Syllabus/Course Website: http://savethevowels.org/113/, Slides are linked below in the Course Schedule.
Podcast: Course videos will be posted after lectures on Canvas under ‘Media Gallery’, and potentially also at http://podcast.ucsd.edu
Canvas: This course will be using Canvas for discussions, to post course content, files, and to manage grades. Should you need any technical assistance with Canvas, please send an email to canvas@ucsd.edu.
Gradescope: We’ll be using Gradescope to grade your exams this quarter. Once you’ve created an account using your @ucsd.edu email address, you’ll be able to see the course, as well as to upload your assignments. If you have any problems with this process, please alert your instructor.
Discord: By popular demand, the course has a Discord server for chat, discussion, asking questions, sharing of linguistics memes, and the finding and interacting with study partners. The invite link is posted on Canvas.
Course Textbook: Audiology: Science to Practice by Steven Kramer and David K. Brown (Third Edition, ISBN-13: 978-1944883355)
Reading from this textbook is required, it is available both through the bookstore and through a variety of online sources. It is also a book used in many audiology programs. Please do not buy digital content ‘bundles’, workbooks, or any such other upsells, we will be using only the textbook itself, and only reading from it. Any physical or electronic version of the book will suffice.
Course Study Guide: Our Course Study Guide is a growing document describing everything you’ll want and need to know for the exams for this class, as well as a very granular list of learning outcomes.
Although all due-dates are fixed (barring extensive notice), the exact topic schedule is tentative and will be updated throughout the course. Please check this page regularly. Click an individual class topic to see that day’s slides.
Weeks are listed by the Monday they start on. Although all due-dates are fixed (barring extensive notice), given everything, expect things to change some. Please check this page regularly. Click an individual day to see that day’s slides (broken links indicate that slides are not yet posted). All assignments are due on the Sunday of that listed week (e.g. Week 1’s Sunday is the day before week 2 starts).
Please see my complete listing of student resources for information on student support (e.g. counseling, crisis centers, resource centers), resources for learning (libraries, writing help, and more), resources for engaging with faculty (e.g. Coffee with a Prof, Letters of recommendation), and technical resources.
In all of my classes, teaching is a collaborative process, and my goal is straightforward: I want to help students who put in strong effort to get a great grade.
So, you will succeed in this class if you…
We will bend over backwards to help students who are sincerely doing their best to succeed in this class, and will always do our best to help students who are trying to recover, even after a rough start. And of course, we’re also always happy to help when documentable circumstances beyond your control come up which prevent you from making your full effort.
That said, if you’re “blowing off” the class, skipping class, starting assignments at the last minute, cutting corners, grade begging, grubbing, or lawyering, or turning in low-effort and low-integrity work, it’s disrespectful to me and the rest of the instructional team. As such, if you make these decisions, you’ll find us much less eager to help, accommodate, recommend, or make policy exceptions for you.
So, we’re on the same team, and we want to help you succeed, but the key is demonstrating strong effort, and we’re going to put as much effort into helping you succeed as you do.
This is an introductory course focused on the hearing component of speech, speech perception, and language disorders, this course gives students an introduction to the anatomy and function of human hearing, the principles and practice of audiology, and to modern methods, advantages, and disadvantages of addressing hearing loss (such as hearing aids and cochlear implants) for those people who desire to take that path.
Prior students have reported that this course fulfills the requirements for San Diego State University’s SLHS 0305 (“Hearing Science”) course, and other students have seen similar success elsewhere. But naturally, please contact an academic advisor at your institution of choice to clarify what will count for what upon transferring.
Your final grade is based on the below formula, and will be automatically calculated in Canvas:
| Item | % of Final Grade |
|---|---|
| Midterm Exam | 20% |
| Final Exam | 20% |
| Graded Discussions | 60% |
The grading scale used for this course is the UCSD standard scale, where A+ is 97% or more, A is 96.99% to 93%, A- is 92.99 to 90%, B+ is 89.99 to 87%, and so forth. Plus and Minus grades are not assigned below “C”, and no grade changes will be considered from A to A+.
This course will have both a midterm and a final exam. These will be administered in person, in our classroom, the Midterm during Week 5, and the Final during our designated final exam time. The exams are meant to assess your learning of the concepts and facts presented in the class. Exams will be cumulative, covering all material discussed to that point, although the final exam will be biased towards material covered in the second half of the course. My exam policies are discussed at http://savethevowels.org/exam.
