
maybe send it the first time if there
was an error in the transmission that
should solve the problem but let's
assume that the testing center is not
able or willing to do that well then at
that point you can get me involved but I
want to give you a couple caveats if
it's over the weekend and I'm at my lake
house I'm not going to be available so
you'll want to make sure that you've
gotten all these issues resolved well
before the day that you want to take the
test
that's especially necessary if you want
me to get involved in it of course at
the end of the day it doesn't really
make a difference because let's imagine
it's that weird scenario where you're
planning on taking on the play-doh
campus and some hair another they don't
have it there and they're not willing to
to call the the Frisco campus to to have
it sent be sent over well what are you
gonna do then you're gonna go to the
Frisco campus I mean it's a 30-minute
Drive there's not a major issue
associated with doing this it may be
inconvenient but it's certainly
something that you can go ahead and
accomplish so don't spend a lot of time
worrying about it if there's a glitch
along those lines although you certainly
can reach out to me
so that's how it's going to work if you
choose to use one the Collin testing
centers the other choice is to use
Proctor you the midterm and the final
exam have to be proctored but they don't
have to be proctored in a face-to-face
setting and Proctor U is a remote
proctoring service there are some things
though that make it sometimes a little
problematic for folks and I want to be
candid with you about some issues that
can come up the first issue is that it
is something that the student pays for
it'll be anywhere from about $9.50 to
about $31.50 so it's not a free service
for students many times what initially
draws students to use the Proctor you as
they think to themselves oh I can save
some gas money or I can save some
babysitter money probably Proctor you if
your local Proctor you is probably be
more expensive than whatever money would
have saved now obviously if you're in a
different city let's say you're in
Houston or you are in San Marcos or
College Station or something like that
you may well find that well yeah it
would be cheaper to use Proctor you than
to travel all the way up to Collin
County so there are can be financial
incentives but for most folks it's not
going to be helpful from a financial
standpoint okay so that's the first
thing the finances the second thing is
you need a computer that is compliant
with what a proctor you needs in terms
of its system that's usually not a
problem assuming that your computer is
reasonably recent it's going to likely
meet the requirements the one challenge
can be is that you do need a webcam but
beyond that you're pretty system is
probably not going to be problematic
from that perspective if you do have
children you will need to have somebody
taking care of them because they can't
wander in and out of the testing room
obviously if you have teenagers or you
know twelve year olds or something that
won't be an issue but if you've got
little kids you obviously won't be your
test might take an hour and a half and
you won't be able to count on those
those kids staying in a different room
while you take the test unless you have
some some adult there to kind of watch
over them so how do you make the request
for Proctor you well you need to make it
before more than ten days before or at
least ten days before the test window
opens so let me just show you on this
syllabus when the test window opens the
test window opens for the midterm and
this resident on this excuse me on this
semester on March 18th so that means
that you would need to contact me by
March 8th for the final examination the
window opens May 13th so you need to
contact me by May 3rd if you contact me
on May 4th it's too late to take
Proctor you if you contact me by may not
March ninth it's too late to do the
midterm by Proctor you although you can
still do the final examination via
Proctor you the reason that I need ten
days notice is that you need to do some
stuff and I need to do some stuff and
Proctor you needs to do some stuff it's
not an automatic process we need to have
some conversation some e-mails back and
forth and I need to work with party you
to do a few things so we all need to
kind of work together for this goal now
if you're thinking yourself gosh Proctor
you sounds like a good deal for me what
you ought to do is pause me right now
and write me an email right now go to
that Colin you see me send me an email
at C Gruber at Collins I edu make the
request right now
so now you don't have to worry about it
okay if you aren't interested in it
equally good most folks aren't they're
just going to use the testing center
let's go on and continue talking about
so we've completed the discussion about
the examinations we talked about Proctor
you here is the actual syllabus here you
can see we're in our first week so we're
going to cover the course orientation
and then we also have a chapter to do
this week if this is a long semester
meaning it's either the spring or the
fall most weeks you're going to have a
single chapter if it's over the summer
it's very common to have two sometimes
three chapters that you need to cover
over the course of it's over a
questionable week but even during the
long semesters we have some weeks that
we'll have two chapters this one for
example this one for example and then
there will be one down here so there's a
lot to cover over the course of the
semester
be sure to follow this to make sure that
you're covering all of your particular
dates along the lines here's either one
date here I apologize make that change
right now
okie dokie so now I'm going to flip and
talk and go to the syllabus assuming
through the canvas apologize for that
I am going to go to home so this should
be something along the lines of what
your canvas looks like when you start
the first module will be the start here
orientation module and you'll see here
that we have I probably don't have this
syllabus turned on but the syllabus will
be right up here when it is ready ready
to go and you can see we have this
PowerPoint will go over the PowerPoint
in a few minutes but let me just show
you some highlights before we go into
the PowerPoint this is a cheat sheet
this is probably the most important
document the orientation other than the
syllabus you will be using this every
week because it lists what you have to
do every week let me go ahead and click
on you can see and it gives it to you in
the recommended order read the textbook
