GU101 Student Success Scenarios for Discussion Board Week 2 Scenario #1: Amaya Amaya is a 40-year old female who lives with her four children in her mother’s home. She is a single mother who works one full-time job Monday-Friday and works part-time (8 hours) every Saturday at the local supermarket. Her children are 11, 9, and 6 (twins).  Her mother is retired and takes care of the kids when they get home from school. Amaya gives her mother money to do the grocery shopping (etc.) during the day when the kids are at school, and her mother cooks all the meals.  When Amaya gets home every day, she eats dinner, helps the kids with their homework, gets them to bed, and then begins her homework around 9:00 at night. She usually can get to bed around 10:30 at night, and she studies every night. She enjoys her online discussions, and she has been able to apply some of what she is learning to her job. She counts on Sundays to do massive work on her papers – except last Sunday was the twins’ birthday, so she didn’t do any work and did not submit her paper. Amaya figured she would finish it as soon as she could.  Yesterday, while her mother was carrying laundry to the washer, she slipped, fell, and broke her ankle. It was her right ankle, and she cannot put weight on it or drive. Although she has crutches and can get around the home a little bit, she is now unable to grocery shop, do laundry, and cook.  Amaya opted to stay in her course. She has not told her professor or her advisor what is going on because she didn’t want to sound like a complainer. She now has taken on all the household responsibilities, is working the same amount, and often cannot begin her homework until midnight. She is beginning to fall behind and is hoping she can hang on and earn some type of passing grade. Scenario #2: Bob Bob is 24-years old and married. His wife is 6 months pregnant with their first child, and she is a librarian at the neighborhood elementary school. Bob is excited to become a father! He currently has a salaried position as an assistant manager at a large retail store he started working at when he was 16 years old, but the company will not promote him to any higher position (manager or above) until he has his degree in business.  Even though his company is paying for him to go to school, he has begun his degree only because he feels he has to do it, and he resents being in school. He does the minimum work possible and spends as little time studying as he can. He didn’t like high school even though he graduated with a 3.3 GPA.  Recently, business at the store has picked up significantly, and Bob has been required to work longer hours. When he finally got home last night around 8:30PM, he found his wife in bed, and his in-laws were there. He learned that his wife had been put on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy, and his in-laws, who lived 10 minutes away, were there to offer support and help out with whatever they needed.  Bob talked to his wi ...

1. GU101 Student Success
Scenarios for Discussion Board Week 2
Scenario #1:
Amaya
Amaya is a 40-year old female who lives with her four children
in her mother’s home. She is a single mother who works one
full-time job Monday-Friday and works part-time (8 hours)
every Saturday at the local supermarket. Her children are 11, 9,
and 6 (twins). Her mother is retired and takes care of the kids
when they get home from school. Amaya gives her mother
money to do the grocery shopping (etc.) during the day when
the kids are at school, and her mother cooks all the meals.
When Amaya gets home every day, she eats dinner, helps the
kids with their homework, gets them to bed, and then begins her
homework around 9:00 at night. She usually can get to bed
around 10:30 at night, and she studies every night. She enjoys
her online discussions, and she has been able to apply some of
what she is learning to her job. She counts on Sundays to do
massive work on her papers – except last Sunday was the twins’
birthday, so she didn’t do any work and did not submit her
paper. Amaya figured she would finish it as soon as she could.
Yesterday, while her mother was carrying laundry to the
washer, she slipped, fell, and broke her ankle. It was her right
ankle, and she cannot put weight on it or drive. Although she
has crutches and can get around the home a little bit, she is now
unable to grocery shop, do laundry, and cook.

2. Amaya opted to stay in her course. She has not told her
professor or her advisor what is going on because she didn’t
want to sound like a complainer. She now has taken on all the
household responsibilities, is working the same amount, and
often cannot begin her homework until midnight. She is
beginning to fall behind and is hoping she can hang on and earn
some type of passing grade.
Scenario #2:
Bob
Bob is 24-years old and married. His wife is 6 months pregnant
with their first child, and she is a librarian at the neighborhood
elementary school. Bob is excited to become a father! He
currently has a salaried position as an assistant manager at a
large retail store he started working at when he was 16 years
old, but the company will not promote him to any higher
position (manager or above) until he has his degree in business.
Even though his company is paying for him to go to school, he
has begun his degree only because he feels he has to do it, and
he resents being in school. He does the minimum work possible
and spends as little time studying as he can. He didn’t like high
school even though he graduated with a 3.3 GPA.
Recently, business at the store has picked up significantly, and
Bob has been required to work longer hours. When he finally
got home last night around 8:30PM, he found his wife in bed,
and his in-laws were there. He learned that his wife had been
put on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy, and his in-laws,
who lived 10 minutes away, were there to offer support and help
out with whatever they needed.
Bob talked to his wife about dropping out, but she insisted that
her parents would help her, so there was no reason to drop out.