If serious (and documentable) reasons will prevent you from taking an exam on the scheduled date, or if you will require specific accommodations during an exam, you must contact the instructor at least two weeks prior to each exam to request an exception. Students who are unable to attend an exam for documentable good cause reasons will be able to make up the exam via a synchronous oral exam, asking about and discussing material from the class and exam, via Zoom or in person, with the instructor. Details on this process are available here.
Please take advantage of the Course Study Guide as you prepare for the exams.
OSD Accommodation exams (e.g. 1.5x time, ‘own room’ or ‘reduced distraction environment’) will be handled by the Triton Testing Center. For more details on how this process works, see this site. If you have specific documented needs which you feel are in conflict with this option or testing solution, or have an additional accommodation which you feel requires different testing approach (e.g. exams must be read aloud), please contact me by Week 3 of the quarter.
Graded canvas discussion posts are designed to give you a chance to dive into interesting problems which directly engage with the material from the class, but in a lower-stakes way. To complete these, you’ll need to do two things:
First, you’ll write a post responding to a question, post about this experience on Canvas in a designated discussion board. Once you’ve posted, you’ll be able to view your classmates answers and approaches, and then…
You’ll make two posts, responding to your classmates’ work, respectfully discussing the differences in your analyses, or reacting to their take on the process.
For information on how this portion of the class will be graded, see our discussion post rubric. This gives you an opportunity to collaborate in a more direct way with these problems, and gives us a way to see your familiarity with the data in closer-to-real-time.
We will automatically drop your lowest discussion grade, no late or make-up discussions will be allowed.
For this class, you can earn half a percentage point (0.5%) added to your final grade by visiting one of the instructional team’s office hours sometime before week 7. This can be to get a course content question answered or to discuss a homework, or simply to introduce yourself, discuss some element of your linguistic interests or scholarly future. To claim this extra credit, you must submit the Gradescope “Extra Credit” quiz within 24 hours of your visit.
The use of a campus-policy-approved face mask covering your mouth and nose is no longer required in this class, per current university guidance. Although I will teach unmasked for speech perception and accessibility, students are very welcome to continue wearing a mask in the classroom, and their choice to do so should be respected. If you do, please make an effort to talk more loudly, given the difficulties of masked speech.
If you or somebody in your life feels sick, shows signs of illness, or is diagnosed with COVID or another communicable illness, DO NOT attend class, section, or in-person office hours until you have been tested and cleared. Policies above dictate that you can miss massive amounts of class without penalty or documentation, so when in doubt, stay home.
I will not ‘respect you for powering through’, I will be disappointed that you’ve endangered the class, so please, don’t hesitate to use those days off (although you will still be responsible for understanding and reviewing the work on your own).
You are highly encouraged to come in to office hours to ask content questions, ask for clarifications about assignments, to ask for more information on a subject that interests you, or to get help on homeworks. Helping you learn this material is quite literally our job, so having students in office hours is no inconvenience.
Do not email us course content or homework questions! If you have a question about course material, post it on Canvas, such that everybody can benefit from the answers (because chances are, they’re struggling in the same places). Adminstrative questions (or questions you’d like to discuss in private) should still be sent to the instructor via email.
If you feel that a grade has been assigned in error you should submit a regrade request via Gradescope, or in an e-mail to the Instructor (wstyler@ucsd.edu) ccing your TAs.
Your request must present evidence that there has been an error in grading, making reference to lecture, a textbook, or another source demonstrating the validity of your answer.
You must submit your request within seven days of that particular assignment being returned/released. All grades more than seven days old are final, erroneous or not, and all previously-released assignment grades will become final on the morning of the final exam.
This means that you’ll want to look over every assignment as soon as it’s given back, so that any possible errors can be addressed, and so that you’ll learn from any mistakes.
Although you’re welcome to form study groups to discuss questions and help each other out with understanding the material, you should be the only person working on your copy of your assignment, and every answer should reflect your own learning and work. Use of online tools to ‘find the answers’ is generally easy to detect, and will result in penalties. Please, don’t be a cheater, for your sake and ours, and refer to the UCSD policy below for more information. Remember, you can always retake a failed class, but you can’t make an academic integrity violation disappear.
Examining language and languages inevitably leads to discussions of gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, politics, nationality, etc. Opinions are welcome, but all students must be mindful and respectful of others in the class. Speak with others using respectful and kind language, just as you’d like them to do with you, and focus your discussion on the ideas, rather than individuals. Finally, remember that as we discuss and evaluate our conversations, the focus will be on the impact on an individual or group, not the intention or motivation of the actor.