insert the password quiz questions we'll
talk about that in a second watch the
video lectures watch the other lectures
that the main the other videos that may
exist in the module do the discussion
board complete the assignments complete
the chapter quiz think about the
vocabulary and grammar topics so all of
these are kind of a checklist of things
to do and this kind of makes things
nicely formatted do you have to follow
this order not necessarily you might
want to do the discussion board at least
your first your substantive post earlier
in the week that's a great idea because
that way you can the more that the more
substantive posts we have earlier on the
easier it is for folks to reply to it so
you don't have to follow this order
specifically earn a very lockstep manner
but this is a good way to approach it
and again here is some information about
the proctored midterm and a final
examination you didn't click between
here going next in previous but I'm
going to go back to the home place so we
can see where we are here is here are
some fa Q's I'm not going to go in
detail many of these I've already
answered
see if there's anything here that I want
to talk about
extra credit I do have some extra credit
available in the course as I said before
the assignments each one of the
assignments has some extra credit
associated with it in addition we had
the extra credit linked in activity I'll
talk about that in a couple of minutes
it's also not unusual for me to provide
additional extra credit if you wanted
credit beyond the stuff that I've
already posted you're welcome to reach
out to me with a suggestion the things
that have to be true about your
suggestion are going to be these it has
to be something that everybody has the
opportunity to do and you have to give
me and the rest of the class significant
notice so if it's say a presentation
that's happening tonight or tomorrow
that's not enough notice for folks but
if it's a it's going to happen in a week
then that would be an example of
something that you could say hey what
can I get extra credit for this and
again I'm not guaranteeing that I'm
going to give extra credit but that is
certainly something that I might be
willing to entertain and if you let me
know what's not that helpful those for
you say can I get some extra credit come
with a proposal and I'll be glad to
consider it at that point let's talk
about some strategies that might be
helpful in terms of can't using canvas
you know we've all dealt with technology
and sometimes it can be a real bear to
deal with very very frustrating when
things aren't going well it's happened
to you it's happened to me it's happened
to us all and there's a few things in
life more frustrating than that here are
some strategies that are worth your
consideration and of course the problem
with these strategies are you're not
going to have access to this PowerPoint
unless you can get inside canvas so what
if your problem is you can't get inside
canvas there's something circular about
that right so my suggestion is to take a
picture of this or to write down these
various strategies or to print up or
download print out or download this
particular PowerPoint or just maybe or
this particular FAQ or this particular
page of the FAQ so you'll have this
information available so these are
things worthy of you taking notes pause
and take those actions let's talk about
them one way is just
restart your computer maybe that will
solve the problem another thing would be
to try a different browser Google Chrome
is the most reliable that's what canvas
will say is best the Firefox is fine
Safari is fine
even Internet Internet Explorer can can
work fine
I find that of course I do kind of some
more behind the scenes stuff I find that
the Google Chrome is is the best but
there are a few things that Firefox
works better for me on so it depends
upon the circumstances another approach
is just to use a different computer
maybe your Wi-Fi is unreliable where you
live or maybe your computer's a little
bit dated you can use maybe a compute
one of your friends computers or family
members computers maybe the computer at
work or you can use one of the computers
at the computer lab we have computer
labs and your tuition dollars are making
you eligible to use that we have it on
all three major campuses and just bring
your student ID and you can use the
computer labs there you can also another
idea is to make sure that sometimes
links in canvas don't appear that
obvious and so sometimes just trying to
click on something that didn't look like
an active link you'll see that it
actually is an active link I'll show you
an example of that later on that can be
a source of frustration for students
sometimes it's also a matter of
scrolling down because that's another
way that kind of things seem to be
hidden in canvas in a way that may not
be so helpful of course if you have a
continuing problem you can certainly
reach out or promising to be fixable
otherwise you can certainly reach out to
the e-learning Center here's a website I
am also glad to help if I didn't cause
the problem I'm probably not going to be
able to fix the problem I am NOT a
computer guru but I'm happy to lend my
expertise limited though it may be if
you've got a laptop and you seem to be
having a problem with your laptop bring
it in and I'll be glad to look it over
and give you my thoughts about what
might be at issue so that's an
information about the FAQ
here are some suggestions about how to
send emails for those of y'all that
haven't had me in a previous class I'm a
bit of a stickler when it comes to
emails I am trying to through these
courses get you in the position so that
you can be the most successful that you
can be in your career and one of those
things that is so important to success
is communication especially written
communication and so it's not just a
matter of you knowing the law but also
being able to communicate the law in an
accurate and professional manner an
email is a big part of that so I'm going
to be giving you suggestions over the
course this is one area that give you
suggestions but when you send me emails
that aren't professionally written I'm
not gonna draw that draw attention to it
because I want to embarrass you or make
you feel bad or not answering your
question but I want you to get into the
habit of sending those professional
tightly worded emails that are very
focused on the goal that you're trying
to accomplish so before you send the
emails to me or to potential employers
or other faculty members look this
PowerPoint over and make sure that your
email satisfies all the elements that we
