If you are to benefit and be successful on this programme, you will need to be prepared to go online three or four times a week. It may not be for long periods of time, but it is essential as it replaces time in a lecture or seminar. You will be part of a community of practitioners learning together, and regular communication enhances learning. Furthermore you will often be working together in groups, so you will need to communicate regularly with fellow students: this may be through the discussion forum, the chat room or via email.

Your tutor will check the discussion forums regularly and make contributions to the discussion to help you formulate ideas or understand concepts. Your tutor may also communicate with you via email. Emails maybe to individuals, groups who are working together or to the whole class. You may email your tutor anytime. Please use your GroupWise email to contact your tutor. Tutors will aim to respond within 2 working days. If you contact your tutor via email, please give your full name and student ID number in any correspondence.

This module is worth 15 credits and therefore represents 150 hours of learning. You will have some contact with your tutor, either electronically or face to face. So, for example, if this was 2 hours per week that would equal a total of 24 hours of ‘classroom' contact. Your tutor may ask you to work with other students on particular elements of the course, so if this took 4 hours a week it would total 48 hours over the course of the module. In this example 72 are spent working with your tutor and other students.
THE REMAINDER IS INTENDED FOR INDIVIDUAL STUDY.
In this time you are expected to read around the subject and make preparations towards your assignments. It is not time off . You will need to manage your time so that by the end of the semester you are able to complete all the work demanded of you.

By Phone

The module leader's name and contact details are on the front cover of this module handbook. If your tutor is not at their desk you can leave a message on their voice mail, in which case you must clearly state :

1. your full name and
2. your student number
3. If you are calling to say that you are unable to attend classes also state which class(es) you will miss.
4. Due to the cost involved in contacting students on their mobile phones staff are not able to return calls to students on these numbers. So leave a land line contact number or your Groupwise email address so that your tutor can get in touch with you if necessary.
5. By email

You can email your module leader or tutor. You must however use your Groupwise email account to do this as tutor's have been advised, for security reasons, not to open emails from unknown sources.

In recent years students have been able to submit their work up to one week late and incurred a 10% deduction on the grade. THIS PRACTICE HAS NOW BEEN STOPPED . Therefore if you need an extension you must now formally apply for one.

Extensions are only given to students for two reasons

• Medical reasons
• Exceptional personal circumstances

If there is a medical reason why you cannot submit your assignment or sit an examination you MUST get a signed sickness absence form from your doctor – you cannot self-certify . The original sick note MUST be handed into Registry (you are also strongly advised to pass a photocopy of this document to all relevant tutors). Advise your module leader as to your circumstances so that no submission is expected from you.

If you want an extension for exceptional personal circumstances, you will need to record these reasons with Registry . An extension will only be granted where the circumstances are deemed to be exceptional.

The following examples are NOT exceptional circumstances:

• Having too many other assignments. All students have a lot of work to do and you are expected to organise your time efficiently from the start of the module to cope with these fluctuating demands.
• Computer problems. You are expected to work on your assignment so that it is finished at least the day before the date of submission and thereby avoid last minute problems.
• Having paid work commitments. Again it is your responsibility to organise your time so that this does not become a problem.

Plagiarism involves presenting someone else's work as your own . The College expects that any work you submit for formal assessment should be your own work and, where it incorporates material from other authors, the reference to these authors should be clear and unambiguous .

During your course, you will almost certainly be expected to work collaboratively with other students and you will also be expected to make wide reference in your assignments to the work of other scholars, published and unpublished. Therefore, in order to demonstrate that work is your own , it is essential that:

• quotations from published and unpublished sources are indicated and acknowledged clearly;
• sources of illustrations, photographs maps and statistics are acknowledged clearly;
• web-based materials are not downloaded directly into any assignment and, where such materials are included, that they are referenced fully like any other source material;
• materials/assignments, purchased or acquired from internet sites or commissioned from sources which write assignments for payment (paper mill sites), should not be incorporated;
• paraphrasing of material from others must be referenced clearly;
• you do not incorporate materials that have been previously submitted at this or any other institution towards the completion of an award. However, if inclusion of previous work is warranted it must be referenced fully;
• unless you are instructed to produce a group assignment, you must produce work which is uniquely your own;
• where you do work as part of a group, the submission sheet should include a list of all students who have contributed to this work.

If you are unsure ask your tutor! A ‘Referencing and Bibliographic Citation' booklet is on your CD ROM.

What will happen if I plagiarise?

If you are found guilty of any form of academic dishonesty [including cheating in examinations and plagiarism], this may result in the failure of the module concerned; in some cases, it might result in your failure to graduate.