Syllabus

 

Course: Principles of Fire and Emergency Services Management

Course & Section: FES 3015

Credit Hours: 3

Session:  Fall 2024

 Online

 

Faculty:

Adam A. Smith, MSFES, NREMT-P

Instructional Assistant Professor

 

Email: adam.smith@dcp.ufl.edu

 

Office Phone:  352-273-1149

Personal Cell Phone:  404-933-3676

 

Bio for Adam A. Smith

Adam Smith is a retired Battalion Chief (Acting)/Medic from Lumpkin County Emergency Services located an hour north of Atlanta in the North Georgia Mountains.  He began his career in emergency services in October of 1986 and retired July of 2020.  Adam has 34 years experience as a firefighter and paramedic.  He has been a Lecturer for the University of Florida since January of 2019 and holds national certifications as a Firefighter, Paramedic, Fire Officer, Various rescue designations, Public Safety Diver, Hazardous Materials Technician, and Instructor.  Adam has an Associates Degree in Fire Science Technology (Chattahoochee Technical College), Bachelors Degree in Fire and Emergency Services Management (University of Florida), and a Masters Degree in Fire and Emergency Services Management with a specialization in Disaster Management (University of Florida).  He is currently in the University of Florida College of Design, Construction, and Planning PhD program with a Disaster Management concentration.  

 

Office Hours:   My online office hours are typically from 0800 am to 1200 pm, Monday -Tuesday, Thursday-Friday.

 

Course Communications:   The best way to communicate with me is via email through Canvas.  I will attempt to answer all emails in 24-48 hours.  If the need is urgent, I can be reached by text or phone call at 404-933-3676 between the hours of 0800 am and 0800 pm. 

 

Required Text:

Management in the Fire Service (Fifth Edition), 2017, Author: Dr. Harry R. Carter and Erwin Rausch, Publisher: Jones and Bartlett (NFPA), ISBN: 9781449690786

 

Additional Optional Materials:

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 7th Edition (2020): Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN 978-1-4338-3217-8

Course Description:  Fundamentals of management underlying the solution of problems of organizations and operations of Fire and Emergency Services agencies.

 

General Education Subject Area: FES 3015 is a General Education Composition and General Education Social and Behavioral Science course.  This class seeks to help the student to fullfill the University of Florida Gordon (Writing) Rule of 6000 words for the course.  For more information regarding the UF General Education Subject Area Objectives, please click on https://undergrad.aa.ufl.edu/general-education/gen-ed-program/subject-area-objectives/ 

 

Prerequisite Knowledge and Skills: None

 

Purpose of Course:   In this course the student will learn the fundamentals of management emphasizing the solutions of organizational and operational problems utilizing theory and practical applications for the Fire and Emergency Services agency.

 

Course Goals and/or Objectives: By the end of this course, students will:

• Describe the duties that are generally the responsibility of a manager.
• Explain the specific goals and objectives needed to accomplish these duties
• Describe and analyze contemporary research and innovation idea.
• Describe the dynamics of group and/or team process
• Describe, analyze, and create new or changed management policy
• Discuss the customer’s expectation for the quality and level of services
• Present techniques for influencing the self-perspective of the public organization
• Examine changing values and attitudes
• Discuss ethical issues as related to management 

How This Course Relates to the Student Learning Outcomes in the Fire and Emergency Services program:   As the opening course in the FES Bachelor of Science degree program, FES 3015 introduces all six of the SLOs identified for the degree. These are:

1. Identify and evaluate organizational problems associated with Fire and Emergency Services.
2. Identify and demonstrate proper knowledge and use of comprehensive emergency management/command and control skills in major catastrophic incidents in fire and emergency services
3. Illustrate knowledge and legal application of safety, health and environmental regulations at state and federal levels
4. Demonstrate effective leadership behavior and skills in fire and emergency services.
5. Properly address issues of management, code regulations and the labor market in fire and emergency services
6. Demonstrate strong verbal and written communication skills for leadership in fire and emergency services

 

Teaching Philosophy: I am looking for students to demonstrate a working knowledge of the subject. You need to be creative when you complete your assignments but maintain a professional appearance of your work. Your work needs to be complete and in such a manner that someone can pick up your document and understand what you are trying to convey. And most of all your work needs to be supported with research and cited in properly in APA format.

 

Instructional Methods: The course is designed for individual and group interactivity. It is important to post and respond to discussion questions in the course within the time frame allotted. This provides a learning environment by networking with other students in the course. The assignments are individual base to give you the opportunity to do a variety of activities, in many cases, similar to what you will be doing in role as a leader in the emergency services profession.

 

Course Policies

Attendance Policy:  The course is designed in module format. You should check the site at least once a week. You are required to complete the assignments including discussion questions within the time period designated on the module. There will be meetings set up throughout the course. Requirements for class attendance and make-up exams, assignments, and other work in this course are consistent with university policies that can be found in the online catalog at: https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/attendance.aspx (Links to an external site.)

Quiz/Exam Policy:  There is a final project for this course. There are no exams.

Assignment Policy:  All assignments have a due date.  Please be sure to check the date and time it is due in each module or discussion.

Make-up Policy:  Make-up assignments will only be accepted due to technical issues, illness, and other extenuating circumstances. You must contact your instructor before the assignment's due date for special accommodations.

Any requests for make-ups due to technical issues MUST be accompanied by the ticket number received from the UF Computing Help Desk when the problem was reported to them. The ticket number will document the time and date of the problem. You MUST message your instructor within 24 hours of the technical difficulty if you wish to request a make-up.