talked about I don't accept late
assignments we don't have a ton of
assignments in this classic set aside
from the quizzes but just like to flag
that issue starting out I explain the
reason in this link here so if you're
interested in the reason you're welcome
to visit there if you're thinking about
law school this is a PowerPoint that
might give you some information about
that process I am delighted to talk to
you in more detail about how law school
works how law school admissions works
I'm happy to be a resource for that
sometimes students prefer not to use
cougarmail I get it we all have more
email accounts than we know what to do
with and having one more can certainly
be a source of complication that you may
not want to have as a result if you want
to you can forward your cougarmail to
your personal email address and so
everything that I send to your
cougarmail can end up in another account
you're still however gonna have to use
your cougarmail sometimes because
whenever you could email me you're gonna
have to use your cougarmail but you know
the replies that I send to you can go to
that personal email so that's definitely
something to think about and that's
completely your decision I won't even
know if you do it but that's a benefit
that you have I have to email you to
your cougarmail so if you send me an
email from your personal email account
or from your professional email account
also be sure to have in your email your
cougarmail account so that I can send it
to your cougarmail and that's the policy
that the college has let's look at
Quizlet Quizlet is a super awesome thing
I love Quizlet I use it myself
I use it with my children they're not
college-age but their high school and
middle school age and so I definitely
encourage you to use Quizlet or
something else
Quizlet is a free app they will want you
to pay for it but there really is no
need to pay for it so let's talk about
this is one of these examples of one of
these links that is a little hidden this
is actually a link it looks like gosh
the screens blank
something must have broke here right now
you actually click on this to go into
Quizlet so if this doesn't seem
intuitive to you what you're supposed to
do here pause me and write down or you
take a picture of this so you know what
to do to get into quizlets I'm going to
hit quiz it right here and you will go
into my quiz an account here is my
equivalent account you'll see lots of
different things this is for contracts
Hannah Duncan was a student in our
program a few years ago she was very
detail-oriented so I know that she did a
very good job with these and you'll see
she has them for many of the chapters so
near Turner is a law student they are
also very detail-oriented so these are
very good resources for I think probably
every single chapter in the course and
so what you can do let's say you're
working on chapter 7
let's pick one with a little bit let's
say Chapter five so we have lots of
vocabulary terms here there's various
activities you can do you can use a
flashcard so you can test yourself what
is mutual assent you can flip it over a
mutual assent is a meaning of the mines
consent agreement you can also look at
all the lists here you can do various
games there's a few games to do along
these lines you can give yourself a test
you can practice writing int lots of
different activities that you can do
with Quizlet so this is something to
consider as you prepare for tests the
interesting thing about this course and
this is true for most paralegal horses
is it's almost like a foreign language
course if you somehow or another
tomorrow morning wake up and you've
somehow another learned in your sleep
all of the vocabulary that we have in
this course you'd probably find that
this course is embarrassingly easy
because the challenges is understanding
the words once you've got the words
under control the rest of it is pretty
seamless you know it's a little bit like
I have very limited Spanish skills but
when I watch a Spanish telenovela I
catch about every third word I get the
gist of it but I don't really understand
it deeply I mean I mean obviously the
the way that the drama presents you can
figure out most of it but if I when I
put the English subtitles up or even the
Spanish subtitles up on the telenovela
I completely understand everything
that's happening that's way how it may
feel for you in the contracts class you
you once you master the vocabulary
everything seems to fit nicely but it's
a little bit like watching a Spanish
telenovela if you're not fluent Spanish
because you need to constantly say ok
and that last sentence groover use three
words on what they mean and that can be
a real impediment so it's useful for you
to work on the vocabulary early in the
semester so that you can learn that
material and so when I talk in class it
makes sense when you read in the
textbook it makes sense
so I would say I'm talk about it in
class I mean in the taped lectures I
talk about it another thing about this
class and this is related to the cab you
Larry is that you know what our brains
are not designed to learn a lot of
vocabulary my guess is we probably all
taken a foreign language course and if
you're like me you probably had a few
days where you were
maybe cramming the night before and it's
really hard to learn 40 new French words
or 40 new Japanese words in one evening
part of the reason it's hard is that our
brains are designed to move things from
short-term memory from short-term memory
to long-term memory through the sleep
process during the sleep process our
brain is still working hard and one of
the things that's doing is reorganizing
all the data that it's received during
the day and moving when it needs to move
into long-term memory well if I try to
learn 40 words the night before I only
have one period of sleep where those 40
words can be moved from short-term
memory to long-term memory just not
enough time but let's say I spent two
hours memorizing those words if I
instead spent 20 minutes a day for the
six days before then in other words the
equivalent still of two hours but
actually had six periods of sleep I'm
gonna find that I have a much higher
retention rate of those 40 words than if
I had just done it in the one night and
so for that reason it's a good idea to
go ahead and space it out over time it's
working smarter rather than harder and
again the lectures are gonna make more
sense and be more meaningful once you
learn the vocabulary terms okay here's
an extra credit that I was talking about
so I'm gonna go into LinkedIn or say
maybe I'm only here to LinkedIn you'll
see that this extra credit opportunity
