Everything you need in one document.
Welcome, rhythm, grading, deadlines, integrity, accessibility, RSI, and the resource index. Read it once at the start of the term. Come back when you need the detail.
On this page
Twelve sections.
- Section 1Welcome
- Section 2Course at a Glance
- Section 3What You Will Learn
- Section 4Required Materials
- Section 5How the Course Works
- Section 6Assessments and Grading
- Section 7Hard Deadlines
- Section 8How to Reach Me
- Section 9Academic Integrity and AI Policy
- Section 10Accessibility and Accommodations
- Section 11What You Can Expect From Me
- Section 12Tech, Submissions, and Honorlock
Section 1
Welcome
Welcome to BIO 304. In eight weeks you will learn how a human body works, top to bottom. The pace is real and the design is built to make it possible. You will watch a short pre-work video each Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, then practice the same concepts in a spaced-recall app and a hand-labeled lab workbook. Wednesdays are for catching up and joining the discussion. The weekend is for the quiz.
This course is for students heading toward nursing, EMT, paramedic, dental hygiene, respiratory therapy, surgical tech, mortuary science, and other allied health pathways. Every topic is paired with a clinical reason you will care about it later.
You will get out what you put in. The system here is built to scaffold the effort, not replace it.
Dr. Sharilyn Rennie
Instructor of record, BIO 304
Section 2
Course at a Glance
Course
BIO 304: Human Anatomy and Physiology
Institution
American River College
Format
Fully online. Asynchronous.
Term
Summer 2026, 8 weeks
First day
Monday, June 8, 2026
Last day
Sunday, August 2, 2026
Instructor
Dr. Sharilyn Rennie
Textbook
OpenStax A&P 2e (free)
Section 3
What You Will Learn
BIO 304 is a non-majors survey of human anatomy and physiology. By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Identify major anatomical structures across the eleven organ systems and describe their basic functions.
- Explain core physiological processes including homeostasis, membrane transport, action potentials, the cardiac cycle, gas exchange, filtration, and reproduction.
- Trace the relationship between structure and function at the cellular, tissue, organ, and system levels.
- Use anatomical and physiological vocabulary correctly in speech and writing.
- Apply A&P concepts to short clinical scenarios that mirror the situations you will encounter in allied health practice.
This is a survey course. It is not the full A&P sequence required for nursing programs that mandate a separate two-semester anatomy and physiology series. Check your transfer program's requirements before enrolling.
Section 4
Required Materials
- Textbook (free). OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology 2e. You can read it online or download a PDF. No purchase, no access code. The reading map on Canvas points you to the exact sections that support each topic.
- A computer or tablet with a current browser. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari, all recent versions. The pre-work hub and the lab workbooks run in the browser.
- A printer or a way to print at the campus library. Each day's lab workbook is meant to be printed and labeled by hand. Hand drawing is part of how this course is graded.
- Pen, pencil, and a ruler. Yes, a ruler. Anatomy drawings come out cleaner with one.
- A webcam and a quiet space for Honorlock. Quizzes are proctored. The setup is in section 12.
Section 5
How the Course Works
Every week has the same shape. Four pre-work days on lecture topics, one Wednesday lab-and-discussion day, and a quiz that opens Friday and closes Sunday. Spaced recall practice runs in the background every day.
The Carnegie expectation: roughly 22 to 24 hours per week, total
This is a 4-credit course delivered in 8 weeks, which doubles the weekly pace of a regular 16-week semester. Federal Carnegie Unit standards expect approximately 22 to 24 hours of total student engagement per week for that format. That total is split into two buckets:
- Scheduled lecture and lab equivalent: about 8 to 10 hours per week. This is your pre-work video viewing (4 days a week), the Wednesday lab block, and time inside the lab workbooks. Because the course is asynchronous, you choose when to do this work, but it counts as your scheduled instruction time.
- Outside-of-class study: about 12 to 15 hours per week. This is the work on top of scheduled instruction: spaced recall practice in the pre-work hub, OpenStax reading, the synthesis questions on the workbooks, discussion writing and replies, and quiz preparation.
Some weeks will run lighter, some heavier (the cardiovascular and renal weeks have more moving parts). Block both buckets on your calendar before week 1 starts. Treat them like work shifts.
Section 6
Assessments and Grading
Your grade is built from four components. Each one targets a different kind of learning.
| Component | What it measures | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-work engagement | Daily video viewing plus spaced recall practice. Logged automatically in the pre-work hub. Export your engagement report each week. | 40% |
| Lab workbooks | Hand-labeled anatomy diagrams and short-answer synthesis. One workbook per pre-work day, submitted as a scanned PDF. | 30% |
| Weekly discussions | One initial post (Friday) plus two substantive replies (Sunday). Evidence-based, your own words. | 10% |
| Weekly quizzes | 20 questions, 20 minutes, Honorlock proctored, one attempt. Opens Friday, closes Sunday at 11:59 PM. | 20% |
Letter grade scale
90 to 100 = A · 80 to 89 = B · 70 to 79 = C · 60 to 69 = D · below 60 = F
No curves and no extra credit. Your grade reflects your work.
