What You Need to Know Before Your Course Begins

Honor Code

During all of your courses throughout your academic career at APUS, you are expected to know and abide by the contents of the Honor Pledge. Please visit the Student Code of Conduct to understand what constitutes plagiarism.

Syllabus

You can access the current syllabus via the Course Tools link located in the top navigation bar of your classroom, or from the Course Overview & Introduction section of the Content link in the navigation bar.

Student Deadlines

All dates and times posted are for U.S. Eastern Standard time. It is your responsibility to know how that translates to your time zone and to submit assignments and tests per these posted deadlines.

Students are expected to submit assignments by the due dates listed in the classroom. Late assignments, including but not limited to Assignments, Discussions, posts and responses, quizzes, and exams, may or may not be accepted after the course end date. Submitting an assignment after the due date may result in a penalty of up to 10% of the grade per day late, not to exceed a maximum 50% of the grade. The amount of the penalty is at the faculty member’s discretion. Faculty recognize that students have limited time and may be more flexible if potential delays are communicated ahead of time.*

*Doctoral and Programs with specialty accreditation may have different late policies.

**Students with DSA accommodations may have different late policies applied. For more information regarding our DSA services, please contact [email protected].

Attendance

Your participation in discussion boards and presence in the classroom is expected on a weekly basis. Your instructor will determine whether your participation is sufficient to meet class requirements and may factor overall student participation into your final grade for the course.

Instructor Deadlines

Instructors have 5 days, from the original due date, to grade all assignments submitted, and 8 days to post final grades after your course (or extension) officially ends. Your instructors also have 48 hours to respond to any of your questions submitted.

Accommodations

If you have been cleared for course accommodations through our Disability Services Accommodations office, it is your responsibility to share your approved accommodation letter with your instructor if you wish to make use of any of the approved accommodations. This should be done prior to the time you need the accommodation.

Completing the Course

All coursework must be completed and submitted prior to the official course end date. If you are unable to complete the course, you must withdraw prior to the start of the last week, or request a course extension prior to the course end date. If you do not officially withdraw or request an official course extension, you may receive a failing grade.

Lack of New Student Activity Policy

Effective April 1, 2015, students who receive failing grades in their first two (2) course attempts in their program as a result of not submitting a substantial percentage of the required course work will be dismissed from the university at the conclusion of those courses. This applies to students who fail all of their initial courses as a result of not submitting substantial course work to earn a passing grade. Students who apply for a program change (i.e. Associates to Bachelors, Bachelor’s to Masters, and so on) will also need to pass their first two courses in their new program to be considered in compliance with the Student Activity Policy.

If you have ongoing courses in your current academic semester when you fail your initial courses, you will be placed on Deferred Involuntary Withdrawal status and allowed to complete any current courses that are beyond the first week, though any future course registrations will be dropped.

For more information about this policy, please see the Lack of New Student Activity section of the Student Handbook.

Post-Course Access

If you think you will want access to any of your submitted coursework once the course has ended, please remember to save your work to your own computer or other storage device. You will not have access to your submitted work or to the material in the course after 180 days after the original course end date or once you withdraw from the course.