name: Joe Rasnake

title: Orientation Step 5 Checking DVDs

Task: `q000: Verify that you have your disks.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

:

I have both disks (Part A and Part B) for this course.

Checking disks:

Task: `q001. This is for Mth 158 students only.

Disks for your course should have been packaged with your textbook. You should follow the instructions given by the publishers to run your disks.

Please verify below that your disks work and that you have been able to access the material. If not, briefly describe the problem.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

:

N/A

#$&*

Student other than Mth 158 students do as follows:

Task: `q001a. This applies to all courses except Mth 158, which uses publisher disks rather than disks produced by the instructor.

Class notes, in lecture format with video clips, are distributed on the disks you purchased in the bookstore.

If you do not have your disks yet you will have to skip this instruction for now, and you will need to return to this exercise when you receive them. If that is the case you may close this assignment after first entering in the response area below a statement that you do not yet have the disks.

Otherwise run one of the disks for your course

1. Insert the disk you have selected into your drive. Open Windows Explorer and run the HTML file in the root folder (simply locate the file and double-click on it). That file will have a name like disk_1.htm or disk_2.htm, and will be one of very few files in the root folder, so you should be able to locate it easily enough.

The information on your disk was originally assembled for CD's, and your disk consists of a compilation of a number of CD's. The HTML file in the root folder will give you a list of the CDs collected on your disk.

2. When you run the HTML file you will either get a menu of Class Notes or a series of direct links to video clips.

If you get a menu of Class Notes, click on one of the links (#3 would be a good choice but any will do). Otherwise go to the instruction #4.

You will see a page containing notes. If you scroll down the page you will see links to video clips embedded within the notes.

Click on several of these links to see how they work.

4. If you got a series of direct links, click on one of them in order to see how they work. Click on several more so you will be familiar with the format of these video clips.

Describe what you did and what you saw.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

:

I opened the CDs and watched the Calculus Week 1 Video Clip 01 on flow.

#$&* (Note that your response was to go into 'the next line'; your response will therefore be inserted before this line, not after. This is obvious when you're looking at the form, but if you've copied the form into a text editor it might be less obvious. Hence this note.)

For students in all courses other than Mth 158:

Task: `q002. See root folder file and information for a listing of the contents of each disk. You don't need to understand what you're seeing at this point; that will become clear when you begin your content assignments for the course.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

(insert your response beginning in the next line):

Both CDs have folders labeled diskX, where X is a number.

#$&* (Note that your response was to go into 'the next line'; your response will therefore be inserted before this line, not after. This is obvious when you're looking at the form, but if you've copied the form into a text editor it might be less obvious. Hence this note.)

Task: `q003.

Check the rest of your disks.

Each disk should be accessed by browsing to the disk and running the file whose name most closely matches the name of the disk, or the HTML file in the root folder of the DVD. Insert each disk in turn into your drive, browse to the appropriate file, and run it.

If all your disks work, indicate that they do. If you have trouble with any of them, or with these instructions, describe your problems in detail.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

:

Both disks seem to work and are valid.

&#Good responses. Let me know if you have questions. &#

name: Joe Rasnake

title: Orientation Part V: How to Succeed

Task: `q001.

If you were in a course that meets in a classroom you would be attending regularly. In an asychronous distance course, while you have the course materials and access to a great deal of instruction, you do not have the benefit of regular meetings, and it can be difficult to find the time to work on the course.

You cannot allow this course to become something you need to 'find time' to do. You need to schedule a regular time to work on this course, and you need to schedule a sufficient number of hours to do this work.

Here's the arithmetic of being a college student:

The generally accepted standard is that at the minimum, it's a full-time job to be a full-time student.

A full-time job for 16 weeks translates to a total of 640 hours, over the course of a semester, devoted to a 15-credit courseload.

Approximately 240-300 of them in class and/or lab and the remainder devoted to preparation and study outside the classroom.

This comes to something over 40 hours per credit-hour. That's 120 hours for a 3-credit class, 160 hours for a 4-credit class and 200 hours for a 5-credit class, spread over 16 weeks.

There is of course a wide degree of variation in the time actually required of an individual student:

Some courses require less time than others.

