Entry, extensions, adjustments, how to ask for help, AI use, and the rules for observing other people. The course specifies its own protocol here.

Policies and support#

A course that argues for documentation owes you its own. Everything below is the specification: what’s required, what isn’t, and what to do when something goes wrong.

Entry#

No prior study is needed. Entry is by three references from people who know you well, such as a teacher, an employer, a family member or a friend. Each one attests either that you would benefit from this course, or that you’re interested in how human relationships and communication work.

No diagnosis is required, and none is accepted as evidence.

Both kinds of reference count. You do not have to say whether the protocol comes easily to you.

Extensions#

• Up to seven days, once per assessment, for any reason, with no documentation, if you ask before the deadline. Use week 8’s specimen: ask for a date.
• Longer than seven days, or a second extension on the same task: email the convenor, who will ask what date you need and what’s getting in the way. You don’t need to explain more than the need.
• The Field Journal has no extensions. Your lowest of eleven submissions is dropped.

Work submitted late without an extension loses 5% of its available marks per day, for up to five days, and isn’t accepted after that.

Adjustments#

If something about the course costs you more than it should, like a loud lab, a spoken-only instruction, or a deadline that collides with something outside your control, tell your tutor or the convenor. You can tell us the need without the label. Week 10 calls that partial disclosure, and this course accepts it without asking for anything further.

Slop University’s Accessibility Service can arrange formal adjustments across all your courses, such as exam arrangements. That service may ask for documentation for a formal plan; that’s its process, not this course’s.

Every lab has a version you can do from the edge of the room, and weeks 7 and 10 have explicit opt-outs. Tell your tutor at the start of the lab, and you don’t need to say why.

Asking for help#

The escalation path, in order:

1. Your tutor, for anything about a lab, the journal, or a single week’s content. Replies within two working days.
2. The convenor, for assessment, extensions, adjustments, or anything your tutor couldn’t resolve. If your tutor hasn’t replied in two working days, email the convenor and say so. Using the escalation path is not rude.
3. Slop University Student Services, for anything beyond this course.

Use the course code and the request in the email subject line: [NT101] topic: one-line request. Week 8 has the whole specification.

If you need support now#

The course deals with burnout (week 7) and disclosure (week 10). If either one lands harder than a lecture should, talk to someone.

If you’re thinking about suicide, or you’re not safe, tell someone today. In Australia you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or text 0477 13 11 14, at any time. In an emergency, call 000.

Slop University Counselling offers free, confidential appointments to every enrolled student, and your tutor or the convenor will help you get in touch with it.

Using AI#

Talk to an AI about your observations as much as you like: to think a rule through, to find the maxim a sentence bends, to argue with your draft specification. The writing you submit must be yours.

The Field Journal has no word limit or minimum.

Observing other people#

Field methods involve other people, who didn’t sign up for this course.

• Write down words, not people. No names, no descriptions that identify anyone, in any submission.
• No recordings. No audio, no video, no screenshots of anyone else’s messages.
• Public or yours. Observe exchanges in public spaces, or exchanges you took part in.
• The Field Experiment varies one parameter inside the range of ordinary behaviour, and its ethics reflection is graded. Week 12’s lab reviews every proposal before it runs.

Academic integrity#

Your observations, your rules and your writing are yours. Quote sources, cite them, and don’t present a reading’s finding as your own observation, or your own observation as a finding. Each reading lists what it was checked against.

Grading#

No penalty for grammar, spelling or presentation, in any assessment, beyond whether the work can be read. The four assessments and their weights are on the assessment page.