Course Syllabus

Course Name: Differential Equations

Instructor:  Professor McCain

Course ID: Math V23

Ventura College CRN: 70519

Delivery Mode:  This class is asynchronous (online with no required class meetings).  The asynchronous delivery mode allows students the freedom to work when they want to work, however, this format does have drawbacks.  Students must take greater ownership in their own learning, compared to a synchronous course.  This includes setting their own schedule, sticking to that schedule, and reaching out when they need help.  Some students will find this format uncomfortable and may be hesitant to ask for help. I urge you to get over this fear quickly.  There is no time to acclimate.  Do what you need to do to learn the material.  Please contact our tutors and reach out to me when you need clarification or help. 

Instructor Contact:  Please initiate contact via email using the Canvas email system (located on the far left in the global navigation panel) or the MyLab "Ask My Instructor" email button.  Please include our course CRN number in the subject line of your emails.  Also please include your phone number somewhere in the email as I will call or text back as soon as possible.  If directed to jump on Zoom, click the "Zoom with Instructor" link located in the navigation panel at our appointment time.   Whether by email, phone, text, I will respond to your emails within 24 hours during the work week.  If you do not hear back from me within 24 hours, please reach out again.  It's possible I may have missed your email or it didn't make it to me.  

Canvas Announcements:  I will be sending out many Canvas announcements, and you will be notified of them in many different ways.  Please read them promptly and carefully.  If you have Canvas notifications setup, you will receive an email notifying you of the announcement.  If you have the Canvas student app on your mobile device, you will receive a push notification.  When logging into Canvas on a desktop or laptop computer you will see the three most recent announcements at the top of the "Home" page.  Finally, a list of all announcements from the entire semester can be found by clicking the "Announcements" tab in the Canvas navigation bar.  

Online Synchronous Office Hours:  I have scheduled online office hours this semester.  These hours will be held via email, phone, text and Zoom.   Please initiate contact by email me during my online office hours below.  I will be waiting.  Please include our course CRN number in the subject line of your email and your phone number somewhere in the email.   I will respond with a phone call  or text.  If I don't respond within a few minute, please email again.  I may be with another student and need a few minutes to get to you.  I will do my best to let you know quickly if this happens. If directed to jump on Zoom, click the "Zoom with Instructor" link located in the navigation panel.  

   Mondays: 10:00am-11:00am (online)

Fridays: 10:00am - 11:00am (online)

In-Person Office Hours:  I also have scheduled in-person office hours this semester. These hours will be held in Sci-358 on campus.  

Wednesdays: 6:00pm - 9:00pm (in-person)

Tutor Hours:  Ventura College has employed tutors to help us via Zoom this semester.  To connect with a tutor, click the "Zoom with a VC Tutor" link in the navigation panel during the times of availability listed below.  If you would like to get more information, please call (805) 289-6026 or click here for more information.

Mondays: 8:30am - 5:00pm

Tuesdays: 8:30am - 5:00pm

Wednesdays: 8:30am - 5:00pm

Thursdays: 8:30am - 5:00pm

Fridays: 9:00am - Noon

Professionalism and Expectations:  When working with fellow students, address them politely and be encouraging.  When communicating with me, please make sure to state your name and class CRN as I need that information to help you.  Please only address me as Mr. McCain, Professor McCain or Professor.  

This class is 3 units.  The average student will need to invest roughly 9 hours per week to complete the coursework necessary to understand the material and earn a passing grade in this class.  Are you willing to invest this amount of time?  Is it realistic?  Be honest with yourself about your availability and capability under this constraint.  I strongly encourage all students who are not confident in their availability to work at least 9 hours per week in this class to drop the course and take the course a different semester. That aside, the material in this course is fascinating.

Start Date:  8/16/2021

Census Date:  9/7/2021

Last Day to Add Class:  8/27/2021

Last Day to Drop with Refund:  8/27/2021

Last Day to Drop without “W”:  9/6/2021

Last Day to Drop with “W”:  11/19/2021

End Date:  12/15/2021

Add Policy:  If the class is full but you would still like to try to add the class, your best chance is to get on the waitlist.  Waitlisted students have first priority.  Once on the waitlist, you will have access to our Canvas course so you can keep up with class work.  You will loose access to Canvas at the end of the second week unless you are added to the course.  Please email me during the second week of class to request an add code.  If a slot opens up, I will respond with an add code.  There is no guarantee that you will be added if you are on the waitlist.  

Attendance/Drop Policy:  Per the Ventura course catalog you may be dropped for missing 1/9th of class hours which for this class equates to missing 5 or more MyLab Written Homework Assignments.  This paragraph is the warning.  Students will be dropped immediately without a second warning.

Required Course Materials:   

  • A desktop or laptop computer with stable internet connection running MacOS or Windows.  
  • The Chrome Browser on your desktop or laptop computer  
  • The Genius Scan app for your Mobile Device 
  • The Canvas Student app for your Mobile Device 
  • The Wolfram Player on you desktop or laptop
  • MyLab 18-week Stand Alone Access (ISBN - 9780135902714)
    • All students have free access for 14 days
    • Includes a digital version of our textbook, "Fundamentals of Differential Equations" 9th edition by Nagle.  A physical textbook is not included and not required.  However, you are free to rent or purchase one if you like.   

Lectures and Notes:  Notes will be made available for most of the sections we cover.  You will want to read through the text as well.  You are free to download and print the notes.  Also, I will also be offering videos to help you on homework.  My goal is to do this once per week.  You will probably want to refer to the notes and videos when working through your MyLab homework or reviewing later in the semester.  Feel free to add in your own points and explanations in the notes from other sources to make the notes better.