Students vary in the knowledge they bring from prerequisite courses.

Students learn at varying paces, some more quickly and others more slowly.

Study habits and efficiency of time use vary widely among students.

So not everyone requires all those hours, but some will require more.

You should begin this course with the assumption that you will require about the number of hours specified above.

Though there are exceptions both ways, most people manage to establish a regular schedule are successful in these courses, and most people who fail to establish a regular schedule are not successful.

Please explain in your own words why it is important to establish a schedule for this course, and to put aside the required number of hours.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

:

I feel that your online courses are not very user friendly. Although you have a lot of good content on your webpages and CDs, I feel your user interface design can cause head aches for students. I have taken several online classes over my college career and feel that in this one there is a learning curve that could be avoided by either using the Blackboard interface or redesigning your websites to use CSS, Bread Crumb navigation and less frames. Also, I feel that sometimes there could be confusion because your site has content from all of your other courses that you teach. Without putting a lots of time in to this course, students could get overwhelmed. Students must learn not only the course materials but also learn to navigate your sites.

#$&*

There is a bit of a learning curve at the beginning. However the overall result is a big increase in efficiency. Once you become accustomed to the system, you will know what to expect, and what to ignore. You will also likely find it much more efficient than Blackboard, and it provides far more student feedback than anything Blackboard supports.

For example right now I have about 200 documents with at least 2000 questions to review. The system I use allows me to accomplish this every day, and provide a great deal of feedback to students. Blackboard is far too slow and cumbersome to allow anyone to handle this sort of volume. Were I to use Blackboard, it would cut my interaction with my students by a factor of three.

The tradeoff is a bit of a learning curve at the beginning (which most students handle quite well), then a system that is efficient for everyone.

I'll also mention that while Blackbaord will, my stuff won't be down from 10 p.m. Friday through 10 p.m. Saturday, a critical time for students in their first week of a short summer session. I have control over my server, and it hasn't been down 10 minutes in the last year (knock on wood on that one; just changed the server over last week and right now parts of it are a little more vulnerable than before to an extended power outtage).

I'll be interested to see what you think in a couple of weeks (of course you're welcome to also share comments in the meantime).

Task: `q002.

Write your work out on paper.

Don't try to do multi-step problems on your computer keyboard.

It's quicker to write them out then transcribe your work on the keyboard, and the act of writing things down has a number of advantages.

Writing things on paper allows you to organize your thoughts, to make multiple representations of the situation, and to save your work for reference.

Writing, sketching, doodling, etc. also tend to reinforce the learning process.

Use sketches:

Make sketches to represent the things you are thinking about and try to organize your thoughts as you proceed.

Take notes:

You should always make notes as you work. Taking notes reinforces the learning process and provides you with a reference for the future.

In some exercises a single complex problem or situation will be broken down into a series of questions. In such cases it will be necessary for you to maintain the thread of the problem. Maintaining at least brief notes will allow you to do so.

Please respond with a statement detailing your understanding of the advice given above.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

(insert your response beginning in the next line):

I agree with part of your advice. I feel it is better to write out notes while reading in the textbook or your class notes and watching the videos. I actually preffer to work out my equations in a text editor (notepad++) instead of writing them out. I think this allows me to look and evaluate the problem and easily correct my logic if needed. I would agree that to work an equation this way, you may need to add more comments in order for you to follow my logic.

#$&*

Task: `q003.

On anything you send the instructor, including but not limited to q_a_ assignments, queries and tests, sufficient documentation is required to allow the instructor to follow your thinking and the details of your solution.

An example of good documentation to the question 'How long will it take to make $400 at $10 per hour?':

'At $10 / hour it will take $400 / ($10 / hour) = 40 hours to make $400.'

A poor answer to the same question:

'4000'

This is a poor answer first because it's undocumented, second because it's wrong, and third it can contribute to a habit of poor documentation, which will nearly always cost you points on your tests.

It would be fairly easy for the instructor to figure out where the 4000 came from--most likely you multiplied when you should have divided, though you may have just been really careless with your 0's--so it might be possible to help you see what you did wrong here. However this is usually not the case with undocumented answers on more complicated problems.

