TCCC has many departments designed to assist students with various aspects of their college efforts. Two departments that will be most important to you during your time at TCCC will be Student Services and the Student Support Center (SSC). Before 2007, these departments were both housed in the Harper Building on the Murphy Campus. However, TCCC’s growth, program development efforts, and need for expanded, more efficient services prompted a location change that resulted in the Student Support Center’s move to Enloe 137 and the creation of the new Career Counseling Center in our former location. The Career Counseling Center is part of the Student Services department. The Student Support Center is a separate department, though we work closely with those staff members.

 

Student Services houses Admissions, Registrar, and Financial Aid. It is likely that your first official contact with TCCC occurs with the Student Services staff members in Admissions and Placement Testing. After admissions, placement testing, registration, and advisor appointment, you may be directed to the Student Support Center in Enloe where you can learn about academic guidance, brush-up courses, and other services that can help you on your academic path. If you are a Graham County Center student, you can find Student Services located in the Shope Building, and the SSC is located in the Phillips Building.

 

If you feel that you have been improperly placed into a course or course level, please speak with your program advisor, to the SSC Coordinator, or to the Career Counseling Center Coordinator about your situation. These individuals can review your given placement and help you discover options to change or improve your existing placement.

 

Developmental courses are considered skill-building courses, and certain courses require workbooks which the student must complete as part of the course requirements. Students are expected to have clean workbooks for proper participation in the given course. Students are expected to write directly in those workbooks as assignments are presented, and SSC instructors will grade and comment directly in those books. So, during this process, the workbooks become very individualized for students, and they are not in a “resalable” condition at the end of the semester. Currently, workbooks are used in developmental English courses.

 

For all college courses, students should purchase the current edition of the textbooks as listed on current course syllabi, which are provided by instructors during the first day of class. Older editions may be full of problems: out-of-date-material; missing pages; missing supplements; missing chapters; old methods, etc. Before purchasing a textbook from any provider, examine the book carefully to ensure its quality, its contents, and dependability. Cheaper isn’t always better!

 

Developmental math courses offer you the chance to build math skills, and these skills include the use of calculators. Purchasing your own calculator is a good investment in your education as many people will need to take at least one math to complete their college program of study. Students who place below curriculum levels may need to complete additional math courses. A calculator can also be beneficial in calculating your GPA, your semester grades, and your weekly budget.

 

The SSC is proud to offer a few hybrid developmental courses in its course schedule. In these specially designed courses, students are carefully introduced to the Blackboard learning environment while they also participate in required weekly class meetings. SSC instructors assume that students have little to no experience with Blackboard or online learning. So, no worries! Your SSC instructor will teach you the skills you need to complete the online portions of your developmental education courses. These skills will allow you to build confidence with online learning for future course work that may include these paths in your major. You may discover that you enjoy the flexibility of hybrid and online education.

Do you take points away for late assignments?

Assignments will only be accepted according to the dates of the course schedule provided by your instructor(s). Please follow the course schedule closely. Once an assignment set's time has elapsed, the assignments for that set will not be accepted.

 

Please contact your instructor if you have any questions or concerns regarding assignments and course completion. 

How will I know if I am missing an assignment? / When will grades be available?

Instructors will maintain a student progress folder for every student enrolled in SSC lab classes. For traditional SSC classes / lectures, instructors maintain a gradebook. Grades are available after the instructor has evaluated the material submitted and after it has been recorded either in the student's personal file or gradebook.

SSC classes are college classes, and all participants are expected to behave in a mature, polite, and respectful way. Your instructor will work to maintain a comfortable learning environment. If the learning environment is not comfortable for you, observe why this is so. What is causing the discomfort? What can be done about? What can you do personally to foster a more comfortable environment? On a scale of one to ten, how serious is your concern about this environment and to your ability to comfortably participate in class or lab? 

If you have serious concerns about the learning environment, speak to your instructor BEFORE or AFTER class. The next step is to speak with your SSC Coordinator as soon as possible and explain the situation and/or your feelings. If you do not feel comfortable speaking with your SSC instructor or SSC Coordinator, please contact Linda Howell at 828-835-4259.