usually is going to close around the end
of the semester okay let me go until we
do so I'm going to type in linked and
calm because I already have an account
established it's going to take me
directly into my account if you're in a
computer that you're not logged in
you're gonna need to log in and get
yourself all set up obviously I'm
already a member of our group so collin
college apparently
Association is our group I'm just gonna
go ahead and click on this and you'll
see lots of different postings we had
we'll see it's primarily job postings
but there are a few other things for
example I'm inviting people to join the
paralegal Advisory Committee I provided
information by the Texas bar there's
some information about legal writing but
most of it is about various and sundry
openings even if you're not interested
though in a paralegal position at this
time please still go ahead and join the
group once you make a request to join
the script and it is a closed group I
will be able to come in and we don't
have any current requests to join but
I'd be able to yeah
allow you to join the group and then
become a member so let's say you don't
have a LinkedIn account at this point in
time the first thing you need to do to
join our group is you have to have a
LinkedIn account it's completely free
there's no reason to ever pay for a
LinkedIn they will want you to pay just
like there wasn't fuel once you pay but
don't don't do it
and once you've established your account
then you're going to go into search and
you're going to type in collin college
paralegal association right here I'm
again I'm already a member so it's not
gonna work and what it'll tell you since
you're not a member at this point is
I'll say it's a closed group you can't
go into the group yet but you can
request membership and then that's when
I will have the opportunity to go ahead
and wave you into membership linked-in
can sometimes be prickly though
sometimes the system's don't work quite
right and so if you have any difficulty
joining our LinkedIn group there are a
couple of are there there's one other
way that you can go about joining the
group and that is after you've set up
your account you can type in Cynthia
groover right here and enter into my
account and what you'll see here right
here is you'll say connect I think is
what I'll say let me just actually pick
somebody here's somebody who I'm not
currently connected to if I wanted to
connect with Paul Elliot I will click on
this
and probably get an email saying Cynthia
ferris river wants to connect with you
and he'd probably say yes and so then
we'd be connected but he could say no I
won't say no to you I promise I will say
yes to your request and once we are
linked then you're gonna ask me hey
Gruber I'm having difficulty getting
into a group can you send me an
invitation I can't send invitations to
people who are not I will to whom I am
not linked but once we're linked I can
send you an invitation to join I'll send
you that note let me just go back and
show you what that's like
here we go go into my manage groups you
can see I'm able to invite members so I
would be able to invite you know we'll
say Lisa Abbott I could click on her and
send her an invitation she's I'm not
going to because she's not a paralegal
person but once we're linked I'd be able
to send you an invitation they'll go to
your email then you'd be able to click
in and join the group so that is how you
go about joining the group once you've
joined the group now you're going to
take this content right here copy it
you're gonna hit submit assignment
you're gonna paste this here then you're
gonna go and put your name in here let's
say that I know you as bubble Smith but
your real name is Lucille Smith and
that's of course the name you're going
to use in LinkedIn well you'll have to
type Lucille Smith here because if you
say bubble Smith I will go into LinkedIn
they won't be a bubble Smith well this
first I lied to me they didn't really
establish an account so that's why I
gave you the option of typing your name
in here if there's lots of Lucille
Smith's you might want to say let's say
your middle name is Tabatha Lucille
Tabitha Smith well there's probably only
one Lucille Tabitha Smith out there so
that makes it relatively easy for me to
find you and so that's how you go about
doing this that the
I mean hit submit and if you're not sure
that you spelled everything correctly
you can come back here make sure it's
all correct if it's not then you can
resubmit at that point in time so that's
how you go about completing that extra
credit assignment if you're already a
member of LinkedIn you can do that today
so if you're already a member my
suggestion is stop me right now go ahead
go into canvas and submit that
assignment or make a notation in your
spiral notebook that you want to go
ahead and join LinkedIn and the group
and then you're going to submit the
activity and you have a long time to do
it but might as well do it now rather
than later if you have a particular
question for the instructor you
certainly consider me an email but if
you think it's one that's of general
interest to the class I encourage you to
go ahead and post it here and that way
everyone will be able to see the
question in the response I have in our
next so this is our first module the
orientation module I have another
section here which is aids for contract
law I will refer to these during the
lectures in class these are some
resources that can be very helpful but
whenever some of these are things that
I've created some of these are things
that are from various and sundry
resources and as you can imagine just
like kind of any other intellectual
endeavor different people have different
vocabulary that they might use and so
some of these are going to use terms in
a little bit different way than perhaps
I use in class that doesn't mean they're
wrong it doesn't mean that I'm wrong
it's just kind of a different approach
to it so sometimes you might find it a
bit confusing if you start getting into
one of these resources in there using
these terms differently and you find it
disconcerting or you're not quite sure
how they handle that information step
away from it don't worry about it these
are here to be helpful when they stop
being helpful is the time to move to
something else the bottom item here is I
have spent SUNY Spanish words for common
legal English legal terms many students
may find that this is helpful especially
if they are supporting clients
who also speak Spanish or maybe more
comfortable using Spanish and so this
can be a good resource for you they're