Section 7
Hard Deadlines
Three hard deadlines every week. Mark them on your calendar before week 1.
Friday 11:59 PM
Initial discussion post
Sunday 11:59 PM
Weekly quiz closes
Sunday 11:59 PM
All lab workbooks + discussion replies
Late policy
Late work earns zero points. No exceptions. If you have DSPS accommodations, you are required to present your DSPS letter to me in week 1 so I can set up the adjustments (testing-time extensions, alternate formats, anything else your letter calls for) before your first deadline arrives. If life is hitting hard, email me before a deadline. Solutions exist before the deadline. They do not exist after.
In an 8-week course, falling one week behind is roughly equivalent to falling two weeks behind in a regular semester. The late policy exists to protect your pace, not to punish you.
Section 8
How to Reach Me
Three channels. Three different purposes. Pick the right one and you will get a faster, better answer.
1. Virtual Office Hours forum (preferred for most questions)
Course content questions, assignment clarifications, technical questions about Canvas or Honorlock, study strategies. Anything not confidential goes here. Other students benefit when your question gets answered in public. Response within 24 to 48 hours on weekdays.
2. Email or Canvas Inbox (confidential matters)
Grade questions, accommodation needs, personal circumstances, anything you would not want classmates to see. Response within 24 to 48 hours on weekdays.
3. One-on-one Zoom (live walkthroughs, by appointment)
For times when a back-and-forth is faster than typing: walking through a tough concept together, reviewing feedback on a workbook, or working out a study plan. Schedule by email. Typically within 1 to 3 days.
Section 9
Academic Integrity and AI Policy
All submitted work must be your own. AI is allowed as a study tool (clarifying concepts, quizzing yourself, checking your reasoning after you have done your work) but not as a ghostwriter for graded work. Every student signs the AI Honor Contract by Tuesday, June 9, 2026. The hand-labeled lab workbook is the primary detection mechanism, and Honorlock treats any AI use during a quiz as a violation automatically.
Section 10
Accessibility and Accommodations
Accessibility is non-negotiable in this course. For online students it is the difference between access and exclusion. Every page in the course is built to WCAG 2.2 AA standards as a floor, with AAA-level color contrast on most text.
If you have a DSPS accommodation
You are required to send me your DSPS letter in week 1. I will set up the testing-time extensions in Honorlock and any other adjustments your letter calls for before your first quiz. If your accommodation is approved partway through the term, send the letter the day it is issued.
If something on a course page is hard to use
Tell me. The pre-work hub, the lab workbooks, the discussion pages, the syllabus, all of it should work with a keyboard alone, with a screen reader, with reduced motion, and with text scaled up. If something fails any of those, that is a bug in my course, not in you.
Full accessibility statement and how to request accommodations →
Section 11
What You Can Expect From Me
Every week, you can count on the following cadence:
- Weekly announcement. Posted Monday morning with the week's focus, anything that shifted from the syllabus, and one teaching note tied to clinical practice.
- Feedback turnaround within 5 business days. Personalized comments on lab workbooks, portfolio pages, and discussions through Canvas SpeedGrader. Not just a score.
- Forum and email response within 24 to 48 hours on weekdays. Virtual Office Hours forum for course questions, email or Canvas Inbox for confidential matters.
- Bi-weekly synthesis check-in. Class-wide patterns, common reasoning errors, and strong examples posted at the end of Weeks 2, 4, 6, and 8.
- Office hours by appointment. Zoom or in-person at the college as scheduled.
Federal RSI compliance documentation lives at biol304_rsi_statement.html for accreditors and reviewers.
Section 12
Tech, Submissions, and Honorlock
Browser and internet
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari, all current versions. Stable internet for quiz day. If your internet is unreliable, plan to take the quiz from the campus library or another known-good location.
Submissions
Lab workbooks are submitted as a single scanned PDF per day. Filename convention: LastName_DayNN_Topic.pdf. Discussion posts go in the Canvas discussion thread. The weekly quiz is launched from inside the Canvas Quizzes tab through Honorlock.
Honorlock
Quizzes are proctored by Honorlock. You will need a webcam, microphone, and a quiet space. The first time you launch Honorlock, allow extra time for the browser extension installation. After that, launch is fast.
Ready to begin
Back to the course home for week 1.
The course home has every week card, the discussions, and the pre-work hub. You read the syllabus. Now go open Week 1.
Open the course home