Homework:  You have a number of assignments to complete online in MyLab every week.  (As you complete problems in MyLab, you are also required to handwrite your complete worked out solutions on paper.  See MyLab Written Notebook below for instructions.)   Your MyLab grade will be determined by the percentage of questions you finish correctly from the total on each assignment.  Every question can be redone as many times as you like before the assignment due date.  If you plan ahead and work long enough you can get a perfect score on every assignment.  However, if you miss a due date, your grade will be negatively affected.  In addition, your grade for the following week is more likely to be negatively impacted as future work usually depends on your understanding of past work.  When possible, work ahead in anticipation that some weeks will be more difficult to finish your work than others. 

Written Work:  As you complete your MyLab Homework, you are required to document all of it by hand.  You will need to handwrite every question as it stated in MyLab including any diagrams or pictures.  You will also need to handwrite out your complete "worked out" solutions.  Please use use a pencil so you can fix your mistakes cleanly.  Label every section and every problem.  Keep all of your homework in a binder.   Make sure your problems are written out in order from first to last and everything can be read by me easily.  Answers alone will not receive credit.  You must justify your answers with complete worked out solutions.  You will be scanning and uploading every MyLab Written Notebook section to Canvas for grading.  You will be graded on organization, legibility, correct notation, and completeness.  Your MyLab Written Work should look polished and pristine.  Click here for a good example of what MyLab written work should look like.

Discussions:  We will have discussions semi-regularly throughout the semester.  There are two parts to every discussion which you will need to complete by their due dates to receive full credit.   

  • First, respond to the question(s) in my post. Make sure your response is detailed and carefully written in at least 100 words.  (50%)
  • Next, comment on one other student's post.  Make sure your comments are thoughtful and constructive. (50%)

You may need to check the discussion board a few times throughout the week to wait for other students to post so you can comment on them before the due date.  

Other Work: Other work including projects, handouts, group assignments, etc. may be assigned if time permits.

Grading:

MyLab Homework - 60% 

MyLab Written Work - 25%

Discussions and other Work- 15%

Due Dates and Extensions:  All MyLab Homework, MyLab Written Work, Discussions and other Work are due Tuesdays by 11:59pm. When uploading written assignments to Canvas, Genius Scan will display a message that the assignment was "Successfully Uploaded to Canvas", however, please ignore this message as it often wrong.  Instead, open Canvas directly and check to make your assignment was uploaded.   If anything comes up that prevents you from finishing your this work or uploading your assignments by the due date (including emergencies, internet outages, Genius Scan issues, work, etc...), you can complete them after the due date at a 50% penalty.  Please plan to have an emergencies every Tuesday so that you can plan ahead to avoid putting your grade at risk.  This means finishing your work on Sundays or Mondays and not waiting until the day your assignments are due.  This will ensure you are not late.  

Integrity Assessment (Final):  At the end of the semester, all students are required to attend a one-on-one video Zoom meeting with me. This meeting will be scheduled for TBA.  Please have a valid ID (drivers license, state ID, or passport) with you as you may be asked to present it.  I will be looking over your student data which may include MyLab and Canvas supplied academic integrity analytics provided by Instructure and Pearson, IP addresses, handwriting comparisons, any statistical outliers in student submissions.  You may be asked about your work and possibly asked to complete a few problems with me in real time.  Our meeting will be recorded.  Please have paper and pencils ready.

If I determine the student violated academic integrity, the student's name and all information will be emailed immediately to school officials initiating a student code of conduct investigation.  The student will be notified by email and will be given due process throughout.   The results of the investigation may result in severe disciplinary actions including an "F" in the class and possible expulsion.  Click here for more information on Academic Integrity.

Campus Closure:  In the event of a campus closure that prevents us from finishing the class, your grade will be determined by course work completed.  There are no exceptions, so it is imperative that you do not rely on work or tests that would be done at the end of the semester to boost your grade. 

Student with Disabilities:  Students who may need accommodations in this class, are encouraged to contact the EAC as soon as possible to ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely manner. Authorization, based on verification of disability, is required before any accommodation can be provided. The EAC can be contacted at 805-289-6300 or by email, vceac@vcccd.edu or visit the website @https://www.venturacollege.edu/departments/student-services/disabled-students-programs-services-dspseac to find out what services are provided. If this is you, please contact the EAC at the beginning of the semester to get appropriate paperwork in order.  I am not authorized to give accommodations to any student without paperwork from the EAC.  Please ask them to email the authorization to me directly.  

Course Description: The course is an introduction to ordinary differential equations including both quantitative and qualitative methods as well as applications from a variety of disciplines. Introduces the theoretical aspects of differential equations, including establishing when solution(s) exist, and techniques for obtaining solutions, including, series solutions, and singular points, Laplace transforms and linear systems.

Course Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to demonstrate the following measurable skills and abilities:

  1. Identify the type of a given differential equation and select and apply the appropriate analytical technique for finding the solution of first order and selected higher order ordinary differential equations.
  2. Determine the Laplace Transform and inverse Laplace Transform of functions.
  3. Solve Linear Systems of ordinary differential equations.
  4. Create and analyze mathematical models using ordinary differential equations.
  5. Apply the existence and uniqueness theorems for ordinary differential equations.
  6. Find power series solutions to differential equations.

Student Learning Outcomes: Students will use appropriate techniques to solve ordinary differential equations; and evaluate transforms.

MyLab Support:  If you have any MyLab related technical support questions you will need to contact them.  I cannot help you with these types of questions.  Please click here to access their support website. 

* I reserve the right to make any changes to the syllabus during the semester.