3. She reminded him that he was barely studying anyway, so
working the extra hours wasn’t that big of an issue.
Scenario #3:
Carlos
Carlos is a 30-year old who recently decided he was tired of
working full-time in his family’s bakery. He really wasn’t
passionate about it but felt obligated to help out since it was the
family business. His parents, sensing his unhappiness, assured
him they would be fine if he just worked part time there and
supported him as he found a program he was interested in
pursuing.
Carlos had always been interested in computer programming
and started his online degree in that field. His first class was an
English class which made him nervous. Carlos has always
struggled with writing – even in high school. Even though he
put hours into his first paper, the score was not very good, and
his professor suggested that he work with the tutoring center
before he submitted his second paper. Carlos was insulted that
the professor would suggest tutoring, and almost wrote an email
to give the professor a piece of his mind, but then decided not
to.
Carlos told his girlfriend that he wasn’t going to get tutoring
because he was certain he could earn a D in the class, and he
would earn better grades in the next couple of terms when he
started his computer classes. Carlos figured the good grades
from his future computer classes would balance out the grades
from the classes that required a lot of paper writing.
One day he received a phone call from his mother. She was at
the hospital. His father had suffered a small stroke and would
not be able to work for a while. She needed him back full time

4. at the family business until his father was able to work again.
Carlos immediately went back to work full time, but decided to
stay in his class. He emailed his professor and told him what
was going on.
Scenario #4:
Dolores
Dolores is 50 years old, and the last of her children has recently
moved out. She and her husband are now empty nesters. Her
husband has encouraged her to do something for herself because
she was a stay-at-home mom who dedicated 30 years to raising
her family. Dolores has always wanted to continue her
education, but she is afraid that she has been out of school for
too long to do well now.
She also is not technologically-savvy and only recently has she
learned how to email. This week, her husband created a
Facebook account for her, and Delores is learning to use it.
Because Dolores and her husband live in a very rural area,
driving to the nearest college takes 45 minutes one-way. As
they live in the northern part of the United States, Dolores does
not want to drive in the snow and ice. Even though she was very
hesitant, she decided to pursue her degree online.
During the first week, she called her advisor 10 times with
questions. She called her professor 6 times. Between her
professor and her advisor, she was able to complete all her
assignments and understood the content. When her husband
came home one night, he found Dolores in tears because the
computer stopped working. Her husband found that the power
cord had come loose and the battery had drained. He fixed the
problem, and Dolores was able to finish posting.
That night, Dolores shared that she just didn’t think she could

5. do this. “Who else has to make 16 phone calls in one week? I
couldn’t even determine the power cord had come loose! My
professor and my advisor must think I am an idiot!” The phone
rang. It was her son, and he shared the news that his infant
daughter was going to need surgery to correct a birth defect.
Even though it was fairly routine surgery, he asked if Dolores
could come stay with them and help out, especially when the
baby came home. Dolores agreed to go stay with them. Her
husband reminded her that she could continue her studies
because her course was online, and even though she was
nervous about it, she agreed to try. She called her advisor to let
her know what was going on. Her advisor told Dolores to tell
her professor, but Dolores did not. She was afraid that 6 phone
calls in one week was too many already.
GU101 Student Success
Scenarios for Discussion Board Week 3
Even with the best of planning, life happens. Similar to last
week, you will meet four hypothetical students who are
attending ABC University. An unforeseen event happens to each
one of them, and this event causes issues in their courses. Read
each scenario and then:
1. Determine which student is the most likely to successfully
navigate the unforeseen event and be able to remain in school.
Explain why you selected that student.
2. Explain what behaviors or characteristics were problematic
before the unforeseen event and how those
behaviors/characteristics may have contributed to a harder
challenge for them to navigate.

