Course Syllabus
Contact Information
Course Details
For a list of course activities, scroll to the bottom of this page.
Course Prerequisites
This is the introductory course, there are no prerequisites. Students not admitted to the program would need instructor approval.
Course Materials
Suggested Texts
- Petroleum Engineering Handbook, Volume I: General Engineering
- Petroleum Engineering Handbook, Volume III: Facilities and Construction Engineering
Software
- Microsoft 365: One Drive, Excel, Word
- OU IT provides all OU students with free access to Office 365
- Endnote
- Microsoft Equation Editor or Math Type
- One Petro
Grades
Breakdown
| Activity | Description | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Bi-Weekly Live Sessions | Students will meet for Live Sessions bi-weekly on Thursdays, 7–8 p.m. (Central). If you are unable to attend you have a week to do the make-up work per each meeting. | 10% |
| Weekly Writing Assignment | Students are expected to complete weekly writings, which they will add to their One Drive folders and Group One Drive folders for review. | 15% |
| Midterm Writing Assignment | Students will complete within their groups a Midterm Writing Assignment, which will be a compilation of their writing completed in the weeks prior. | 35% |
| Final Group Presentation & Writing Assignment | For the final, groups will present and compile their weekly writing assignments into one final submission. | 40% |
| Total | 100% |
Scale
| Percentage | Letter Grade |
|---|---|
| 90-100% | A |
| 80-89% | B |
| 70-79% | C |
| 60-69% | D |
| Below 60% | F |
Course Components
Live Sessions versus Office Hours
Live Sessions are grade-bearing participation every other week throughout the course and are part of the NGEM program requirements. If you are unable to participate, you have a make-up activity listed. Office Hours are scheduled during the opposite weeks at the same time for student convenience but attendance is never required. If you need to meet at an alternate time, please contact the faculty to make arrangements.
Weekly Writing Exercises & One Drive
- Students will update their weekly writing submissions each week both within their group and individual folders for the faculty member to be able to evaluate weekly.
- Students will prepare their most current version by Monday at midnight Central Day Light time, so the faculty member can evaluate every Tuesday.
- Faculty will provide written feedback via Canvas Email. Students are encouraged to ask for more detail if they have any questions.
Midterm Writing Assignment
Paper will be limited to 10 pages total including references and appendix.
- Groups will choose the best five companies from their individual research efforts.
- Your group report will contain each of the research elements from weeks two through six.
- The group report must be written to the SPE writing guide standards and the course writing template as outlined in lecture 1.
- Both midterm and final reports must contain a one-page executive summary at the beginning of the report. The executive summary must be a synopsis of your findings along with your respective recommendations.
Final Group Presentation
The presentation will follow the outline below:
- Groups will prepare a 10–15 minute presentation that will be held in a live session of week 15.
- The group presentation will contain the following elements (slide amount is up to the groups' discretion).
- Synopsis of the five companies (1–2 slides) - Who they are, where are they located, and what services do they provide.
- Compare and contrast section (1–3 slides) - Tabulate findings between companies, by illustrating advantages and disadvantages, and list companies based on best to last that you would recommend.
- Economic Analysis (1–3 slides) - Leverage some publicly used economic metrics such as money multiples, IRR, NPV, etc. No calculations are needed as most of this information may be found on a company’s 10k report. Just compare and contrast the economic metrics per company.
- Conclusion and Group recommendations - This is your closing pitch; therefore, tell me why I should trust your analysis relative to your peers.
Final Writing Assignment
Paper will be limited to 25 pages total including references and appendix.
- Groups will continue with the best five companies from their midterm report.
- Your group report will contain each of the research elements from weeks 2 to 11.
- The group report must be written to the SPE writing guide standards and the course writing template.
Course Policies
Communication
I am committed to your success, so please alert me to any questions you may have. Please contact me via canvas email to schedule any appointments or ask questions throughout the course. You can expect at a maximum a 24-hour turnaround for emails during the week. I will check my email over the weekend but expect a delayed response. Please seek advice, feedback and ask questions if you need any support at any time.
Group Work Rationale
In this course, we will be working in groups to model the office work environment from the Natural Gas Industry. The interpersonal skill set to work with a varied group of colleagues and managers is never chosen. So like that work environment, I will be choosing the groups for the course. This is the beginning of your NGEM degree and therefore an initial effort with networking in this program and making new peers. Since you all have educational and professional experience, this is not the beginning of your learning interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness to accomplish collaborative efforts at school or work. In the office, we write and research together and make high-end financial decisions that determine the future of the company. We are going to learn and practice this in this course.
Your personal goal should be to expand your skills at creating strong working relationships. You should examine and reflect on your strengths and weaknesses. In an interview, you are often asked what are your weaknesses and that is usually a trick question. In this course, I hope you will take the opportunity to access your actual strengths and weaknesses and create a plan to expand the positives, and retool and practice ways to get better and smarter around your working relationships. I have designed this course so you will have the opportunity to practice these skills because your career will flourish from it. Being able to present, research, collaborate and make calculating decisions that benefit you and your company are part of the industry. This is your primer toward these skills and knowledge in the Natural Gas Industry.
