Attendance
Class attendance is mandatory and demonstrates professionalism. You may be absent for TWO classes with little impact on your participation grade, so save these for genuine emergencies. Your final course grade will drop one full letter grade for each additional class missed, i.e. If you miss 3 classes and the original final grade earned is a “B” it will drop to a “C”.
Students are responsible for figuring out what was missed by visiting the class website or talking to peers. The instructor is not responsible for private tutoring for missed classes.
To be counted in attendance, you must be present for the entire class session, unless excused early. Attendance at all scheduled critiques is mandatory–even if your own project is not complete.
Students who are casual about taking absences should not expect leniency when an absence is truly needed. If serious illness or family emergencies force you to miss more than two class periods – you must communicate with your instructor in a timely manner in order to make potential accommodations.
Punctuality
All students must be consistently on time for class. Likewise students who disappear during class or leave early without an explanation will be accounted tardy. If you are tardy it will affect your final participation grade. Every 3 tardies will be counted as an official absence.
Deadlines
Please view deadlines as a critical professional responsibility.
Late work is accepted only until the next scheduled course session and will be dropped one full letter grade, after that it is a zero.
Work not turned in at the designated time is considered late. You also must be present for critique or final presentation even if your work is not complete, or your grade will be reduced a partial letter grade.
There are no exceptions, unless approved accommodations by the DAC are agreed upon with the faculty member in advance.
DAC Accommodations
WWU courses are intended for all students, including those with visible or invisible disabilities. If at any point in the quarter a student is not able to fully access the space, content, and experience of a course, they should contact the Disability Access Center (DAC) to discuss potential accommodations. Students already approved for accommodations by the DAC should send their Faculty Notification Letter through the myDAC portal as early as possible in the quarter, then reach out to their faculty to discuss how approved accommodations apply to specific coursework. Any student with questions about disability accommodations can contact the DAC for more information, temporary assistance, or connections to other resources at Disability Access Center (Links to an external site.) or 360-650-3083.
Campus Mental Health Resources
Reach out to the Counseling & Wellness Center, Student Health Center, or Disability Access Center to seek help with your wellness.
All Western Policies
Syllabi@WWU
This link includes the following policies:
- COVID-19 Safety Information for Students
- Academic Honesty: Integrity, Academic Honesty, Plagiarism
- Accommodations: Disability Access Center, Religious Accommodation
- Ethical Conduct with WWU Network and Computing Resources
- Equity, Equal Opportunity & Civil Rights: Your Civil Rights and How to Protect Them, Gender Neutral Restrooms, Structural Equity and Bias Response
- Finals Info: Finals Preparation Week, Finals Week
- Medical Excuse Policy
- Student Conduct Code
Technical Difficulties & Service Failure
Technical difficulties, hardware/software problems, and network failure are never an acceptable excuse for not meeting a deadline. Students are challenged to acquire the life skill of working in advance of deadlines and backing up work. Students should always backup their work to the cloud or a flash drive. Never work directly from the (U) Drive or your flash drive, because it is much slower and can cause problems. Work on the desktop and remember to save to your flash drive or cloud when you are finished.
Technical Instruction
With the extreme amount of technical possibilities, limited class time, and problems that always seem to occur with technology, I may not be able to answer all of your specific technical problems immediately. I will of course do my best to help everyone, but I expect you to explore the technical problems on your own using the provided links and recommended reference books and each other. This is a great opportunity for collaboration and an essential part of learning how to survive in the industry after you enter the design field. You will be learning how to learn, how to problem solve.
Asset Creation
Assets are photos, illustrations, icons, images, sound, video or any other media element which is incorporated into a project.
Every element must be original or completely copyright-free. That goes for sound and video as well. If it is copyright-free and you use it – still make it your own.
It is a win-win situation if you try and create original work. It is a much better portfolio piece when you create everything and no explanations are needed to differentiate your skill-set from someone else’s.
Critiques
Each project will be presented and critiqued with oral and/or written peer comment. Imagine that you are presenting your project to a client, creative team members or a prospective employer in a professional environment.
Professionalism & Courtesy
As designers-in-training you are expected to conduct yourself in a professional manner. Poor classroom behavior will affect your final participation grade. This aspect is comprised of conduct, participation, and preparedness. All work is expected to be presented and discussed professionally.