not specifically contract law oriented
they can apply really to any practice
area so something to keep them right the
next category is legal writing or legal
grammar topics and I say legal I just
really should is just English grammar
stuff you will be using this throughout
the course one of the things about
contract law that is so important is
that every word that you write in a
contract every comma every space whether
it's plural or singular all of those
things impact the way the court is going
to interpret the contract there is
really no document other than contracts
or or that is more important that you'd
be very very precise than contracts
wills would also fit in this category
these are documents that have inherent
legal effect and so it's really really
important that you understand the rules
there are cases out there where the
misplacement of a comma has cost a
client means a dollar so this is a big
deal stuff getting this stuff right is
really really important and so we do
cover a fair number of grammar topics
and every single chapter includes a
little bit of grammar plus we have in a
later chapter a more concentrated focus
on grammar so here's the overall
approach that we're going to have on
grammar and you can see here we have
topics so here we come e so we have in
our first module we're going to cover
topics one in two let's say you you
watch these two lectures and each one is
just about five minutes long if actually
this one you can see this is only going
to be three and a half minutes and this
is two minutes long so it's in
combination they're about five minutes
long let's say you look at these and you
go you know what I'm not quite sure I've
gotten about collective nouns but you
may want to use some of these additional
resources to deepen your knowledge let
me go to module 1 and show you how
that's all set up
so under Chapter one or module one
you'll see that I have the noun basics
SAT grammar bootcamp here and then I
also have a worksheet for you to
complete it's not for a grade you don't
ever have to complete it and if you
really feel like you are very very
comfortable with mastering this topic
then you probably don't need to complete
it but sometimes it's easy when you're
passively watching a lecture for
everything that seemed to be making
sense and it really isn't making sense
in as deep a way as it needs to and so I
encourage you to go ahead and complete
this form let me just show you what it
looks like again there's no need to
submit it there's no opportunity really
to submit it so you'll answer these few
questions and then you will go and look
at the key the key is right below it and
you'll see how many you got right if you
got the vast majority then right you're
probably in good shape if there's a few
that you missed it but you understand
why you missed it you're still in good
shape if you aren't quite sure why you
miss the ones that you missed come see
me I'll be glad to support and give you
assistance in that matter so that's the
grammar topic there is no grading
associated with it within this module
but it will be graded or there will be
questions on this on both the midterm
and the final examination and these are
actually the most commonly missed
questions by students so definitely
definitely pay attention to this do this
every single week okay so before you
watch the lectures and you can see here
I have two lectures you're going to want
to give a peek at this quiz and let me
first of all let me just read you the
name of it because it's a little bit
confusing not for a grade pass word quiz
for chapter one they say well what do I
care about a quiz that's not for a grade
well it's not for a grade directly what
you're gonna do it will just open up see
and see what it says here let me just
show you what the questions are you have
to leave student to you here for a
second I'm gonna leave student view and
I will show you a preview of the
questions
so the first question is in Chapter one
the instructor explains the comp that
that the common law puts great in this
upon fairness predictability and
evolution in the next slide she adds
that consists she adds that consistency
is and she provides a symbol that symbol
is and you're gonna write that word here
whatever that symbol is and then you're
going to pick one of these choices here
okay so this is designed to make sure
that you watch the lectures one of my
concerns and one of the things that the
ABA wants me to do is make sure that
you're actually participating fully in
class there will be the temptation
sometimes for you to just read the
chapter in the book and not watch the
lecture but the reason that the ABA has
approved us to have these online courses
is because they know that they can count
on us to deliver as close to that
face-to-face traditional classroom
experience as possible and for that
reason I am going to have these password
questions and if you read the chapter in
the textbook but don't actually watch
the lectures in most cases you're not
going to be able to figure out what the
answer to these questions are but what
you're going to do is you're going to
know what the questions are then you
watch the lectures and when we get to
that pay place where it's talking about
consistency you'll look and you'll say
oh yeah that's the answer
you'll make a notation at that point
once you're done with the lectures
you'll go back and you'll answer those
quiz those questions again this won't
count towards a grade but what it'll do
is unlock these two activities after
you've got it unlocked you can take this
you can take the chapter one assignment
and you can also take chapter one quiz
now the chapter one assignment there's
really no rush on that will be due at
the end of the semester but the chapter
one quiz you have to do that week so if
you don't watch the lecture you're
probably not going to be successful in
the password quiz and so therefore
you're not going to be able to take that
quiz
missing one quiz is not a tragedy we're
gonna have I think about 16 quizzes and
each quiz I think is maybe let me just
confirm this yes maybe 20 percent of
your grade so each quiz is worth a
little bit more than one percent not
even going to affect your your
performance by a letter grade but if you
miss three here four or five of these
quizzes you're going to start seeing an
impact and so for that reason don't
panic if you you can't complete a
particular a quiz don't panic if you
can't complete two but at some point
you're going to want to figure it out
and be sure that you can get your
password quiz answers taken care of and
that way you'll be able to open these up
and go ahead and complete the quizzes
