YOU HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES You are responsible for familiarizing yourself with all university calendars for advising and registration, bill payment, dropping classes, and other procedures of the university. While we will attempt to make timely announcements to remind you of deadlines, it is your responsibility to comply with the university calendar and deadlines. All of the calendars are posted on the university web pages.
If you are taking primarily online courses you will find that you have to make an effort to keep in contact with the activities of the university and the library and information science program. A list server has been established to keep students informed. You must be subscribed to the listserv, lisnews@usm.edu. All announcements to the general student body of the program and often to specific classes will be posted through the lisnews list server. If you miss deadlines, appointments, or classes because you were not subscribed to this list server you will not be granted any exemption from the consequences. A central site in coursesites.blackboard.com has been established where you will find information about faculty, virtual class times, open and anonymous discussion boards to raise issues with the director, or fellow students - the site you were told to access when you first were accepted into the program, the Southern Miss @ The Library School, course site. Both of these resources are critical to providing for your information needs. However, you are the key to accessing the information you need to be successful, you must be proactive and practice the professional behavior that distinguishes successful librarians, you must return to the resources frequently, and keep up to date with what is happening.
Each student, each semester is to send an email with his or her current mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address to slis@usm.edu. It is also your responsibility to keep the School of Library and Information Science informed of any changes in your email, physical address, phone, or your enrollment plans. You should send such information to slis@usm.edu; the school secretary checks that mailbox regularly and will update our files. Failure to keep us informed of your contact information could cause you to miss important notices related to classes, schedules, or events.
Students will find that each faculty member conducts his or her classes differently; students should never assume that just because faculty member X did such and such that faculty member Y will as well. You must read course syllabi, and all other documents provided to you by your instructors. If you do not understand something, ask the instructor, not another student. While your classmates will be tremendous resources for you, they are no substitute for the official instructions of your instructors and the university.
Our online classes have a required real time virtual classroom component. Online classes tend to take more time, and demand a great deal of responsibility on the part of the student. It has been our experience that students must be personally committed and responsible for their participation and assignments in these classes. They learn more because of that commitment. Do not think that 'online' classes will be easier; they will not. For each three credit hour course you enroll in online you should plan to spend 15 to 20 hours each week, in preparation, attendance, reading and writing. Students new to the SLIS program generally underestimate the demands of online classes. Each class has significant reading, writing and meeting requirements. We recommend that first time students take only one online class to develop an understanding of the demands of the program. Students who have been admitted conditionally may only enroll for a maximum of two courses at a time until they have been removed from conditional status.
Your computer and your Internet Service Provider (ISP) are how you get to class; they are comparable to your car. Your vehicle for attending and participating in class is the computer and your ISP. We are not responsible for your car, or your computer and ISP. You should check the minimum computer requirements and computer skill requirements before you enroll in an online class. You should also evaluate whether your computer will be sufficient to adequately serve a software system that requires you to have a Java intensive application open at the same time as other programs. The speed of signal transfer will impact your ability to participate in real time chats and to work with the software.
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