First Week Update for Fall 02

Now that we are well into the first week, I thought I would give you an update. For some of you this will be review and for some it may be new.

You have your first deadline coming up.
Sat August 31 Ch 1 quiz, and week 1 discussion are due. There is no assignment journal this week.

Coming up next week, a couple of dates to remember:
Mon September 2 Week 2, Ch 2 -- (OCC buildings closed on Memorial Day)
Wed September 4 Office hours 9-10pm in ECE180 Chatroom on WebCT. Drop by!
Sat September 7 Ch 2 quiz, week 2 discussion and assignment journal entry due by midnight.

All of this information is from the calendar. I will not keep reminding you about due dates. I want you to follow the calendar yourselves.

If you haven't yet done so, you should read the syllabus, the calendar, the weekly assignment choices, and the instructions for the 2 program observations. It's best to be familiar with all aspects of what is due at the beginning of the semester so you can plan your time well.

I have opened the first 2 weeks' discussions on the discussion board. The first week is just an introduction which is ungraded. You can introduce yourself and also reply to another student if you'd like to. Please get in the habit of reading the discussions and responding to each other. Some of the posts might be in response to you! Starting with week 2, you will be required to answer my discussion questions and to make a separate post replying to at least one other student's post.

I have also put your private journals on the discussion board. That is where you will write your weekly assignment journal entries, and also where I will write your feedback and point scores. DO NOT EMAIL YOUR JOURNAL RESPONSES TO ME. Your private journal is locked except for you and the instructor. No one else has access to your journal or my feedback to you.

Don't forget when you take the online quizzes to put in your name and email and my email address correctly so you can get credit for your work. You can also print out the results BEFORE you email it to me. That way you have a backup copy.

Always keep a backup copy of everything you send me. It is your responsibility and for your own protection. I can't stress that often enough. The one time you don't will be the time the server goes down and eats your work... You are responsible for redoing any work that is lost if you don't have a backup copy.

There is one other thing I would appreciate you doing if you haven't already. I need you to fill out the online survey. Only 8 people have filled it out so far, and we have 21 people enrolled. The instructions for the survey can be found in one of the previous posts below.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Keep in touch!

Online Orientation

Here is an online orientation by streaming video for those of you who might have missed this. It talks about support services available to OCC students and how to succeed in an online course. If the link above doesn't work, here's the web address:

http://www.oakton.edu/online/orientation2.htm

Logging on to WebCT and the Backup Website

Your user name and password for WebCT are the same as you would use for computer access on campus. Your username is the first four letters of your last name and the last four numbers of your ss# and your password is your whole ss# (no spaces, no hyphens).

You cannot log on to WebCT until your name and social security number have been added to the access list by the Instructional Technology Dept (also known as IT). This happens the week before classes start, if you have registered early. If you have just registered, it may take a couple of days to get added to WebCT access.

Because of this and because the registration computer occasionally "machine drops" a registered student from computer access if your tuition check hasn't cleared by the computer's deadline, I have set up a "backup" website which is not limited access. From that website, you can access the quizzes and look up assignments, but you cannot do the weekly discussions, because those are on WebCT only, and are limited access. I have set this up for all of our convenience, and during last semester there were a few students who needed to use it for a few days while their access to WebCT was straightened out. Also there was a time or two when the WebCT server was down for a short time.

Speaking of backups, don't forget to always save a copy of your work and email yourself a copy of your quizzes. It is your responsibility to have a backup in case somthing goes wrong. If you don't have a copy, you will have to do whatever was lost over again. Murphy's Law applies to online classes moreso than to on-campus classes, because of the occasional psychotic episodes that computers have. If you haven't experienced on yet, don't be caught unprepared.

Online Quizzes and the Honor System

A question has come up about taking a quiz more than once
to get a higher score. I would appreciate if students
only took the quizzes once and then emailed the results
to me as is. Missing a question or two will not make a
big difference, since each question on a quiz is only
worth a half point (1/2) out of 650 possible points for
the final grade. I am depending on an honor system here.
I wouldn't like to have to use proctored exams, and get
into all the hassle that would entail scheduling-wise for
online students.

Thanks for your understanding about this issue. It's much
better to be honest than to be perfect.

Judith
--
instructor for ECE180 online
judithw@attbi.com
(312) 301-8790 cell/voice mail

Important Info for AOL Users

From past experience, I have to warn you that some students
had a lot of trouble with using AOL for online classes.
It throws you offline frequently, and if you're in the
middle of posting something, you can lose your work.

Also, if you're using it to email me a long assignment,
sometimes AOL only sends part of it, if it considers the
file too long. Make sure you keep backups of
EVERYTHING! Some people also choose to set up a free
email address at hotmail.com or yahoo.com to bypass this AOL email problem.

Check the letter that was sent out to you and make sure
your version of AOL is updated enough to be compatible
with the new WebCT requirements.

You'll receive other info from me at the Orientation
meeting. Be sure to come or contact me for info if you cannot attend the orientation meeting.

Judith Weinstein
Instructor for ECE 180 Online
judithw@attbi.com
(312) 301-8790 cell/voice mail

New Student Survey Instructions

Welcome Online Students!

There is an online survey I'd like you to fill out for
me. This is just to get some info about the type of
students who sign up for the course. It will not
identify you by name. The instructions follow below.
(If you already filled out the survey, ignore this.)

Please contact me if you have any problems with this.

Judith Weinstein
online instructor for ECE 180
judithw@attbi.com
(312) 301-8790
----------------------
Instructions for FAST online assessment

Go to the following website.
http://www.getfast.ca/index.cfm#

Scroll down to the student access button at the bottom
of the webpage, and click on it.

Use the "Select by instructor name" drop down menu.
Choose "Weinstein, Judith: Oakton Community College" and
click on the continue button.

On the next webpage that pops up, click on ECE 180 link.
This will take you to the password screen. Type in
the password "occ", and then click on the "Enter the ECE
180 online course assessment" button.

This will take you to the instructions for the survey.
Scroll down to the survey questions and answer them.

At end of questions, click on the "send your assessment"
button. You're done!

I am starting this journal to archive my thoughts and responses to issues (and to students) that arise in teaching the course called the Exceptional Child (ECE 180) at Oakton Community College. If you want to learn a little more about the course, visit the Preview of ECE 180 Online.

Hmmmm. This should be interesting.