okay so you're going to watch this or
look at the give a peek to the password
quiz then watch the lectures let me go
back to the student
so you're going to give it a peek to the
quiz watch the lectures there I also
have the PowerPoint available for you
and I have the PowerPoint for the first
chapter in PDF as well you can the rest
of them are just going to be in the
Microsoft PowerPoint application but you
can change it to a PDF if you want then
we'll have a discussion board for those
weeks that we do have a discussion board
and finally we have those grammar
activities and then once you pass the
password quiz you'll have access to
these two items and that's the pattern
throughout the rest of the material down
to after chapter 8 we're going to have
the midterm here's information about the
midterm and here are some additional
resources for working on those grammar
issues the midterm is it going to be
about 10% devoted to grammar issues and
they are the most common issues that we
miss so in addition to the help that's
provided in each one of the chap in each
one the modules you have some additional
resources that are available here for
support and again you can welcome to
come see me for additional support
sometimes these grammar topics can be
tricky they're important they're
important to master both for the tests
as well as just be professionally but
especially if if that isn't hasn't been
your strong point or you maybe have an
attended grammar school in many years
you may need quite a bit of a refresher
to get back on track with these items we
also have some additional grammar and
style issues that we cover in chapter 17
and in some sense chapter 18 and then
their final chapters chapter 19 we cover
all the chapters in the textbook with
the exception of chapter 16 that is an
extra credit chapter that you're welcome
to do if you would like and then here's
some information to prep you for the
final examination I also have resources
just kind of general legal and paralegal
related resources that you might find of
interest here
at this point I'm going to briefly cover
I guess I'm think I'm gonna be able to
cover all of our topics which is awesome
I'm gonna go into the PowerPoint I've
covered most of the topics I want to do
in the PowerPoint and throughout the
presentation so I'm going to jump
through many of these topics relatively
quickly
of course if you want to go back and
look at this PowerPoint in more detail
it is posted in the orientation material
so spend more time with it as you see
appropriate and of course if you have
questions come by and see me I'll be
glad to talk with you in more detail
about these topics I welcome hopefully I
said this before I'm delighted to teach
this course I find contracts very very
interesting it's interesting when I
talked to Professor Wagoner in the
previous full-time instructor we had
Professor Griggs when she was here both
professor Wilder professor Griggs
preferred torts I like torts I really do
like torts but I have to say I really
love contracts so I'm so delighted to be
able to teach this course I hope that
I'm able to convey some of my enthusiasm
for this topic over the course of the
semester as always if you have questions
about the material either about how the
course is set up or specifically about
the topics that we're going to be
covering please don't hesitate to reach
out to me I'll be glad to provide
whatever assistance I can if you haven't
that before this is what I got on things
right now but this gives you an overview
I have been an attorney since 1990 so
I've spent quite a bit of time in the
prevent legal profession I initially
worked for a large law firm that's based
in Houston called Baker Botts and then I
went to work for a corporation in Plano
that's JCPenney most of my career I
practiced labor and employment law and
I've also been a litigator both in the
labor employment law area and other just
kind of general commercial litigation
I joined College Colin in 2010 and I
teach paralegal courses mainly but I
also do teach business law hospitality
law and Employment Practices Employment
Practices is an HR law course for HR
managers so that kind of gives you an
overview about me
my offices we've already talked about is
in L 232 and come to see me when you
need help with course materials but I'm
also glad to provide help with
professional goals with educational
goals such as law school and also with
resume help here's the textbook where he
talked about that you do need to watch
the lectures and the lectures will cover
Texas specific information in many cases
that you'll be responsible for so
definitely take that seriously and of
course you'll have to watch the lectures
to get the passwords to be able to get
into the assignments I encourage you to
kind of once spend maybe 20-30 minutes
kind of wandering around campus to get
acclimated to find out where everything
is again that cheat sheet function in
the orientation module is also very very
helpful here's some orientation guide if
you haven't taken an online course
before you're not that familiar with
campus this can be really helpful if you
haven't already be sure to read that
syllabus where I talked about if I don't
accept late assignments visit at least
twice a week our classroom and you
should visit it by at least Tuesday when
you visit on Tuesday if you can go ahead
and make that first post for our
discussion board in weeks that we have a
discussion board that would be really
helpful as we need posts to have people
to respond to posts as that thank you
for doing that you have to make your
first response by noon on Saturday so
that would be the last time or actually
you can do it after then but you will
get a deduction by for waiting too long
I'm not one to really remind you about
deadlines a lot I do send a weekly email
out to folks but one of the things about
being a legal professional is you've got
a lot of deadlines in your life and
courts and opposing counsel don't always
tell you about how what the date is that
the response is due and so you have to
find the rule that tells you the date
you have to do the math and
have to be sure you meet that deadline
I'm gonna give you the dates I'm gonna
make it a little easier than there are
court system
well we'll assist you there's more help
here than out in the cold cruel world
but at the end of the day it's much
better to mess up here when you aren't
committing professional malpractice when
you're not in danger of getting fired if
you mess up than it is to mess up when
she wants your legal professional and so
consider this a safe area where you can