All requests for special accomodations must be brought to the instructor in the first two weeks of class, ideally sooner. This includes things like religious holidays, university-sponsored events, athletic schedules, conflicts with exam dates, and disability services notes. Because running a big course is quite complex, if I don’t find out about it in the first two weeks, I may not be able to help.
It’s better to ask permission than forgiveness! If something’s gone wrong (whether it be in class, recitation, or life in general), let me know (even if just in general terms) ASAP by email or in office hours. There are many exceptions that I’m willing to authorize ahead of time to a student who’s trying that I won’t offer after the fact. Don’t worry about documenting things immediately, we can always figure that out later.
We will gladly honor your request to be addressed using your preferred name or gender pronoun in cases where it differs from that on the course roster. Please let us know quickly, remind us often, and accept our apologies if we forget.
If you’d ever like a letter of recommendation from me, make sure to interact, come to office hours, ask great questions, and make an impression. Even if you do great in the class, if I don’t know you, I’ll be a bad choice to write for you. More details at https://wstyler.ucsd.edu/recommendation/
Will will unabashedly use as many really awful puns as possible given the course content. If you have a pun allergy, run. Flee. Escape. There is still time! - What do you call an alligator in a vest? An investigator.
Information contained in the course syllabus, other than the grading policies, may be subject to change, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.
Thank you very much to Steve Kramer, for the materials upon which some elements of the structure of this class are based. We also respectfully acknowledge that we live, learn, and work on the land of the Kumeyaay/Kumiai nation. Whose land are you on?
Students requesting accommodations for this course due to a disability must provide a current Authorization for Accommodation (AFA) letter issued by the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) which is located in University Center 202 behind Center Hall. Students are required to present their AFA letters to Faculty (please make arrangements to contact me privately) and to the OSD Liaison in the department in advance so that accommodations may be arranged.
Contact the OSD for further information - osd@ucsd.edu | 858.534.4382
Each student in this course is expected to abide by the UC San Diego Policy on Integrity of Scholarship and to excel with integrity. Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the student’s own work.
Academic dishonesty (actions like cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic dishonesty, fabrication, lying, blackmail, bribery, and threatening behavior) will generally result in poor recall and learning of the material, and aren’t acceptable at UCSD. In cases of academic dishonesty, possible in-class academic sanctions can include anything from a zero on the assignment/test/project in question, to a blanket lowering of your final grade by X%, to an assigned and non-negotiable grade of “F” in the course. These sanctions are assigned at the sole discretion of the instructor, and as every case is unique, additional sanctions not listed above may apply. But again, remember that doing the assignments honestly is a part of the learning process, and failure to do so will hurt you more than anybody else.
It is the policy of the university to make reasonable efforts to accommodate students having bona fide religious conflicts with scheduled examinations by providing alternative times or methods to take such examinations. If a student anticipates that a scheduled examination will occur at a time at which his or her religious beliefs prohibit participation in the examination, the student must submit to the instructor a statement describing the nature of the religious conflict and specifying the days and times of conflict.
For final examinations, the statement must be submitted no later than the end of the second week of instruction of the quarter. For all other examinations, the statement must be submitted to the instructor as soon as possible after a particular examination date is scheduled.
If a conflict with the student’s religious beliefs does exist, the instructor will attempt to provide an alternative, equitable examination that does not create undue hardship for the instructor or for the other students in the class.
The University of California, in accordance with applicable federal and state laws and university policies, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy (including pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, ancestry, marital status, age, sexual orientation, citizenship, or service in the uniformed services (including membership, application for membership, performance of service, application for service, or obligation for service in the uniformed services). The university also prohibits harassment based on these protected categories, including sexual harassment, as well as sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. The nondiscrimination policy covers admission, access, and treatment in university programs and activities.
If students have questions about student-related nondiscrimination policies or concerns about possible discrimination or harassment, they should contact the Office for the Prevention of Harassment & Discrimination (OPHD) at (858) 534- 8298, ophd@ucsd.edu, or reportbias.ucsd.edu.
Campus policies provide for a prompt and effective response to student complaints. This response may include alternative resolution procedures or formal investigation. Students will be informed about complaint resolution options.
A student who chooses not to report may still contact CARE at the Sexual Assault Resource Center for more information, emotional support, individual and group counseling, and/or assistance with obtaining a medical exam. For off-campus support services, a student may contact the Center for Community Solutions. Other confidential resources on campus include Counseling and Psychological Services, Office of the Ombuds, and Student Health Services.
CARE at the Sexual Assault Resource Center - 858.534.5793 or sarc@ucsd.edu Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) - 858.534.3755