Group Work Policy
In this course, you will complete some early assessments and submit your Resume for my review. I will use these tools to assign groups by the second week of this course. My goal with group assignments is to create groups with a variety of strengths and experiences. You will be challenged, but the rigor should be scholastically appropriate. Everyone will at the end confidentially evaluate themselves and the individuals on their team. Everyone will have a group One Drive for my review as well as a one drive folder for me to review one on one for everyone in the class. So I will see throughout the course everyone's progress. As in a work environment, everyone is responsible for their own development. This will be a truly collaborative group effort, but each of you individually will be responsible for your own writing and presenting of the materials. And with the self and group evaluations plus group and individual cloud shares, I am confident everyone's efforts will be accounted for.
If you have any questions or if you need my input for the group process or individual suggestions, I am happy to discuss these issues one on one or with the group. Unlike a work environment, this is a course and your experiences are important to me. I will be surveying and conducting weekly check-ins to access the progress outside of the course's progress.
Late Policy
Due to the nature of the writing and building upon previous work, the nature of the class is cumulative. In this course so you are invited to email and ask questions and seek advice if there are some unforeseen obstacles to alert me of a delay but when the work will be complete. The midterm and final deadlines are fixed.
University Academic Policies and Student Support
Course Catalog
Search the OU Course Catalog.
Student Handbook
Please familiarize yourself with the OU Student Handbook.
Online Library
Access digital materials and other resources at OU Libraries.
Academic Misconduct
In addition to the course conduct policies outlined by your professor in the Course Syllabus in the online classroom, please review the Graduate Student Handbook.
It is the responsibility of each student to be familiar with the definitions, policies, and procedures concerning academic misconduct. The Student Code is available from the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and is contained in the Student's Guide to Academic Integrity.
This site also defines misconduct, provides examples of prohibited conduct, and explains the sanctions available for those found guilty of misconduct.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the most common form of academic misconduct at OU. There is basically no college-level assignment that can be satisfactorily completed by copying. OU's basic assumption about writing is that all written assignments show the student's own understanding in the student's own words. That means all writing assignments, in class or out, are assumed to be composed entirely of words generated (not simply found) by the student, except where words written by someone else are specifically marked as such with proper citation. Including other people's words in your paper is helpful when you do it honestly and correctly. When you don't, it's plagiarism.
For more information about plagiarism, watch this video and then take this short course offered by University Libraries.
Reasonable Accommodation for Disabilities
The University of Oklahoma is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for all students with disabilities. Students with disabilities who require accommodations in this course should contact their professor as early in the semester as possible.
Students with disabilities must be registered with the Disability Resource Center before receiving accommodations in this course.
If you have a disability and you would like to request reasonable accommodation, please see the Graduate Student Handbook or get in touch with the Accessibility and Disability Resource Center.
Adjustments for Pregnancy/Childbirth Related Issues
Should you need modifications or adjustments to your course requirements because of documented pregnancy-related or childbirth-related issues, please contact me as soon as possible to discuss your options. Generally, modifications will be made where medically necessary and similar in scope to accommodations based on temporary disability. Learn more about the rights of pregnant and parenting students by consulting the FAQ sheets provided by the Institutional Equity Office.
Title IX Resources
For any concerns regarding gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, stalking, or intimate partner violence, the University offers a variety of resources, including advocates on-call 24/7, counseling services, mutual no-contact orders, scheduling adjustments, and disciplinary sanctions against the perpetrator. Please contact the Sexual Misconduct Office at 405-325-2215 (8-5, M-F) or OU Advocates at 405-615-0013 (24/7) to learn more or to report an incident.
Religious Holidays
It is the policy of the University to excuse absences of students that result from religious observances and to provide for the rescheduling of examinations and additional required classwork that may fall on religious holidays without penalty. It is the responsibility of the student to make alternate arrangements with the instructor at least one week before the actual date of the religious holiday.
Copyright Policy
It is illegal to download, upload, reproduce, or distribute any copyrighted material, in any form and any fashion, without permission from the copyright holder or his/her authorized agent. The University of Oklahoma expects all members of its community to comply fully with federal copyright laws. If such laws appear to have been violated by any user, the university reserves the right (1) to terminate that user’s access to some or all of the university’s computer systems and information resources and (2) to take additional disciplinary actions as deemed necessary or appropriate. Repeat offenders will be sanctioned and their privileges terminated.
Registration and Withdrawal
If you choose to withdraw from this course, you must complete the appropriate University form and turn the form in before the deadline. If you stop attending the course and doing the coursework without doing the required paperwork, your grade will be calculated with missed homework and examination grades entered as zero. This could result in receiving a grade of F in the course. Deadlines are shown in the Academic Calendar, which is available from the Office of the Registrar.
Student Grievances
In addition to any policies outlined related to submitting an informal or formal grievance by your professor in the Course Syllabus in the online classroom, please review the Graduate Student Handbook for more information about the process of submitting a formal grievance.
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|