make mistakes and you can learn from
those mistakes but you can't make
mistakes if I don't give you the
opportunity to make the mistakes and so
I'm not going to constantly be saying
hey you know what twenty-one minutes
before you so you can submit that
assignment things are going to happen
with your computer if you're like me
you've got a bad computer karma things
are always crashing online so be sure to
budget time in so that you'll have the
opportunity my rule of thumb is if
something is due on a Sunday I'm gonna
make sure I'm done by Friday but
certainly by Saturday because things can
happen and I don't want to be left in a
position where I can't get the things
done then they need to get done
certainly life happens and there are
times where you're going to have to do
things on Sunday
but the plan ought to be to get things
done well in advance of the deadline
here are some and this is and I showed
you where the email communication
powerpoint is but here are a few things
to keep in mind when you send an email
look at that too but here are some
things to get yourself started first of
all you're gonna want to have two things
in your subject line when you're
emailing me or really any faculty member
the first thing is you're going to want
to say what the reason for the email is
and then you're going to want to include
the course I happen to teach six or
seven courses most semesters and many of
the topics in this course I'll have in
other courses for example I teach
business law guess what a lot of
business law has contracts so you can't
say something like have a question about
consideration and I'm not immediately
going to know whether which course you
are in and mine and sometimes I have
more than one section of a course and so
that further complicates the subject so
you'll want to say what it is maybe it's
a question about question 14 on the
chapter 3 assignment okay fair enough
and then you indicate the course that's
how you want to go about establishing
your subject line then you want to start
with the professional greeting it's good
to start with dear a professor or MS
groover will work fine and then he :
here a colon tells the recipient this is
a professional communication when you're
emailing your significant other or a
family or friend you're going to use a
comma but not when you're emailing your
potential boss or your instructor then
you'll want to include a complete and
thorough explanation of whatever your
question is and you're obviously going
to make sure there are any typos in it
then you're going to conclude it with
the city with your name and contact
information read it over and anticipate
the questions that somebody might have
you might want to include a screen shot
in some cases so that I can see what
you're seeing if there's a technical
issue generally speaking a good rule of
thumb is think about what type of
response that you would want so if you
send me an email like I just don't
understand conch I don't understand
consideration can you explain it to me
think to yourself well if
verse two hour-long lecture in the
chapter in the textbook did it answer
your questions is it likely that an
email is going to do that especially
when you haven't explained what about
consideration is confusing you so think
about what that response would look like
and whether that's a reasonable response
a good rule of thumb is if your
anticipated response is longer than
three sentences you probably need to
have a conversation with a person
because there can be a give-and-take and
I can get a better sense as to what
about consideration is throwing you for
a loop and I can ask you a question then
you can answer and then we can get down
to the particular issue that you're
concerned about and I can get feedback
from you does that make sense well no it
doesn't well let me give you an example
oh yeah that makes more sense but what
about this oh well let me tell you how
that will work a give and take back and
forth that's a conversation and that's
something that email just doesn't do for
us so many times the most successful
email message isn't the one that gets
you the final answer but the one that
sets up an opportunity for the two
parties to talk over the telephone or
meet to resolve the issue more detail
here's a breakdown of the grades we've
already talked about that so I'll go
over that more this is an overview of
what to do each week in terms of the
assignments again this is like that
cheat sheet function that we showed
before if you don't think you'll use a
cheat sheet you may want to take a
picture of this slide slide 22 this is a
good idea to pause and to go ahead and
and take a picture of this so you'll
have this for your records with you and
you might want to look at this every
single week to make sure you're doing
all the different tasks we've talked
about the midterm already and the final
examination we've talked about class
participation the discussion board on
discussion boards by the way close at
11:59 p.m. on Sunday occasionally I'll
make an adjustment if there's a holiday
but that's a good rule of thumb to check
and you'll you'll be able to see the due
dates right below which one the activity
so you'll be able to see when you need
to go ahead and complete it I think I've
covered let's say that you do a
particular assignment or quiz and you're
curious to see why you missed a certain
question I'm delighted to sit down with
you and go over all the questions that
you would like it's very common for
students to come and those are wonderful
questions and conversation starters I do
not however do that by email you're
welcome to come to my virtual office
hours or face-to-face or call me over
the phone and we can talk through all of
the different questions to get your
questions answered
here's some information again about some
of those technical solutions to problems
slide 34 you might want to take a
picture of as well so that you'll have
that in the event you're having problems
accessing something in canvas I'm going
to before we end before we have that
great semester let me just show you a
couple more things here is where you
click on to get your grade all right one
for fresh Malaysia this is where you
find the various activities that are due
now most of the stuff in our course are
going to be due at the very end because
all of the assignment activities are due
at the end the extra credit is going to
be due at the end and the discussion
boards are going to do each week you'll
see the date directly below and the
quizzes will be due each week you'll be
able to see the dates over here as well
and you can go to the calendar feature
