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Orientation for
Composition and Rhetoric II - ENGL 1302 Greetings, and welcome to Online 1302. One place to start for those of you totally new to this system might be the Orientation "Tutorials and Tool Tips" having to do with our course delivery system, available by going to the internet address below. Many of you have, perhaps, used the system already, and have familiarity with it. If not, I've found that the only way to really absorb it is to use if for a few days--so don't worry about a learning curve at the start of the course). Frankly, the orientation that used to be available was a little more helpful than the wone you'll find here:
At any rate, after having looked around the Vista orientation, it might be a good idea to print this page you're looking at now to keep it handy, then follow the steps to complete the rest of the orientation for this particular course. In fact, if you ever have questions about the course, this page might well be the first place to look for answers. Special for the Summer of 2009 Understand up front that summer classes are not really shorter and definitely not easier than their sixteen week counterparts. The main difference is that material covered each week is similar to that covered in three weeks in a "normal" section. Policies like testing and week by week discussions are still in place, and must be that way in order to insure the integrity of your credit hours. (Make sure they transfer, that is.) Keeping up is vital in this sort of situation, so take the due dates seriously for assignments and don't expect the instructor to accept late work save under the direst of circumstances If you do not have time to devote to this course then please take it under different circumstances and save money and time in the long run.
Familiarity with Vista doesn't really orient you for this particular course, so let's look into some of the things we'll do this semester. Go back to the Homepage by clicking "Home" towards the top of your screen (in what Vista calls the "breadcrumbs") or clicking on "Course Content" in the list under "Course Tools" on the left side of the screen. Now we can really get started.
Let me repeat that: You cannot pass this section without downloading, reading, and being quizzed over the content pages, and the works in our text. Those who don't bother to do these things, I will not bother to pass. Always each weekly module will have, in addition to parts which have to be read, a page at the beginning outlining goals for the week, a page reviewing assignments for the week, and then indented links which will lead you to those assignments. You can see how this is working for Week One now if you'd like. Notice, as in the picture below, these modules are arranged with content listed in a table of contents on the left of the screen, the content itself on the right. In this case, we see there is a "Goals" page, three pages of content (2-4), and then a page explaining the assignment with those assignments indented beneath it: a discussion question and a journal. (That table appears slightly different in summer sections--there are more pages to read each week, basically--but the idea is the same.)
Believe it or not, in practice this is much easier to do than it is to explain, as we'll see. Exactly how to deal with things like Discussions, journals and essays we'll uncover as we go along, but here are a few features to think about in the meantime:
Vista comes with its own dedicated email system to assist us all in communicating with one another. Send me a e-mail through Vista so I'll know you're working on this orientation. Use "ENGL 1302 Orientation" for the subject line. You can do this by clicking on "Compose New Message," then "Browse" next to the "Send to" field. Choose "Cliff Hudder" and you'll be directing your email my way. I prefer that you use the Discussion section, not e-mail, to ask questions about the course. (See below.) Include an "off-site" email address so that I can contact you should there be problems with the Vista delivery system. Believe it or not, this sometimes happens. Try only to use e-mail for direct messages to me that can't be answered otherwise. If you ask questions about the course in an e-mail, I'll refer you to the Discussion section. It's not that I'm a mean person--or not just that--but there might also be others with the same question, and they could all get the benefit of your answer. Notice as well that when composing a message, you can hit "Browse" in the "To" field, and send messages to any or all of your colleagues in this section. This could come in handy as we go along. NOTE: Although general questions should be sent out over the "Discussion"
tool, if you really do have something you want to ask me, always use
the E-mail system. I check my email almost hourly during the semester
. . . or it feels that way, anyhow. I check the "Discussion"
tool . . . every now and then. It's my policy to try to return
all email communications within one working day but make sure
you sent me the message via the class E-mail.
