Online office hours
- Tuesday, 10:30 – 12:30
- Thursday, 10:30 – 12:30
If none of these times work, contact me via Canvas or email, and we can set up some other time to talk.
Syllabus
Sections 16532 and 16533
Contact Information:
Email: Either through Canvas or directly to akriehn2@ufl.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
Text:
There are no required textbooks for this course. There are many free, online textbooks available — see, for example, here (Links to an external site.). We will work loosely from a set of lecture notes based on Ron Larson’s Precalculus, chapters 4 and 5. You can find them in the Resources page on Canvas if you would like to download them.
Extra Help:
Going to office hours should be a resource that you use as frequently as you need. Besides that, though, there are a few other places to find help. The Broward Teaching Center offers free tutoring. You can set up online appointments here. (Links to an external site.) There are many free resources provided online, both on Youtube and on other academic websites. Among these is Khan Academy, which has an entire trigonometry course available for free. All the material that the course will require you to know will be provided through the lecture videos, but sometimes it takes a different person saying something in a different way to make things click. The goal of mentioning external resources, then, is that if you feel that you are struggling with a concept and my explanations are not helping, then you should consider seeing if another person’s explanation clarifies things, and that you should be aware that there are resources available to you that do not cost anything.
Grades:
A student’s grade will be based upon homework, quizzes, and exams in accordance with the table below.
| Homework | 20% |
| Quizzes | 20% |
| Exams | 60% |
Homework: Homework will be assigned through Xronos, on Canvas. During the course of the semester, online homeworks will be assigned on a routine basis and must be completed within the given time interval. There are no extensions for any reasons. Xronos is a UF-made online homework system and is free of charge. You must access Xronos through Canvas each time you use it — bookmarking the Xronos site and going directly there will not correctly transmit your results. This is currently a work in progress, and there are bound to be problems. It is unlikely that there will be technical problems with it, but much more likely that there will be problems that are not written correctly, or answers that are wrong. For this reason, your homework score will be calculated as though there were only 95% of the points available as there actually will be.
For example, if there ends up being 300 total points across all the homeworks, then your grade will be calculated as though there were only 285. This is capped, however, at 100%. So if you got 275 points out of the 300, your score would be 96.5% instead of 91.7%. Hopefully that’s more or less clear. If there are more problems than I anticipate, the 95% could be dropped lower; but, if there are fewer, than we’ll keep it at 95% anyway.
In the case that you find a problem with the homework, please email me. Describe as well as you can why you think there’s a problem.
Quizzes: Each lecture will have a quiz attached to it. The questions on the quizzes should resemble questions on both the homework and the exams. There will be a total of 13 quizzes.
Exams: During the semester we will have four exams. The exams will probably consist of a mix of multiple choice questions and free response questions. Exams are proctored through Honorlock. See the section below for more details.
A student’s final grade is based upon a standard grading scale:
| Grade: | Minimum Score: |
| A | 90% |
| A- | 87% |
| B+ | 84% |
| B | 80% |
| B- | 77% |
| C+ | 74% |
| C | 70% |
| C- | 67% |
| D+ | 64% |
| D | 60% |
| D- | 57% |
| E | 0% |
Please note that a student’s final grade is not rounded upward, and that a grade of C- or lower does not give University General Education Credit.
Course description and content:
This course serves as an introduction to Trigonometry. Topics include a basic introduction to trigonometric functions, graphing trigonometric functions, inverse trigonometric functions, and analytic trigonometry.
Materials:
All assignments should be taken on a computer, not cell phone or tablet, since there may be compatibility issues with Canvas. Canvas and Honorlock seem to work best with Google Chrome, so please make sure you are using that browser. Internet sometimes is not reliable, so do not wait till last hour to complete your online assignment. If you miss a due date, no credit will be given for the work not submitted. Always allow plenty time to submit your work after you have prepared them thoroughly. It is your responsibility to have a reliable computer and a good internet connection and to verify your work is submitted successfully before the deadline.
A graphing calculator or computer program can be useful as a learning tool when used appropriately, but they are not essential. I recommend the online graphing tool Desmos. (Links to an external site.) However, Trigonometry is a collection of concepts, ideas, and processes that are not mastered through calculator skills. No calculators are allowed during exams.
The lecture videos provide the main presentation of course material. You may access each video directly in the Modules tab. Re-watch it if necessary. Attend digital office hours if you need any help. Start early so you don’t miss the due dates.
I will hold office hours on Zoom on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. These are the times that the class was originally scheduled for, so hopefully that time should work for most people. If you would like to meet and cannot make one of those times, send me an email to set up a different time and day. My schedule is fairly flexible.
Honorlock:
Honorlock will proctor your quiz and exam this semester. Honorlock is an online proctoring service that allows you to take your exam from the comfort of your home.You do not need to create an account, download software, or schedule an appointment in advance. All that is needed is a reliable computer, a working webcam, a microphone, and a stable Internet connection. To get started, you will need Google Chrome and to download the Honorlock Chrome Extension. You can download the extension here (Links to an external site.).
When you are ready to test, log into Canvas, go to your course, click on Honorlock, and then click on your exam. Clicking “Launch Proctoring” will begin the Honorlock authentication process, where you will take a picture of yourself, show your ID, and complete a scan of your room. Honorlock will be recording your exam session by webcam as well as recording your screen. Honorlock also has an integrity algorithm that can detect search-engine use, so please do not attempt to search for answers, even if it’s on a secondary device.
Honorlock support is available 24/7/365. If you encounter any issues, you may contact them by live chat (preferred method), phone (855-828-4004), and/or email (support@honorlock.com). You can also find an Honorlock student guide and an FAQ on the Resources page in Canvas.
Additional Topics:
Make-up Policy: Make-up exams will be given only under conditions proscribed by UF’s guidelines (Links to an external site.). In accordance with these policies, it is the responsibility of the student to notify the instructor in advance of any religious holidays or university sponsored event to make any accommodations. Make-ups will not be given on other quizzes or homeworks, since these may be done in advance.
Academic Honesty and Honor Code: Students are expected to be familiar with and follow the Code of Student Conduct, found here (Links to an external site.). UF students are bound by the Honor Pledge which states,
“We, the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to hold ourselves and our peers to the highest standards of honor and integrity by abiding by the Honor Code. On all work submitted for credit by students at the University of Florida, the following pledge is either required or implied: “On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this assignment.”
The Honor Code specifies a number of behaviors that are in violation of this code and the possible sanctions. Furthermore, you are obligated to report any condition that facilitates academic misconduct to appropriate personnel.
Accommodations for students with learning disabilities: Students with disabilities requesting accommodations should first register with theDisability Resource Center (352-392-8565, https://www.dso.ufl.edu/drc/) by providing appropriate documentation. Once registered, students will receive an accommodation letter which must be presented to the instructor when requesting accommodation. Students with disabilities should follow this procedure as early as possible in the semester.
Online Evaluations: Students are expected to provide feedback by completing online evaluations at https://evaluations.ufl.edu. Evaluations are typically open in the last two weeks of the semester, but you will receive notification when they become available.