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Course Description:
Environmental Geology (GEL 1102) is a general education course
that investigates the relationship between society and the geologic
environment. The three areas of study will be: 1) geologic
hazards such as floods, landslides, volcanoes and earthquakes;
2) geologic resources such as metals, stone, fossil fuels,
and water; and, 3) disposal challenges such as solid waste,
sewage, and hazardous materials. There are no prerequisites.
Course
Objectives:
Every year in the United States thousands of homes and lives are
lost to natural disasters, hundreds of communities come together
to make decisions on where to site critical facilities, thousands
of water wells are drilled and millions of real estate parcels
are bought, sold or insured. Upon completing the course students
will understand geologic hazards and resources well enough that
they can make informed decisions when purchasing, developing or
insuring real estate. They should also be knowledgeable enough
to participate in public discussions of where critical facilities
should be sited. Most importantly, the knowledge obtained by students
in this course should give them a greater opportunity to live
in a way that reduces their exposure to injury or loss.
Course Format:
This is an online course and you will not meet in a traditional
classroom. Instead, you will complete your lessons and communicate
with your instructor and classmates using email and a Blackboard
website.
The course consists of a sequence of lessons. The first lesson
includes an introduction to the course and the course website.
The remaining lessons each focus on a specific area of environmental
geology such as flooding or landslides. To complete these lessons
you will read from a textbook, visit and learn from recommended
websites, answer questions, take online quizzes and solve geological
problems.
The course assumes no previous background in geology. However,
all students must be competent users of email, word processing
software, PowerPoint and an internet browser. You must have all
of these skills to participate in this course.
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Required
Quiz Time: All participants in the course must complete
weekly quizzes and assignments. The quizzes will be given
at 8:00 PM each Wednesday evening and require about 30 minutes.
To access these quizzes you must be logged into the course
website between 8:00 and 8:10 PM. If you are unable to take
these quizzes each week at this time you should not enroll
in this course. There will be one make-up quiz for any student
who misses or has computer problems during one of the Wednesday
quizzes. This make-up is scheduled for Thursday, July 31
at 8:00 PM. Scores of zero will result if additional quizzes
are not completed.
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Textbook:
The textbook for this course will be  "Introduction to Environmental Geology"
, second edition, by Edward A. Keller (ISBN: 0130338222). This
book is available from the campus bookstore and most online booksellers.
Additional learning materials will be posted on the course website.
Software / Computer Skills:
This course has an expectation that all students will have access
to a web-connected computer running Windows 98 (or greater), Internet
Explorer (Version 5.0 or greater), and PowerPoint (or the PowerPoint
viewer). Students must understand the use of these software tools
to be successful in this course. You will use Internet Explorer
to access the course website and submit many online assignments.
Some of the course learning materials will be distributed as PowerPoint
files. It is up to you to acquire the skills and software to meet
this requirement before enrolling in the course.
Responsibilities of Online Learners:
As an online learner, you will be responsible for determining
the pace and schedule of your work. You can complete the readings
and activities at any times that are convenient to you as long
as they are submitted before the assignment deadline (late work
is not accepted). You must also take the online quizzes at the
specified times.
Although you might be completing your work hundreds of miles
from Mansfield University, you should expect to have frequent
contact with your instructor and classmates via e-mail, electronic
document exchange and the online discussion board. All of your
assignments will be submitted using these tools and an interactive
website. You can also use the online discussion board to ask questions,
offer comments, and obtain advice from both your instructor and
your classmates.
Lesson Format:
For each lesson, you will visit the course website to obtain
your instructions. You will then complete your work by doing some
or all of the tasks listed below.
- Read assigned materials from the textbook.
- Visit recommended websites to read or obtain data.
- Complete activities designed to apply what you have learned
or deepen your understanding.
- Write an essay that summarizes your knowledge.
- Take an online quiz on the lesson topic.
- Submit all work for that lesson as specified on the course
website.
Your instructor will respond to your work a few days after the
lesson due date.
Lesson Availability and Due Dates:
All lessons will be posted at least two weeks prior to the due
date and you may begin working on a lesson as soon as it is posted.
A list of the lessons, due dates and quiz times is shown in the
table below.
Please Note: Because the students in this course
are from multiple schools it is impossible to honor the time table
of each different school. The schedule below will apply regardless
of the school that you attend. If you plan to be away from your
studies during a break at your school or while on vacation, it
is your responsibility to work ahead and be certain that you meet
the posted deadlines.
| Lesson |
Lesson
Name |
Lesson
Due Date/Quiz Date |
Quiz
Time |
| 1 |
Course Orientation |
any
time before Friday June 6th |
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| 2 |
Meteor
Impacts |
Wednesday,
June 11th |
8:00
PM |
| 3 |
Earthquakes |
Wednesday,
June 18th |
8:00
PM |
| 4 |
Volcanoes |
Wednesday,
June 25th |
8:00
PM |
| 5 |
Landslides |
Wednesday,
July 2nd |
8:00
PM |
| 6 |
Surface
Water |
Wednesday,
July 9th |
8:00
PM |
| 7 |
Ground
Water |
Wednesday,
July 16th |
8:00
PM |
| 8 |
Mineral
Resources |
Wednesday,
July 23rd |
8:00
PM |
| 9 |
Waste
Disposal |
Wednesday,
July 30th |
8:00
PM |
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Other parts of each lesson must be completed and submitted
by 11:59 PM on the due date. |
Quiz Policy:
The quiz for Lesson 1 can be taken at any time before Friday, June 7th at 11:59 PM. However, starting with Lesson 2, all quizzes will be given at 8:00 PM on Wednesday evenings.
