PSY-3403 Mental Health & Wellness 

section 01 partially online
(meets in person Mondays and Wednesdays except when explicitly stated otherwise)

section 02 fully online

Professor:  Dr. Travis Langley
email: langlet@hsu.edu

Required textbook
The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate and Ignite Your Positive Personality
by Niemiec & McGrath

OVERVIEW
This course explores a person’s state of psychological, emotional, and social well-being (mental health) and also takes a broader look at overall internal and external ability to build resilience, function positively, cope with life, engage in self-care, help others, and develop as a person (mental wellness). They are not simply about absence of mental illness. They are about growing potential and hopefully thriving as a human being. Guidance comes from positive psychology and other areas of psychology.

GRADING

2/3 assignments
1/3 quizzes plus final

This course is about personal growth. You learn through doing and being. If you correctly do everything you’re assigned to do and simply pass your quizzes and tests on average, mathematically that comes out to a B. You’ll have to do better on quizzes and tests to make an A, but why not go for the A when it can easily help your GPA?

People who take the course fully online will have more assignments to do.

Alternate grading: After finals, I’ll also calculate grades to see if it will help you if I weigh the quizzes and final more heavily than the assignments. So that would be 1/3 assignments, 1/3 quizzes, and 1/3 final. Whichever method gives you the higher score, that will determine your course grade in order to give you flexibility in how you prioritize your learning. As long as you learn, either way is appropriate. Canvas will not show this alternate grading method, but it is not where we record your official grades for the transcripts.

FINAL EXAM

You will take the final exam ON CAMPUS at one of these times. Bring Scantron sheet and #2 pencil. You can purchase a Scantron sheet at the campus bookstore.

• Monday of finals week, 1:00-2:30
• Monday of finals week, 3:00-4:30
• Tuesday of finals week, 3:00-4;30
• Location: McBrien Hall, room 311

It’s a 60-minute test. The first half hour of the scheduled time will be spent in discussion about the course.

You are NOW responsible for making sure you can and will take each online test at its scheduled time and take the final on campus then. Find out now when all your finals will be held. It’s no big deal if I need to add an extra time slot, but we all need to know that soon so I can make that time available as an option that anybody in the class can choose. Do not ask to take it early or late unless you have another final scheduled then, and if so, tell me THIS WEEK. Finals schedule: https://www.hsu.edu/academics/registrar/finals-schedule

QUIZZES BEFORE THE FINAL

All quizzes before the final exam will be held online so that all students in both sections of the class will be performing under the same circumstances.

SCHEDULE OF QUIZZES BEFORE MIDTERM GRADES

Each 8-point quiz can cover any assignments, including homework, lectures, required reading, and whatever the Discussions/Assignments pages in Canvas tell you to do.  This schedule shows the schedule of quizzes you will take before midterm grades are due. It shows when information from the textbook will start appearing. Because there were no quizzes in weeks 1 or 2, you will start by taking two on Friday of week 3.

Each quiz will become available by 2 p.m. and must be completed by 9 p.m., even on days when you have two quizzes to take. They’re very short quizzes.

Quiz	Week	Reading from the book	Date
1	3	Part I (pp. 11-31)	Fri., 1-31
2	3	Part II intro, Wisdom (pp. 33-40).	Fri., 1-31
3	4	Creativity, Curiosity (pp. 41-57).	Mon., 2-3
4	5	remaining wisdom strengths (pp. 59-89).	Mon., 2-10
5	5	Courage (pp. 91-120).	Fri., 2-14
6	6		Fri., 2-21
7	7	Humanity (pp. 139-158).	Fri., 2-28
8	8	[Part of this will review old material.]	Mon., 3-3

 

Quiz	Week	Reading from the book	Date
9	9	Justice (pp. 159-184).	Mon., 3-10
10	10		Mon., 3-17
11	also 10	Temperance (pp. 185-219).	Fri., 3-21
	11	spring break March 24-28
12	12		Fri., 4-4
13	13	Transcendence (pp. 221-248).	Fri., 4-11
14	14	remaining transcendence (pp. 249-270). Part III, Step 1 (pp. 275-279).	Fri., 4-18
15	15	Part III, Step 2 (pp. 280-289).	Fri., 4-25
16	16	Part III, Step 3 (pp. 290-293).	Wed., 4-30
FINAL	17	Part III, Step 4 (pp. 294-298). Final Thoughts (pp. 299-300).	See above.