6. 3. Identify the behaviors/characteristics/circumstances that were
helpful to the student as the unforeseen event occurred.
For your follow-up posts, respond to at least two of your peers.
In each response, respectfully agree or disagree with the
author’s choice, and explain your position. Then, create 3 “next
steps” for the hypothetical student to help him/her get back on
track.
Scenario #1:
Jayden
Jayden is 22 years old and is living at home with her parents
and two younger siblings (still in high school and junior high).
Her parents are letting her continue to live at home provided
that she either has a full-time job or she is in school full-time.
If she goes to school full-time, her parents will pay half of her
tuition. Jayden does not know what she wants to study, but
since the first year at every college she researched was focused
on general education, she figured she would simply get started.
Besides, she really doesn’t want to work full-time. She works
part-time at the local pizza place as a waitress, and those hours
are plenty for her to pay half her tuition and still have some left
over for fun. Many of her friends that went to high school with
her are still in the area, and she hangs out with them 3-4 times a
week. Jayden is technically passing her classes, earning Cs and
Bs for her assignments, but she admits that she has blown off a
few minor requirements and doesn’t really read the textbook.
She says she is doing well enough without doing all the work –
so why should she work harder? It’s not like she is on probation
or anything.
Unforeseen event:
In the third week of the course, Jayden’s father has a heart

7. attack. He is in the hospital for a week, and her mom is
constantly by his side. It looks like he is going to have to go
through some rehab and therapy for a few weeks. Jayden has to
help take care of her younger siblings – preparing meals,
driving them to school, making sure they do their homework.
Scenario #2:
Kamden
Kamden is 35 years old and has three children under the age of
7. She also works full-time. She drops the kids off at daycare
every morning at 6:30, goes to work, and is home by the time
they get off the bus. Kamden is busy with “kid-stuff” until they
go to bed at 9:00. That is when she begins her homework. Many
times she is so tired by Thursday and Friday night that she takes
those two nights off from class and just goes to bed. She then
works hard through the weekend to catch up. She feels bad that
she isn’t spending as much time with the kids as she used to,
but she feels that her degree will make a better life for her
family. She has never missed any class work, and she has
submitted every assignment, but she is really struggling in her
economics course. She currently has a 67%, and it is the lowest
grade she has ever earned. She really does not know what to do
with this situation.
Unforeseen event:
One of her children catches the flu and has to stay home from
daycare, which means Kamden cannot go to work. She is falling
behind at work, and also falling behind in her classes. She
wants to make sure her other two little ones do not come down
with the flu, so she is trying to quarantine the sick child. This is
hard to do as a single mom.
Scenario #3:

8. Lloyd
Lloyd is 27 years old, and he is tired of working in a dead-end
job. He is really motivated to make a better life for him and for
his 3-year old son. Lloyd has never been the strongest student,
but he is going to tutoring every week to help him with reading
comprehension and writing papers, and his grades are mostly
Bs. With the custody arrangement from his divorce, he has his
son every other week. Lloyd is finding that during the weeks
that he has son, he has less time to dedicate to his studies, so
sometimes he has to catch up on reading chapters in the next
week. He finds ways to do that, but sometimes he doesn’t learn
important information until the week after it would have been
particularly useful. Consequently, his posts show that he
sometimes hasn’t read the material. Worse, he lost track of the
deadlines for written assignments. A big paper is due tomorrow,
and he doesn’t have time to do the research and write the paper.
He found a paper online. He figures he can change and modify
just enough of it that it will be mostly his work. He has
promised himself that he will pay better attention next time and
will never find himself in this situation again. Besides, he’s not
really doing anything wrong, right?
Unforeseen event:
Lloyd lives in Florida, and a hurricane is forecast to hit his
hometown. The authorities are strongly encouraging evacuation.
He has 24 hours to make a decision – hunker down, or get out of
town. It is likely that he will lose internet and power for what
could be several days.
Scenario #4:
Mark
Mark is 40 years old and does not have a computer at home. His
boss at work is allowing him to stay late after work and use his