Every Wednesday at 8:00 PM you should log into the BlackBoard
website and click into the quiz. The quiz link will be posted
on the announcements page from 8:00 until 8:10 PM. If you arrive
before the link is posted please press the "Announcements" button
every minute or so to refresh the page. You have missed the quiz
if you do not begin taking it by 8:10 PM.
Finally, you should take your quizzes on a reliable, freshly restarted computer with only one window open. This will minimize the possibility of computer crashes or freeze-ups during the quiz. Quiz problems will be handled in the following ways:
- You forget a quiz or are out-of-town: You can take the make-up quiz on July 31.
- Your quiz is unsuccessful because of a computer problem or human error: You can take the make-up on July 31.
- You exceed the time limit on a quiz: One minute of overtime is not penalized because the clock on the BlackBoard server starts before the quiz loads on your computer. One point will be deducted from your score for each additional overtime minute.
- Two or more of your quizzes are missed or unsuccessful: You can take a make-up quiz to replace the first quiz score. Other missed or unsuccessful quizzes will receive a score of zero.
Add / Drop / Withdraw / Incompletes:
The policies for adding the course, dropping the course and
withdrawing will follow those described in the Mansfield
University Undergraduate Catalog.
Incomplete final grades are not possible. Any assignment that
is not received by the specified deadline will be scored as a
zero. Course deadlines will be strictly maintained and students
should work diligently to meet them.
Course Communication Policy:
Your instructor believes that communications about assignments,
course policy and content should be available to all students
in the course. It would be unfair for him to give advice by email
or phone to one student and not to all others in the course. We
will place all of these discussions in the open by using the "Helping
Each Other" conference. Posting your questions in this conference
will be your fastest method of obtaining assistance. Your instructor
will read this conference at least once every 48 hours and respond
to questions as needed. In many instances one of your classmates
will know the answer and respond before your instructor's next
visit to the website. This is how things should work and your
instructor encourages communications among students. Any questions
about course content or course policy that are sent to the instructor
will be returned to the sender with instructions to post them
in the "Helping Each Other" conference.
Questions about grades or matters of private concern should be
sent to your instructor by email messages from your Mansfield
University email account. This allows your instructor to communicate
grades and other private information with some assurance that
he is communicating with the proper person. Questions about such
matters sent from outside email accounts will be returned to the
sender without answers.
Instead of holding office hours a couple times per week, your
instructor will normally check and respond to the Helping Each
Other Conference a couple times per day. You can be assured that
he will respond no less than once every 48 hours unless previously
announced. This should be adequate to take care of nearly all
typical communications. Because this is the summer semester he
will rarely be in his school office. If you have a situation where
email communications are not possible you can call him at home
between 8:00 AM and 9:00 PM eastern time at 570-724-4728. If he
is not in when you call please leave a clearly spoken message
on his answering machine with your phone number and some potential
times for him to return your call.
Your Study Schedule:
If you are coming into this course thinking that online study
is a way to "click your way to three credits" then you will be
in for a rude awakening. Be prepared to spend a significant amount
of time completing this course. Students in previous sessions
of this course reported spending between 8 and 10 hours on the
typical lesson. A few reported spending up to 20 hours on the
more challenging lessons.
When you take an on-campus course, you spend about 45 hours
in the classroom. In addition, you should spend an even larger
amount of time reading, going to the library, completing homework,
writing, and studying for tests. Most students who have completed
this online course report that they spent more time doing the
work than they would have expected to spend in an on-campus course.
The key to success is self-motivation and perseverance. Set
some special work hours every week and stick to them. Learning
at home requires much greater dedication than learning on-campus.
This course allows you great flexibility as long as you meet the
inflexible deadlines.
You can begin working as soon as the first lesson is posted.
Each week you must do enough work to complete one lesson. The
amount of time needed to complete a lesson will vary depending
upon the length of the lesson, your reading speed, and your writing
ability.
Email Communications:
All Mansfield University students are given an e-mail account
that should be used for all electronic communications about academic matters.
It is your responsibility to learn how to use your MU e-mail account and check
it on a regular basis. You are responsible for any announcement or assignment
that is sent to your MU e-mail account. To assure that your academic information
remains confidential, your instructor will not respond to requests for private
information with a return address that is outside of the MU e-mail system.
Course Website:
All of your assignments will be posted on the course website - geologyeducation.com.
Every student should plan for regular
and frequent use of personal or University computers to access this website
and complete these assignments. Your instructor will provide access information
on the first day of class.
Grades:
Letter grades will be based upon the percentage of possible points earned. These
are summarized in the chart below. Requests for special consideration, exceptions
or extra credit will be denied.
| GRADE |
PERCENT |
| A |
93-100% |
| A- |
90-93% |
| B+ |
87-90% |
| B |
83-87% |
| B- |
80-83% |
| C+ |
77-80% |
| C |
73-77% |
| C- |
70-73% |
| D+ |
67-70% |
| D |
63-67% |
| D- |
60-63% |
| F |
0-60% |
Your Instructor:
Hobart King is a graduate of California University of Pennsylvania (B.S. Geology,
1975) and West Virginia University (M.S. Geology, 1978; Ph.D. Geology, 1982).
From 1980 until 1994 he worked as a geologist at the West Virginia Geological
Survey. There he did work in coal geology, economic geology and environmental
geology. During his last seven years at WVGES he directed the Economic Minerals
and Geologic Hazards Section.
He
joined the Mansfield University faculty in 1994 and serves as advisor for the
Earth and Space Science Education Program, the Geology Minor, and the MU Geology
Club. His main professional interests are developing computer-based problem-solving
assignments for introductory geology courses, mapping and GPS software, and
teaching with technology. He is the author of "Hazard City: Assignments in Applied
Geology," a CD that accompanies introductory geology textbooks published by
Prentice Hall. He is also fascinated
with the web and is the publisher of Geology.com.
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