There will be NO makeup quizzes. If medical or other emergency (and we do mean emergency) will prevent you from taking a quiz, contact your professor as soon as possible with written confirmation. No one quiz by itself is likely to change your course grade. It’s about how their total adds up in the end.

WEBCAM

For quiz security purposes, you will be required to download the Respondus lockdown browser and to have a functioning, moveable webcam in order to record you and track your eye movements while you’re taking at least some of the tests. Your monitor’s built-in camera will not be sufficient because it cannot be moved about to show the entire area around your computer or your computer monitor during the environment check. If you do not use a moveable webcam or your environment check does not satisfy the professor for any reason, your quiz score will not count when grades are figured at the end of the semester. If that happens, either you will be required to retake a version of the test in person or your final will weigh more heavily, depending on circumstances, and in either case, it cannot be the test that gets dropped.

At the moment, Amazon and Walmart.com have webcams for about $10 to $20, so this requirement is still cheaper than supplies you must buy for many other courses. Make sure you have such a webcam before February. If you’re ordering a webcam, double-check to confirm that the delivery date is well before the test.

GRADING SCALE

The final exam will be a 40-point test.

You’ll have 40 points worth of quizzes by midterm (five 8-point quizzes), then another 40 points worth of quizzes between midterm and the end of the semester. It will be 1/3 of your overall quiz/test grade unless you score higher on the final than you did on the quizzes. If you do better on the final than you did on the quizzes, it will count twice and your lower quiz total (either the quizzes before midterm or the quizzes after midterm) will be dropped. After all, if you learned it all better by the end, that should matter more.

The scale for each 40 points worth of quiz/test is simply this:

F <‑‑ 20.0       D 20.1 ‑ 25.0       C 25.1 ‑ 30.0       B 30.1 ‑ 35.0       A 35.1 ‑‑>

INTERNET ASSIGNMENTS

Because doing online assignments in a hybrid (partially online) or fully online class counts as attendance, anyone who fails to do three or more of the required assignments on time may be dropped for absenteeism with no further notice. This is your notice.

To do your assignments, check the forum in the appropriate section for this class several times each week. For the hybrid class, that means the Discussions section. For the fully online section, that means the Assignments section. You should not go more than two weekdays in a row without checking the forum. You will either do each assignment on that forum or learn from the forum where to go to do each task.

Each response you’re required to make counts as one point simply for following the instructions or minus one point (-1, negative credit) if you don’t do it. You will have several assignments every week. The week’s assignments are posted on the  discussion forum by the end of each Wednesday, and they often appear earlier in the week. If you see no new assignments by Thursday, ask the professor in case of a Canvas error. Because missing an assignment in an online class counts as missing class, anyone who fails to do three or more of the assignments may be dropped from the course without further notice.

The deadline for each assignment is 5 minutes until midnight at the end of each Saturday except when clearly stated otherwise. You can get half credit for up to three assignments completed Sunday – three, no more. No later work will be accepted. Meet the deadlines. Some of them cannot be done late at all.

A few students misunderstand what a “private” topic is on the discussion forum. It is simply one where you cannot see other students’ responses. It is a regular assignment just like anything else, worth the same as other assignments. Do not skip them.

If you wait until that last day and something goes wrong that keeps you from doing the assignment, well, you should have done it earlier because you’ll normally have several days to complete each task. If your Internet is out all day, you are responsible for going somewhere with Internet access. If your wifi is out, you can probably use your phone to create a hotspot with access. The Internet is all around us, the ways to access it are many, and you have chosen to take an online class. Internet access is your responsibility.