9. work computer to complete his schoolwork. On weekends, he
goes to the library. He is finding time to complete and hand in
all his assignments, and he generally does very well on them.
Because of earning good grades in high school and his own
perception that he is completely capable of learning anything
thrown at him, Mark is confident that he will be successful, and
he believes he will do it on his own. He’s smart, but he is often
described as very, very quiet. Mark is not very comfortable
around people, and he doesn’t like interacting with them. Even
at work, he is rarely seen talking to or with his co-workers.
Because Mark is so confident in his own abilities and because
he does not enjoy discussions with others, he does not see the
point of the “reply to others” part of discussion posts. He really
doesn’t care what other students think about his posts – the only
person who matters is the professor because the professor does
the grading. Mark’s initial post is always the first one in the
thread, and it is generally more complex that anyone else’s
posts. Mark posts his initial comments every week, but never
responds to his peers in any of his classes. His professors have
been reaching out to him encouraging him to be more active in
the posts, but he has not changed his behavior. Mark usually
earns A’s on his tests, quizzes, and papers, and has figured that
even with losing the points on the discussions every week, he
will still pass the classes, so he sees no reason to change.
Unforeseen event:
Mark has not read the syllabus for his strategic management
course – and what he doesn’t know yet is that he must
participate in a team project for this course. He needs to work
with a small group of his classmates each week to complete
verbal and written assignments. This means that he has to have
internet access on a daily basis, and must collaborate with his
teammates to make “strategic business decisions” for the
Business Strategy Game (which is an online activity). At the
end of the course, each group member submits an evaluation of
their peers, and so his teammates will have a chance to

10. determine part of his grade for this course.
GU101 Student Success
Scenarios for Week 4 Discussion Forum
Is This Cheating?
Below are 9 mini-scenarios. In each scenario, you will read
about a student who is engagin in some type of behavior. Your
job is to determine if the students’ actions are cheating, not
cheating, or “it depends.”
Create a list from 1 to 9. After each number, write your
determination (“cheating,” “not cheating,” “it depends”). If you
write “it depends,” you must explain your reasoning. Then
select ONE of the mini-scenarios that you deemed “cheating”
and explain why it was cheating – what should the student(s)
have done differently?
For your follow-up posts, compare your list with two of your
peers. If your lists are different, examine the differences and
respectfully explain why you had a different answer. If there
were no differences, then select a “not cheating” response and
explain why the student(s) did not cheat.
Mini-scenarios
1. Ana is taking an online psychology class. The instructions for
the exams indicate that the test is “open book/open note.” Yet
the exam has a time limit of two hours. She takes her test with
two computers open – one has her notes and the book on it, and
the other one is used to access the test. Is this cheating?

11. 2. Bob and Brenda discovered through the discussion forum that
they are in the same city. They decided that they will go to the
local coffee shop to take their economics midterm exam which
is “open book/open note.” The exam has a time limit of two
hours. On a few of the questions, Bob and Brenda discussed the
questions, compared their notes, and agreed upon an answer
before submitting their test responses. Is this cheating?
3. Collette wrote a paper in sociology class and wanted to use
part of it in her psychology class. She copied and pasted the
portion she had written in the sociology paper. She then
continued to write more content in the psychology paper around
the pasted portion. Is this cheating?
4. Diana is not the best writer, and even though she is working
with a tutor every week, there are still times that her written
thoughts are not clear to others. When she is writing essay
responses on an exam, she calls her mother over to read her
responses and edit her paragraphs so that her writing is clear. Is
this cheating?
5. Eduardo uses the online library to gather sources for his
research paper. The paper requires citations in APA format.
There is a button that Eduardo can click that provides the APA
citation, so instead of writing the citation himself, he clicks the
button and copies/pastes the citation into his paper. Is this
cheating?
6. Frank is taking the same business class that his girlfriend
took last term. She gave him all her notes and papers. Frank
reads her papers and the instructor’s comments before writing
his own papers. He uses her notes along with his own notes for
the “open book/open note” exams. Is this cheating?
7. George is writing a paper for his environmental science

12. course. While researching fossil fuels, he reads each paragraph
in the source (article or webpage), then closes the article and
writes down what he remembers without looking back at the
source. Because he is working from his own memory, he does
not cite the sources. Is this cheating?
8. Howard does not type well – he uses the “hunt and peck”
method. The exams in his courses are timed, and they are closed
book, closed note. During the midterm exam, he gets through
most of the questions, but because of his poor typing skills, he
discovers he is running out of time and he still needs to answer
two more short-answer questions. With just one minute left, he
takes note of the final two questions, and then time expires. He
calls the I.T. desk and reports that his computer stopped during
the exam period. He gets confirmation of that work ticket for
his instructor. Meanwhile, he starts typing answers to the final
two questions from the exam so he can also submit those to his
professor, along with the I.T. work request ticket. Is this
cheating?
9. Iris has no idea what to do for her poetry analysis paper. She
doesn’t understand the terms or how they apply to the poem. In
fact, she doesn’t understand the message of the poem. She
“googles” the poem and finds several places where she can
purchase an essay on the topic. She buys one of the papers, and
then tries to insert her own words and thoughts into the
purchased paper before submitting it. Is this cheating?