Dear Student:
If you're reading this letter, it should be because you are enrolled in
English 350-80 (Ethnic American Literature), an online course for the fall
2009 semester. The course itself won't begin until the first week in
September, but I hope you're reading this letter at least a little bit before
that to give you a sense of how the course will work and so that I can fill
you in on what you need to know before we get started.
Textbooks:
This information is available on the syllabus which is on the course website,
but I'm don’t think that site becomes available until the first day
of classes, and I want you to know what the novels are in case you want to
get them in advance. Here they are:
You’ll need to read the first novel by the second week of class.
How is an online course different than a traditional course?
If you haven’t taken an online course before, you may be wondering about the experience. I’ve taught online many times before. My sense is that taking an online course is no easier and no harder than taking a traditional course, but it is different, and it requires some different skills and attitudes.
The advantage of taking a traditional course is that there is (or should be) a lot of spontaneous discussion. If you have questions that you want to ask, the instructor is right there and can give you an immediate response. In many traditional classrooms, the focus is mostly on listening, and you can often just sit there and take everything in.
An online course doesn't give you the opportunity for this kind of spontaneous dialogue, but it gives you a lot more flexibility since you can do the work at a time that's convenient for you--at least within reason. There are still deadlines twice a week, but if you want to do the coursework at two in the morning, you can. And while you do lose some of the back and forth that you'd get in a traditional classroom, what you gain is time to think about other people's comments and to decide on your own. In the best cases, this means people's responses are more thoughtful and more in-depth. In a traditional classroom, participation is sometimes rewarded, but it's usually optional. Some students rarely say anything in class. In this class, however, you can’t just sit back and be silent. You have to actively participate by responding to questions I've posted, and to things that your classmates have written. In fact, there will be two times over the semester when I will assign you to bat ideas back and forth with another classmate and to use the material as the basis for your papers.
Most of the time you'll be asked to write a 300 word response to a question that I post about the reading. That’s not a whole lot of writing--it's about a page if you typed it out, double-spaced. But it does add up pretty quickly. By the end of the semester, you will have done over thirty pages of writing (not including your formal papers) —and that’s more than you would probably do for most classes.
The good news is that most of this writing is unedited and ungraded. As long as you do the minimum amount for each posting and as long as you keep up, posting twice a week before the deadline, you should do fine. More good news is that once you post your thoughts, your writing and your ideas (as well as the writing of your classmates) stays up there on the web site for you to refer back to. This means that when it comes time to write your papers, you aren’t starting from scratch. There is a lot of writing already up there, and you can use it as raw material or even rough drafts for your papers.
So—even though we won’t meet face to face during the semester, this online course is quite different from a correspondence course. That is to say, it’s not a course that you can do over whatever time period you want at whatever pace that you want. It’s not a set of ready-made material and questions for you to answer. Instead, it’s quite interactive—probably more interactive than most traditional courses. It requires you to log on regularly and to participate in a discussion of the material with the other students.
How does the web site work?
This course uses Blackboard as a way of posting information and communicating. If you’ve taken a course (either online or traditional) that’s used Blackboard, you’ll probably be pretty comfortable with the way the course works. There’s a new version of Blackboard this semester, though, so don’t be surprised if the web site looks a little different. If you haven’t used Blackboard, please refer to the Blackboard Web Site at http://bb.wpunj.edu/. There is a lot of information there about how to use the site.
As I write this I'm still working on the web site, putting up the syllabus and other course content. The web site itself will not be available for students to look at until the first week of class--probably Tuesday or Wednesday. So don't be concerned if you go to the blackboard site, but you can't find the link to this class right away. Still, if you haven't taken a class using Blackboard before, you should definitely visit the Blackboard web site just to take a look at the information and the different tutorials.
So—once the Blackboard site is up, you should go to it and take a look around. I’d advise printing out a copy of the syllabus just so that you have it to refer to, even when you’re not around an internet connection. You can reach Blackboard from the University’s home page (I believe it’s available as a “tab” when you log it), or you can access it directly by going to http://bb.wpunj.edu. You’ll need your username and password to log in. Your username is the same ID that you use to get your university email. I’m pretty sure that your password is your 855 number. If you have trouble logging in, please see the “Technology: Breakdowns and Disasters” section below.
How This Course Works
This course requires you to log onto this web site at least twice during the week and to post a writing assignment twice. Assignments are usually due by 9:00 A.M. on Mondays and again by 9:00 A.M. on Thursdays. Most often these assignments will be short responses to discussion questions that will be posted in the Discussion Board section of the web site. A typical week might look like this:
It is very important that you post your responses on time. Failure to do so will significantly affect your grade. If you have trouble posting your assignment, please contact me right away. I suggest that you do not wait until five minutes before the deadline to post your assignments. Give yourself more time in case you have technical problems.
It’s also important that you follow the minimum length guidelines that I give for each assignment. If you post a response that is significantly short of the requirement, you will not get credit. Most of my students do well in this class, getting a grade of B or better. But the students who do not do well often miss several deadlines and post responses that are too short.