If you are unable to post your assignment on time for any reason, do not email it to your professor. Emailing it does not count. When it comes time to grade your assignments, your professor will only look in the place where the instructions told you to put it. Nobody gets special treatment for failing to follow instructions or extra time for waiting until they did not have enough time left to complete and post by the deadline.

You will complete the syllabus quiz and take a few quizzes online through Canvas. Don’t take any specific quiz until you see the discussion forum tell you to do so, usually a week before finals, although feel free to retake them as often as you want as part of reviewing for the final.

DEADLINES

Be on time.

ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT AND INTEGRITY

The professor reserves the right to subtract any number of points from the grade of someone who disrupts class, whether online or in person. (This happens very rarely.)

If you do not fully complete the environment check for an online test, you are looking somewhere other than your one keyboard and the one screen browser window that shows the test, you speak to anyone during the test, your phone is active, you are wearing ear buds, video is missing, or anything else about your test performance could suggest a test security problem, then you may receive a grade of zero on the test or potentially fail the class and be reported for cheating. Under some circumstances, a student may be required to come to campus to retake a version of the test in person (which cannot be the test score that gets dropped), or your final may weigh more heavily.

Anyone caught cheating on any task will receive a course grade of F and will be referred for University disciplinary measures. A single instance of plagiarism in any task counts as cheating. See part II of this syllabus for important information regarding this.

ELECTRONICS POLICY

This part is more for students taking this course in the classroom, although it will also apply to the online students when you take the final.

Your phone and other electronic devices must be OFF and OUT OF SIGHT. If your phone is out, you lose a point. If you’re peeking down at your phone, you lose a point. If your phone rings or vibrates loudly enough for your professor to hear it during class, every ring is a classroom disruption and can cost you points. If it rings once, make sure it does not ring a second time. Do not text during class because that is distracting to others. If you need to be on your phone that badly, then you need to be somewhere else. Each time your phone is in sight (yours or mine) during class, you lose a point from your best test grade.

If your phones, notes, or watches are visible during a test, that will be treated as cheating because too many students use their phones to cheat. I do not have to confirm what was on your phone. Also, do not wear sunglasses or hats with forward-facing bills or brims during tests.

Don’t use computers to take classroom notes. Sorry, but too many professors have run into problems with people distracting other students by sitting there surfing the Internet.

Any use of generative A.I. or other unauthorized aide to complete any assignment would be cheating.

PERSONAL COMMITMENT

While you enjoy great flexibility in taking this course online, you and you alone are responsible for your success. It requires motivation and devotion. You must make sure you follow instructions and do your work before the deadlines. Developing the habit of following instructions and doing things when you’re supposed to do them is probably more important in your life than any specific bit of information that any class can teach you.

CONTACTING YOUR PROFESSOR

For an online course, the easiest way to contact me with questions or comments is by email. Write me at langlet@hsu.edu any time and I will respond after I see the message if a reply is necessary. If you cannot email me, you will need to leave a message on my voicemail at  (870)230-5222. Email works best, though. Every time you send me a message, say who you are, which course you’re talking about, and whether you are in section 01 or section 02. You’ll lose a point every time you could have found your answer by checking the syllabus instead of cluttering the email. We all get too much email. Be responsible and don’t lose those points.

I will need to send messages to the class sometimes through the Canvas message system. However, do not use that system to message me because I might not see them. If you need to contact your professor, email me directly: langlet@hsu.edu

If I can help you with anything else, always feel free to ask. Every online class is different, so do not be embarrassed when you occasionally goof here or there. That’s part of the learning process, and I’ll endeavor to help you get things running smoothly.

Syllabus Part II: Expected Learning Outcomes, Computer Tips, Disability Services

The schedule and other details in this syllabus may be subject to revision.