Syllabus
Welcome to HS 460—Drugs of use and abuse
We are excited to have you here and hope you enjoy your time as you expand and apply new knowledge. In scheduling your time, reserve 9–12 hours each week to be successful in this 3-credit course.
Course Description
This course will explore substance abuse and how it impacts the human body, history, and society. We will discuss addiction, major classes of drugs in relation to both positive and negative use and treatment strategies. The course covers the nature and effects of specific drugs from all major classes on humans from the physiological, psychological, and sociological viewpoints.
Course Outcomes
By the end of this course students will be equipped to become valuable health promotion resources by their ability to:
- Explain the positive and negative impacts of drug use and abuse to society, health, and economics.
- Describe the health problems and risks associated with both illicit and legal drugs.
- Classify the major drug types and identify their methods of administration
- Identify and determine the physiological and psychological effects of major drug types.
- Explain the risks and benefits of all the major classes of drugs.
Learning Model Architecture
Prepare
As you complete preparation activities, you will prime your mind to learn and to teach others. In this course, you will prepare to learn and teach by considering the Foundation material as the paradigm for the lesson. After studying the Foundation material, you will be ready for the Readings, which consist of articles, documents, or websites to read; videos to watch; and audio clips to listen to. The Relevance information will help you make meaningful connections between your life and the lesson content.
Teach One Another
Teaching your classmates gives you, a prepared student, the opportunity to act for yourself and to develop a deeper understanding of the course materials. Along with teaching your classmates in formal arenas such as discussion board activities and Application Activity observations, look for informal means of teaching one another as you interact with your classmates.
Ponder/Prove
You will extend and help solidify your learning by pondering and proving new knowledge. One means of doing this is through a variety of application activities as well as discussion boards. Some of the application activities will also have a Teach One Another component and some will not. You will complete at least one Application Activity in Lessons 1–12.
Prerequisites
None
Course Materials
There is not a physical textbook for this course; all content is contained in the online lessons and the Ebrary text book: Drugs, the Brain, and Behavior.
Technology Requirements
Mozilla Firefox is the recommended Internet browser for any I-Learn course. Videos, readings, and course functionality will work best when you use Firefox.
It is assumed that you either have your own computer or you have consistent access to a computer. You need to have the appropriate permissions on your computer to download lesson content, access websites, and update and/or download software as needed along with consistent, reliable access to an Internet connection.
You will use Microsoft Word and Excel in this course. If you do not yet have the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) on your computer, you may use this free download to obtain the software. Note: The free download is only for BYU-I students.
During Lesson 9, you will need a means of communicating with your group and may find it helpful to informally communicate with your classmates at other times during the semester. You may contact them by phone; however, it will be more cost-effective to use video chat technology such as Skype, Google Hangouts, or another video chat capability.
How to Navigate this Course
Begin each lesson by reading the Overview and the Notes from Instructor documents to learn important information about the lesson. Next, take notes as you study the Foundation information, followed by the Materials/Readings, and then the Relevance. You should begin them early in the week because they will take you many hours to complete. In some lessons, you will also have a discussion board posts due; check the individual Lesson Overview page for specific details.
Note: Each lesson opens prior to the week it is assigned. If you complete the current lesson early and would like to get started on next week’s lesson, you may do so.
Assignments
The Introduction Lesson and Conclusion Lesson have unique assignments. In Lessons 1–12, you will encounter the following types of assignments:
- Foundation: Foundation pages provide basic resources that, as the name implies, will help you gain a proper context and framework for the lesson. As such, the Foundation items should be read after reading the Lesson Overview, but before moving on to other lesson activities. Most lessons have an associated Foundation Assignment in which you will answer questions and submit your notes about the Foundation resources.
- Materials/Readings: In each lesson, there is a Readings page which contains the bulk of the study material for that lesson. In addition to articles and documents to read, the lesson material is also presented through videos and audio clips. Due to the academic nature of the articles and documents used in the Readings, it is important to decrease your casual reading rate to a reading rate conducive to deeper study. Take notes as you learn the material and then review your notes to help you solidify your learning.
- Relevance: The Relevance information will help you make connections between the lesson material and its importance in your own life.
- Discussions: You will find a few discussions throughout the course designed to help you collaborate on or discuss important topics related to Drugs of Use and Abuse. You should take an active role in these online discussions.
- Application Activities: These activities are varied and include field activities, discussion boards, debates, and case studies. The two most common types of application activities are field activities and discussion boards. In a field activity, you will apply your learning of lesson topics through completion of a real-world learning experience. The experiences vary, should challenge you, and should be interesting. Take full advantage of these learning opportunities. Some field activities incorporate a discussion board and some do not. Application Activities vary from 10 to 20 points, depending upon the level of difficulty.
Grading
Assignment categories are as follows:
| Category | Points |
| Introduction and Conclusion Lesson Activities | 70 |
| Assignments/quizzes | 591 |
| Discussion Boards | 280 |
| Exams | 480 |
| Total Points | 1421 |
Don’t expect your final grade to be rounded up. You have all semester to earn your grade; therefore, do not email your instructor at the end of the semester asking to round up your grade. Your grade will be determined by dividing the number of points you earn out of the total possible points for the course and multiplying by 100. That percentage will determine your final letter grade using the grading scale listed below.
| A = 93% and up | C = 73% to 76.99% |
| A- = 90% to 92.99% | C- = 70% to 72.99% |
| B+ = 87% to 89.99% | D+ = 67% to 69.99% |
| B = 83% to 86.99 | D = 63% to 66.99% |
| B- = 80% to 82.99% | D- = 60% to 62.99% |
| C+ = 77% to 79.99% | F = 59.99% and below |
Additional Information
Honor Code
Following the Honor Code is of great importance as you strive to be a disciple of Christ. Academic honesty and integrity is expected of all BYU-I students. To copy another’s work from the Internet, a book, or from any other source and claiming it to be your own work is plagiarism. Read the official definitions of plagiarism and cheating from the Academic Honesty portion of the Honor Code. Each case of plagiarism or cheating will be dealt with by the instructor. When working on a group project, you have the responsibility to assure that others in the group do not plagiarize. Any academic dishonesty issue will be referred to the BYU-I Dean of Students, if necessary. Even though you are taking this course online, BYU-Idaho’s Dress and Grooming standards still apply. By adhering to the Honor Code you will create a learning environment, “consistent with the ideals and principles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (Honor Code webpage).
Tutoring
Tutoring options for online students are available through the Academic Support Centers. There are tutors available to help you with your writing questions and there might be course-specific tutoring available. Check their webpage for more details.
ADA Statement
In compliance with applicable disability law, qualified students with a disability may be entitled to “reasonable accommodation.” It is the student’s responsibility to disclose to the instructor any special need he or she may have by the end of the first week of the semester.
University Policies
Read the University Policies document which includes Student Honor, Students with Disabilities, Sexual Harassment, and Complaints and Grievances.
Disclaimer
This syllabus and the course schedule may be changed at any time prior to or during the semester as the need arises based upon circumstances. Any changes will be available to view on the course documents.