QUESTIONS ABOUT COURSE FILE: As mentioned before,
in this file you can ask COMMONS FILE: In this file you can have "discussions" unrelated to the course content or assignments. Here you can get to know one another, socialize, announce garage sales . . . hey, we're connected, why not utilize the space? This might be a good place in the orientation to encourage thoughtful and appropriate postings whenever you "speak" with your colleagues on WebCT in this class. I've prepared an overview of Netiquette here which might be helpful. My best advice is to refrain from writing anything using these communication tools that you wouldn't speak out loud on a college campus . . . and have recorded electronically with your name attached. WebCT exists on our system server, and is considered campus property. We'll be using the Assignments function of Vista to send in the exploratory drafts and final versions of the three essays we'll write over the course of the next sixteen weeks. There will always be a chance to re-write these at least once (and sometimes more) before obtaining a final grade. This is all part of my philosophy: "Re-writing is writing." I'll also get your journal assignments this way. The assignments tool lets me know the date and time assignments come in and, even better, let's you know that they've been received. Let's look into these assignments a bit more closely. 3 Essays: These must be finished in a draft and a polished form to receive credit, and fall under the "required" section of the course. Don't skip an essay thinking you can just take a lower grade in the section, as the results will be catastrophic. You can find more detailed info about these in the week one content area. JUST TO MAKE SURE IT'S UNDERSTOOD: All of these essays must all be attempted and final drafts must have a rough draft as well, or you will not qualify to pass this section. Journal entries: These can be much more informal than the essays, but are also required. Most explore areas which you might want to later expand upon for one of your three essays. Your instructor tends to give a lot less feedback to these entries compared with the major drafts above, and it also tends to take him a while to get around to reading them all. They should be considered similar to what your "face to face" teachers often require when they ask you to keep a journal. If you want to get a quick message or question to your instructor, (like "Would this make a good topic for the first essay?") the journal entry is definitely not the place to do it--send him an email.
A VERY IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THIS COURSE: If you look on the syllabus, you'll see that there are two exams which have to be taken "in-class."-- THE FINAL. These are the only exceptions to the "not having to show up at any particular place at any particular time" aspect of the course. These "in-class" writing assignments for the course will be given on computers and be available at all Lone Star Testing Centers throughout week six. Many other locations can be arranged by students so long as they are proctored. (I just had a student complete a similar course from Chile.) There is no other way to insure that those who say they're taking the course actually are, so you should consider that it is this exam which guarantee the integrity of your three credit hours.
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First,
click the Syllabus icon. Be sure to read and print the syllabus
for the course, too, so you've got a copy to carry around with you wherever
you go. If there's one good thing about an online class, it's that I
never have to hear: "Mr Hudder, can you give me another syllabus?"
Read the syllabus carefully and pay special attention to requirements
for passing, withdrawal, and academic integrity sections. There's also
a timeline for our readings and assignments. Then, return to the homepage
to . . .
.
. . click on Course Content. This is where to get to the online
readings associated with this course, as well as all the assignments.
Here you will find fascinating content pages (no, really) that are more or less substituting
for my lectures in a face-to-face classroom. 1302 is a writing course,
but as it deals with literature, there's also quite a bit of content
to master. Content Modules will be arranged by week, starting with week
one. Notice that you can't get to all of this material until
the assigned week. Online English 1302 is not a correspondence course,
but a course which meets on the Internet. Keeping up with weekly
assignments, journals and Discussion topics will be necessary to pass
this section.
Look to the
left of the screen, and click on the E-mail icon. You might have
to "expand" those blue buttons on the left to most easily
see it.
Now, about that Discussion
thing. The assignment for Week One will actually send you to this tool
to introduce yourself to fellow classmates, but you can always get to
it through the course tools, too. Notice that it's got two special files.
questions
about assignments. This I set up once I realized that students are able
to answer each other's questions better sometimes than I can myself.
Okay, really they're always able to explain things better,
especially those really computer savvy folks. By posting your questions
here, you'll help other students who are unwilling to ask the same question.
Please don't post any personal information or material unrelated to
the course in this file. Those can go in the . . . 
Click on
the Library icon to get to Montgomery Library's home
page. The library has a lot of resources available to us online, not
to mention a really helpful staff. I'll be directing you to specific
library features as we get deeper into the semester.