HUMS 1513 Introduction to Humanities Syllabus W06 Spring 2026

Attendance: In an online course, “attendance” is measured by meaningful participation (course-related communication with the professor & submission of assignments). Students who don’t submit work or communicate meaningfully with me throughout the course may be marked as “absent” or “inactive” on the Census Day and Midterm reports I am required to submit to the college, which may impact these students’ financial aid.

Late Work: From small to large assignments, everything is due at the indicated date and time in the course calendar or as instructed by me, the professor. Be prepared and manage your time wisely. Extensions to due dates must be agreed upon with the instructor before the assignment is due; extensions are never guaranteed, but you may request one so long as you don’t abuse this privilege and so long as your requested extension does not go beyond the course’s end date. Note: replies to discussion boards are never acceptable late, since the students you’re replying to likely wouldn’t even see your late responses.

Technology: All assignments must be submitted in their appropriate place in Canvas. Lost or accidentally deleted files will not be an acceptable excuse for not turning in something. Be sure back up your work. Students are expected to have access to a computer with the internet on a regular basis. Facing technical problems? Contact KCC’s ITS Helpdesk at 815.802.8900 or helpdesk@kcc.edu.

Students are expected to have sufficient technological skills to complete the requirements of the course, which include using Canvas features, formatting and typing written work, submitting files to Canvas, emailing, using presentation tech (like Google Slides or PowerPoint), recording a video using Canvas Studio or similar screen-recording tool, etc.

Academic Honesty: Students are expected to do their own original work in this class. From brainstorming ideas and reading assigned texts to communicating their ideas in their own words – all the work students do in the process of completing assignments should be their own. If students are struggling with any part of an assignment, I would encourage them to request support from a KCC writing tutor and/or me (the instructor). Tutors and the instructor will help guide students through the process without doing the work for them. While AI-assisted tools might be tempting to use (and even appropriate for these tasks in other circumstances), using them for assignments in this class is prohibited and will be considered a form of cheating or plagiarism. Cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation, fabrication, etc. are all forms of academic dishonesty and they will not be tolerated in this class.

Cheating can take many forms in this class: copying or using another student’s work, adjusting format to make papers appear longer (a form of misrepresentation), working in groups on individual assignments (whether openly or in secret), sharing or stealing answers for tests or assignments, using AI to develop part (or all) of an assignment, making up “research” (a form of fabrication), etc. Section 17.6B of the Student Code of Conduct explains that cheating also includes, “Submitting the same paper, report, or other assignment for more than one course without the expressed permission of the faculty member. If a student believes that he/she can complete an assignment that meets the requirements of two or more faculty members, he/she should obtain prior approval from all faculty involved.”

Plagiarism is also defined in section 17.6B of the Student Code of Conduct: “Taking, reproducing, and/or using as one’s own, without proper attribution, the ideas, writings, paraphrases, data, reports, graphic designs, or computer codes of published or unpublished work of another person in completing an academic assignment. Prohibited conduct may also include the unauthorized submission for credit of academic work that has been submitted for credit in another course.”

Plagiarism in this class includes but is not limited to:

• submitting someone else’s work and/or AI-generated or AI-assisted writing (this prohibits tools like Grammarly!)
• using published material (including materials published online) without proper attribution
• paraphrasing or quoting someone without attributing the quote in your paper with a correct in-text citation, even if the source is included on the works cited page; improper paraphrase (sometimes referred to as “synonym swapping”) may also be plagiarism if the attempted paraphrase too closely imitates the writing style (including syntax) of the original source
• failing to clearly indicate when you are using quoted materials by not including (or properly formatting) quotation marks
• working with someone (without my permission) to write your paper and presenting it as your own

If you are in doubt, ask me or visit the KCC Writing Studio before you submit your assignment.

No form of academic dishonesty is acceptable. Cheating, plagiarizing, misrepresentation, and/or fabrication on any assignment in this class will have consequences and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The severity of consequence (from automatic failure on the assignment to possible immediate failure of the course with no opportunity for the student to withdraw) depends on the instructor's judgment of intentionality. The violation of this course policy will be reported to the Director of Student Success. If the student has a repeated instance of academic misconduct reported to the Director of Student Success, the student may be suspended from the institution.

Citations: When using research in videos, students should clearly indicate where outside information came from using both in-text and/or verbal citations and end citations. To avoid plagiarism, students must use quotation marks and in-text citations when quoting sources directly but they should also provide an in-text citation when paraphrasing or summarizing someone else’s ideas. When using research in papers, students must follow the latest edition of MLA-style citation guidelines OR the latest APA-style citation guidelines (any alternatives will have to be approved in advance). Failure to follow to these requirements may result in point deductions or even failure (0%) on an assignment if there is plagiarism (uncited outside research).

Minimum Requirements: Be aware that writing assignments that fail to meet minimum requirements (i.e., minimum word count, number and types of sources, or required focus/subject as determined by the instructor), may receive a failing score of 0 or an F. Thus, a writing assignment that is too short, missing the correct number and type of sources, or off-topic assignment-wise may automatically fail. You are in college—partial work does not always receive partial credit. Also note that works cited pages do not count toward minimum length requirements and block quotes (quotes of four lines of text or longer) may not be used in papers for this class. Finally, simply meeting the minimum length and source requirements does not guarantee a passing grade.

Mandatory File Type for Assignments: Because not all file types are adequately accessible within Canvas, I require all students to submit Word document files for writing assignments. Current KCC students may freely use Office 365 products. It’s also very easy to download a Google Doc as a Word file, which you could then upload to the Canvas assignment.

Communication: The best way to know what to do for class is to consult the syllabus, course calendar, and our Canvas course. If you have a question about what's due, consult the calendar and our Canvas course first. If neither the instruction materials nor your classmates can answer your questions, then you may email me in Canvas or at jpecora@kcc.edu (you should use your KCC student email address if you’re contacting me outside of Canvas; other email addresses may be filtered). Furthermore, I may communicate important details about assignments via email or the announcements feature in Canvas. Check your Canvas email often—at least once every 2 days. I will typically respond to emails within 24 hours, though occasionally it may be up to 48 hours. You will also be expected to participate in discussion boards that are open to all students’ view.

Title IX: Students sometimes choose to share private information with their professors. We appreciate your trust! Nonetheless, students need to be aware that KCC faculty and certain staff are required to report any incidents of sexual harassment and/or violence that we may hear about. Specifically, we will contact KCC’s Title IX Coordinator, the Dean of Student Development and Services. Please don’t feel like you can’t reach out but be aware of our requirement to report. If you want to speak with someone who is not required to report, please know that you are very welcome to call the county’s confidential sexual assault hotline (no referral is necessary and your anonymity is guaranteed unless you choose to share your name): 815-932-3322 (Kankakee) or 815-432-0420 (Iroquois).