Congratulations on surviving your first week online. It'll get better and
easier all the time.

For those of you posting on WebCT, don't forget to read responses on the
discussion board and in your journals (I haven't possted any of those yet). If
you can't see where the responses are, but you see little blue triangles
pointing to the right, next to some of your messages on the list, click on the
little blue triangle and down will drop the hidden replies.

Also if you post something and the don't see it appear on the list, don't
panic. Just look for the "update listing" button to the upper right of the
list and your message should magically appear.

Just wanted to add a little sense of pwer and magic to your second week. :-)
Let me know if you hare having problems with anything. If we can't work it out
with an email or a phone call, I can arrange a meeting with you on campus to
have some extra instruction on the computer. I'm glad to do it. I've already
met with a couple of students last Saturday.

Don't worry. Be happy... You're on a great adventure* and I'm your guide.
(*=see quote below signature)

Judith Weinstein
instructor for ECE180 online
judetheteach@attbi.com
(312) 301-8790 cell/voice mail
----------
"...An adventure is only an
inconvenience, rightly considered.
Adventure is never convenient.
And everything is an adventure,
if you take the right perspective.

So everything is inconvenient?...

Oh yes. That's exactly it! Life
is terribly inconvenient,
which makes it quite entertaining."

from There and Back Again by Pat
Murphy

More clarification for the first week assignments

Okay, let's see if I can make this simpler.

The first week all you have due is to read chapter 1, take the ch 1 quiz online, and to introduce yourself on the discussion board.

After this week, you will have more due. Each week you will be reading one or two chapters, taking the quizzes, doing an assignment alternative and writing it up in your private online journal, and participating in the weekly online discussion.

The two weeks that are exceptions to this norm are the weeks your observation reports are due. On those weeks, you will have no other reading or work to do.

You can get a quick look at the calendar of due dates and at the weekly assignment choices without even having to figure out how to use WebCT. You can go to the backup website and click on the links for the calendar and the weekly assignment choices. Here is the web address for the backup website: http://servercc.oakton.edu/~teach/ECE180online.html

I hope you won't have problems with this. This is the easy part, although I admit it can be kind of confusing at first. Just go to the site and click on the links at the bottom of the page, and read the instructions for each thing.

For those of you confused about your WebCT login, your username is you first initial and the first (up to) seven letters of your last name and the last four numbers of your Oakton ID. If your name was John Smithfield and your ID# was B1234567, your username would be jsmithfi4567. Your password is you birthdate all in two digit numbers (mmddyy). If you were born today your password would be 011303 (for Jan 13 2003). Still confused? Send me your birthdate (including the year) and I'll send you back your specific username and password. I already have your Oakton ID#s, but not your birthdates.

Let me know if you still can't figure it out. On Thursday at the orientation, we will be going over WebCT (which is more complicated) and I will also show you the backup website and go over the course requirements. Make sure you are there!

ECE 180 first day problems and solutions

Several of you have contacted me about one problem or another. Let me assure you that a lot of this will become clear at our orientation meeting on Thursday. Please plan on attending, because it will definitely help you begin the semester smoothly.

In the meantime, you can get started right away, even if you are having trouble logging on to WebCT or finding things there. There is a backup website that is easy to use and has all the info you need to get started. The website is at http://servercc.oakton.edu/~teach

Click on the link to the "backup website" and there you go. You should check out the weekly assignment choices and calendar of due dates links to get started. That will tell you what is due when. You can also take your first quiz by clicking on the quizzes link.

All of this info is also available on WebCT, and that is where the real discussion board is located. We will go over all of this on Thursday, but all you have due this week is to read Ch 1, take Ch 1 quiz, and introduce yourself on the week 1 discussion. I know the letter said the due date is Sunday, and the calendar says Saturday, but believe me, I'm not going to quibble about due
dates on the first week. In the coming weeks, you will have more due each week than the first week, but we will discuss that on Thursday.

Just to add to the general atmosphere of difficulties and confusions, I have been having a problem with my judithw@attbi.com email address. It's been getting spammed with annoying frequency. I set up a new email address for our class use at judetheteach@attbi.com so please use that one instead. If you use the other one, it won't get lost, but it will be forwarded and sifted through spamguard on another provider. Use the judetheteach address whenever possible.

I'm looking forward to meeting all of you on Thursday at 6:00 sharp in the library lab at DesPlaines campus. You have to enter the library on the first floor and then take the library elevator or stairs up to the lab. You cannot get into it from the second floor outside the library. Ask a librarian if you get confused.

In the meantime feel free to call or email me with your questions, confusions or frustrations. My info is below. Also read the quote below to gain a different perspective on those confusions, etc.

Judith Weinstein
instructor for ECE180 online
judetheteach@attbi.com
(312) 301-8790 cell/voice mail
----------
"...An adventure is only an inconvenience, rightly considered. Adventure is never convenient. And everything is an adventure,
if you take the right perspective.

So everything is inconvenient?...

Oh yes. That's exactly it! Life is terribly inconvenient, which makes it quite entertaining."

from There and Back Again by Pat Murphy

Welcome, ECE 180 online students.

Congratulations on reading instructions well enough to send me your email addresses. There should be about 8 more students joining the list when they send me theirs. I have loaded all of you into WebCT today. Try logging on WebCT and see if you get in okay to the site.
http://online.oakton.edu:8900/webct/public/home.pl

If for some reason you can't, I have set up an alternate (non-WebCT) site at
http://servercc.oakton.edu/~teach
Click on the link that says "backup website" at the bottom of the page. Use that if WebCT isn't working for you, and let me know if there is a problem. We officially start tomorrow, so you can get started when you're ready.

Your WebCT login ID is your first initial and the first (up to) seven letters of your last name and the last four numbers of your ID# (that ID looks something like this B1234567). Your password is your birthday (mmddyy) which would be 011203 if you were born today.

I hope to see all of you at the orientation on Thursday night. Please make every effort to be there. It's important and will help you get started well on WebCT.

More info will be coming your way, so make sure you check your email every day.

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