Late Assignments and Discussions Policy:

• Assignments up to 48 hours late from the due date will receive a 10% deduction in their grade.
• Assignments more than 48 hours but less than 30 days late from the due date will receive a 20% deduction in their grade.
• Assignments more than 30 days late from the due date but submitted during the semester will receive a 50% deduction in their grade.
• All outstanding work must be submitted two weeks prior to the end of the semester.  No outstanding work will be accepted after this time.

Please note that any student that has less than 75% of their work complete for the semester cannot earn an “I” contract. If you have 75% of the work complete, you can propose an “I” contract to the instructor.

It is your responsibility to keep your instructor informed at all times. The instructor does have the right under extenuating circumstances with proper notification to assist the student by extending the above time requirements.

 

UF’s Honesty Policy  

UF students are bound by The Honor Pledge which states, “We, the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to hold ourselves and our peers to the highest standards of honor and integrity by abiding by the Honor Code.  On all work submitted for credit by students at the University of Florida, the following pledge is either required or implied: “On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this assignment.” The Honor Code (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/process/student-conduct-honor-code/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.) specifies a number of behaviors that are in violation of this code and the possible sanctions.  Furthermore, you are obliged to report any condition that facilitates academic misconduct to appropriate personnel. If you have any questions or concerns, please consult with the instructor of in this class.

Plagiarism:  All work submitted during this course has to be your own, original (for this class) work.  Understand that there are various types of plagiarism such as submitting a paper written by another person, resubmitting original work created for another class, or copying information from another source and claiming it as your own original work.  The ramifications will be severe for anyone caught plagiarizing.  

USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI):  Any and all use of machines that emulate human capabilities (ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, DALLE, etc.) to perform assignments or other works in the course should be disclosed as it can border on plagiarism. AI-generated information, as long as this use is properly documented in the references and will need to include the prompt and the significant parts of the response. The use of generative AI tools is not permitted in this course for the following activities: 

1. Completing group work that your group has assigned to you. 
2. Writing a draft of a writing assignment. 
3. Writing entire sentences, paragraphs or papers to complete class assignments. 

 

UF Policies

University Policy on Accommodating Students with Disabilities: Students requesting accommodation for disabilities must first register with the Dean of Students Office at https://www.dso.ufl.edu/drc. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the instructor when requesting accommodation. You must submit this documentation prior to submitting assignments or taking the quizzes or exams. Accommodations are not retroactive, therefore, students should contact the office as soon as possible in the term for which they are seeking accommodations.

University Policy on Academic Misconduct: Academic honesty and integrity are fundamental values of the University community. Students should be sure that they understand the UF Student Honor Code at https://sccr.dso.ufl.edu/process/student-honor-code/. 

Netiquette: Communication Courtesy: All members of the class are expected to follow rules of common courtesy in all email messages, threaded discussions and chats.  This class is formatted to allow regular and continuous interaction between you (the student) and the Professor as well as the other students.  While I want you to talk freely, I also request (and it is required by UF policy) that you talk to me and the other students in a polite, kind, and professional manner.  Failure to follow UF Netiquette guidelines could result in you being removed from the class.  For more details on the UF Netiquette policy, please read the UF Netiquette Guide for Online Courses found at https://www.cise.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/CISE_Netiquette_Guide.pdf.

 

Canvas Information and Technology

Class assignments may require a web camera and mic/audio. Microsoft Word and Powerpoint may also be required to submit assignments.

Otherwise, discussions and assignments will be web based and submissions will occur electronically. If technology help is required, please contact the UF Help Desk at:

• Learning-support@ufl.edu
• (352) 392-HELP - select option 2
• https://elearning.ufl.edu/student-help-faqs/

** Any requests for make-ups due to technical issues MUST be accompanied by the ticket number received from LSS when the problem was reported to them. The ticket number will document the time and date of the problem. You MUST e-mail your instructor within 24 hours of the technical difficulty if you wish to request a make-up.

Other resources are available at https://distance.ufl.edu/getting-help/ 

• Counseling and Wellness resources
• Disability resources
• Resources for handling student concerns and complaints
• Library Help Desk support

 

Grading Policies

The grade is based on a point system.   Refer to the rubric assigned to each discussion post/assignment/final project for complete details on how the discussion post/assignment/final project will be graded.  Grading will occur as soon as possible however it should be noted that grading may take up to two weeks depending on the course load placed on the instructor as well as other university obligations (IE: Travel, Conferences, Training, etc...) placed on the instructor.  

General Education Credit:  A minimum of a C is required for General Education Credit for this course.

Course Grade Scale:

The final grade will be based on the following:

Discussion Participation                                       35%

Homework Assignments                                       35%

Final Exam-applied research paper                      30%

Total Grade                                                           100%

 

Grading Scale

A     94.0% to 100%

A-    90.0% to <94.0%

B+    87.0% to <90.0%

B     84.0% to <87.0%

B-    80.0% to <84.0%

C+   77.0% to <80.0

C      74.0% to <77.0%

C-    70.0% to <74.0%

D+   67.0% to <70.0%

D      64.0% to <67.0%

D-     60.0% to <64.0%

E       <60.0%

 

 

Evaluation process

Student Evaluations:

“Students are expected to provide professional and respectful feedback on the quality of instruction in this course by completing course evaluations online via GatorEvals. Guidance on how to give feedback in a professional and respectful manner is available at https://gatorevals.aa.ufl.edu/students/. Students will be notified when the evaluation period opens, and can complete evaluations through the email they receive from GatorEvals, in their Canvas course menu under GatorEvals, or via https://ufl.bluera.com/ufl/. Summaries of course evaluation results are available to students at https://gatorevals.aa.ufl.edu/public-results/.”

 

Additionally, the link below is Honor Code for UF....... (PLEASE FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF)

https://sccr.dso.ufl.edu/resources-by-audience/faculty-and-staff/honor-code-process/