and see the dates here so let me just
show you what that looks like
you'll see in this particular class
they're in green and you'll see most
weeks will have two or three activities
here's two here's three here's two
here's one for this particular week and
it's a smart idea to calendar all of
this early on so you'll be able to plan
for it another good idea and you may
want to pause right now is to go ahead
and plan for the time that you're going
to set aside each week to work on
memorizing the vocabulary terms
I suggest at least two or three times a
week ideally every day where you might
spend 10 15 20 minutes ever you know
some people are better at memorizing
terms and others you know your own
string so you know how much time you
need it to spend on it I set aside that
time kind of consider it something that
the Sacre saying that you're not going
to fiddle around with alternatively you
can have it available in quiz it so when
you're in line at the grocery store or
you're riding the bus to work and you've
got some extra time or you're on your
lunch hour your coffee break and you can
flip to these resources and go ahead and
go through the terms at that point in
time again it's more important you do it
often then you spend a
of ours on it I'm gonna go back to our
course and here is where you'll find the
grades
let me show you this - you'll see all of
the ways this information here is very
accurate all of it will should be 100%
accurate down here though sometimes I
skip I put into the equations or put
into the system the various percentages
let's see if I've done that here looks
like I have sometimes I don't even when
I do put in the percentages saying I'll
discussion birds are worth five percent
assignments are worth whatever
percentage even when I do that canvas is
not going to give you a completely
correct answer it just won't it doesn't
it's not robust enough to do that
there's lots of aspects of how I do
grades it's a little bit more
complicated than what canvas can handle
so this information below the last
assignment is honestly kind of garbage
if I could turn it off I would because
it's a source of more confusion and
anxiety than it is help but you don't
need to look at this and my suggestion
is for you to ignore this so I'm gonna
ask that you pause and write down your
notebook ignore everything below on line
chapter 19 quiz assignment you'll have
all of this lovely data here and you can
actually calculate your grade on your
own because you have the formula right
here let me go back and show you it's on
the syllabus - here it is so what you'll
do
you'll take all of your discussion board
grades if you didn't participate in a
particular week you'll want to take that
as a zero find the average if it's on a
10-point scale you'll want to half that
average if it's not if it's on a
five-point so I can't move if it's a
five-point scale for ten points go if
it's on a five-point scale you're good
to go for assignments each assignment is
worth 32 points you'll take the average
of all of your assignments obviously
including any one that you got zeros on
and that will be your assignment grade
you can see you can go through and do
each one these parts at the end of the
day you aren't responsible for
calculating your grade that's my job and
so if you find the math daunting or
boring to do you don't have to calculate
your grades at all but many times
students are interested in knowing how
they're performing in the class so if
you'd like to come by I will be glad to
sit down with you and work with you on
how to calculate your grade just come to
my office hours I don't do that via
email I'll try to help you a little bit
if we're doing it by phone or virtual
offices but honestly it's much much
better to do face-to-face because we'll
be writing numbers down and going
through various scenarios and that's a
little bit awkward to do when we're not
in a face-to-face situation but at the
end of the day it's my job to do this
not years so please don't worry about it
one thing I will say I'm glad to help
folks with this but I don't help folks
with this during the last two weeks of
the semester the week before finals and
the week of finals it's just a really
busy time for both you and me and at
that point there's you know your grade
is what it's going to be whether you
know what your grade is or not doesn't
impact how you're gonna do on the test
or or whatever the thing is and you'll
get your grade soon enough it'll be the
week after the final that you'll be able
to see your posting if you think I
miscalculated your grade in some way
then reach out to me after you see your
final examination or submit your final
overall grade posted on cougarweb
and I'll be glad to sit down with you
and crunch the numbers I'm very very
careful so it's quite unlikely there's
an error but certainly I'm not in
and so if there is an error I'll be glad
to fix that under those circumstances
okay so here you'll see all of your
grading information let's go to
announcements I'll be sending out at
least one announcement a week and most
of my announcements are going to be kind
of like let's just look at this one
here's an example of a takeaways from
her for a particular chapter I have
these kind of set up and it also will
tweak them to reflect what we're doing
this particular semester so I kind of
give you an overview about what the high
points of the chapter are you can see
here I say and though these chapters
cover two of the four elements of
contracts these two elements are
conceptually relatively easy to grasp
really talking about some specific
issues about Texas law that are not
covered in the textbook so you want to
pay particular attention to those we're
going to be talking about five different
scenarios you'll want to be sure that
you understand the similarities and
differences between these five and we'll
talk about some statutory limitations
I've listed these here too so it kind of
gives you an overview hopefully a schema
or a paradigm in which to look at these
in more detail and so this is a helpful
thing to look at even before you look at
this that first lecture I encourage you
to read these announcements typically
you will see them on Monday but if
they're missing or you don't have an
opportunity to see them there's nothing
in those announcements that you won't be
able to also gather from the lecture in
the textbook at this point I think that
we're done again it's been my pleasure
covering this material with you I look
forward to a wonderful semester if you
have questions please don't hesitate to
reach out to me thanks so much for your
attention to have a wonderful day