Some weeks we may deviate from this process. For example, twice over the semester, I will assign you to work with at least one other person. I'll set up a Group Page, where I'll ask you to write an extended discussion--a "back and forth" exchange on a particular theme or topic that you'll use to build into a paper. The Monday/Thursday deadlines will probably remain the same, though.
Technology: What You Need
If you’ve got an internet connection and a web browser, you’ve got the basics needed for this course. When you post a response to the Discussion Board, you don’t need any other software. But when you post a longer document, like a draft of a paper, you’ll probably use a word processing document. This raises a problem. What if someone else doesn’t have the same word processing software? In this case, they (or I) may have trouble reading your paper.
The best solution to this problem is to use the “Save As” feature of your word processing software. If you’re using MS Word or Word Perfect, you should be able to save your paper as an RTF document (Rich Text Formatting). This format is universal enough that anyone else should be able to read them. If you aren’t sure how to do this, or if you think your software can’t do it, you should speak with a Student Technology Consultant (the maroon vested folks in the computer labs in the Atrium) or contact me.
If you are posting something for me to read, it must be in RTF or Microsoft Word. You cannot use MS Works or Apple Works, as most computers can not read this program.
Technology: Breakdowns and Disasters
Technology is great! Without technology, we wouldn't be able to do this on-line course, and you'd have to come to class twice a week at particular times instead of doing your work at two in the morning in your pajamas (or however you prefer to work)! But technology also can and does fail. There may be times when the web site is down. There may be times when you can't seem to post your writing or read what somebody else has written. In short, there may be times when things don't work. I've been using the "Blackboard" system for seven years now, and it seems to work very well, but that doesn't mean that things can't go wrong, and we both have to be prepared if that happens.
On the Main Blackboard Web Page (http://bb.wpunj.edu) are some answers to some frequently asked questions and solutions to common problems that people have with Blackboard. So if you're having trouble, this is the first page you should look. If the problem persists, you should do the following:
Sometimes I will be able to help you right away. Other times, I won't be able to help, but it's still important for me to know if there is a problem--like if you have a paper due that you won't be able to post through Blackboard. I may ask you to get me the assignment some other way (for instance by e-mail), or I may have to postpone the deadline for the assignment. This doesn't happen often, but it has happened. The important thing to know is that it is your responsibility to contact me to make sure that I know there is a problem. There are many things that we can do to deal with problems before an assignment is due. It is much more difficult to deal with them after the deadline is past.
Your First Assignment:
Your first assignment will be due on Thursday, September 3 by 9:00 A.M. It will be a 300 word response to a question that I've posted on the "Discussion Board" section of the website, but I’ll reprint it below as well. You should also make sure to get and read our first novel, The House on Mango Street. I'll expect you to have finished the novel and to post a response to my discussion question by 9:00 A.M. on Monday, September 7. If that sounds daunting, don't worry too much. It's a pretty short novel. On the other hand, it wouldn't hurt if you got the book ahead of time and got a jump on the reading.
Well, that’s all for now. I’m looking forward to reading your ideas and working with you over the semester. Check the web site as we get closer to the start of the semester and there will be more stuff posted!
Good luck and have fun in the course!
–Chris Weaver
Here’s the Discussion Question for the first assignment:
Some of the novels we'll be looking at are told from different points of view. Some of them jump back and forth in time. Some don't even seem so much like novels as collections of different stories. So, for your first question, I want to ask you about your experiences as readers.
I guess the most typical stories begin at the beginning and go on in a linear order until the end. I think of the fairy tale which begins "Once upon a time . . .” and ends ". . . happily ever after." And mostly we experience such stories from one constant point of view--either a character's or the narrator's. Is that your typical experience as a reader? Have you read books that differ from this technique? Can you give some examples of either or both?
I'm not just asking here about "Literature" with a capital "L." It's fine if you want to talk about books you've read in English class. But I'm equally interested in people's experiences with leisure reading. Tell me about William Faulkner if you'd like, but also feel free to write about Harry Potter.
If you'd like, you can also throw in some thoughts about movies--about the way that a film tells a story. I mention this because it seems to me that filmmakers are increasingly telling stories in ways other than the straight-linear-single point of view narrative. I think, for example, of Pulp Fiction and also of a more recent movie, Vantage Point. I wonder, do movie audiences accept non-linear storytelling with less trouble than readers? If you have thoughts on that, please feel free to add them. I'm certainly interested in whether or not you like one narrative technique more than the other--if there were particular occasions when a non-traditional technique intrigued you--or irritated you.
Well, that should be enough to get you thinking and writing. A few things to remember:
1. Please remember that your response must be at least 300 words. (Hopefully, I've given you enough to work with that this won't be a problem!)
2. Please remember that your response must be posted by 9:00 A.M. on Thursday, September 3.
3. Please remember to have fun. These discussion questions aren't graded. I hope you treat them thoughtfully, but the idea is to throw out your ideas and join the discussion. There will be time enough later in the semester for editing and revising.