The more usual case is that your instructor has no clue about what you did wrong and no reasonable way to 'reverse-engineer' your solution and address your error.

On a test the bad thing about such an answer is that even if you thought correctly through several steps and made only one minor error in your arithmetic, you didn't document the process and there would be no way to give you any partial credit.

Note also that if a question can be answered with 'true' or 'false' it doesn't matter whether you put down the right answer or not, if all you put down is 'true' or 'false' it is impossible to tell whether you got the answer by a correct process or by a coin flip, and in this course credit is not give for coin flips.

As another example, if a test problem asks for the graph of an expression it is not sufficient to copy the output of your graphing calculator; unless the problem specifically tells you to use the graphing calculator you must document how the characteristics of the graph result from the given expression. Document your answers, show the instructor that you know why the answer is what it is, or you risk getting no credit for the question.

Explain why it's important for you to document your work.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

:

I agree with you. It is important for students to document their work. If student's document their work, it will allow them to double check their logic and will also allow you to follow along.

#$&*

Task: `q004.

To repeat something that will be especially important on tests:

You cannot assert one of a limited number of answers and expect to receive credit (e.g., by choosing 'true' on a question to which the answer is 'true' or 'false').

You must fully justify any answer, and especially answers for which a limited number of choices is possible.

This means that you need to explain your thinking and show the steps of your solution.

Please explain what it means to justify an answer on a test, and why this is important:

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

:

As you stated earlier, if we only answered a question with true or false then you would have no way of knowing where we came up with that answer. It is important to justify an answer inorder to show what we have learned. Even if we answer a question incorrectly, if we justify our answers we may receive partial credit for it.

#$&*

Task: `q004.

Don't waste your time misrepresenting what you know.

Some students copy the homework of other students or receive inappropriate help on homework.

Some students go through a q_a_ or query program and look at the answers, then essentially copy the answers on the next run.

The instructor notices this pattern but doesn't penalize it, and some students get the 10% or 15% of their grade that's based on homework and daily assignments in this manner. However students who use this strategy tend not to learn the material well and almost never succeed on the tests that make up the vast majority of their grade.

Please state these ideas in your own words.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

:

Students should always do their own work. Doing so prepares them for future quizes and tests which is a big part of their overall grade for the course.

#$&*

Task: `q005.

Also it isn't strictly necessary to do all the homework and daily assignments, since test (and for physics students lab) grades are the dominant factors in your final grade. Some students do indeed succeed without submitting much work other than tests (and for physics courses labs).

However, while this is possible, it is strongly recommended that you DO NOT expect to be able to prepare for tests (and, where applicable, labs) without submitting the assignments.

For most students it is simply necessary to go through the process and learn the material by submitting the assignments and getting instructor feedback.

Please state this in your own words.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

:

In theory, students do not have to submit all homework and the daily assignments to pass this course. I feel that without doing will cause students to be unprepaired and will perform poorly on quizes and tests.

#$&*

Task: `q006.

When documenting test items you need to use the methods appropriate to your course.

Just because you can get the right answer in one way or another does not mean that you are using a procedure on which you can build further understanding.

It's not a matter of 'my way' vs. 'your way'. The structure of the subject dictates the things you need to understand.

If you are taking a test on material which requires you to write and solve equations, for example, then using trial and error to arrive at even a correct solution is not valid and would not receive credit.

State this policy in your own words.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

:

When a student takes a test, you are looking for not only the correct answer but also the correct logic and procedure that was used in finding the correct solution.

#$&*

Task: `q007. It is also not valid to justify a solution by copying a picture or a solution from a calculator (unless of course the problem specifies that the calculator is to be used in this manner).

It is fine to use a calculator to do your arithmetic, but you must, for example, show the steps in solving an equation.

If the solution of a problem includes a graph you must explain the behavior of that graph rather than just copying calculator output.

The key is that while a calculator can be very useful, operations like entering a function or an equation and copying output from a calculator is not a college-level skill.

If the process is part of the course, you have to show the steps of the process.

State this policy in your own words.

your response &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

:

A calculator is a tool to help students arrive to the correct solution. When using a calculator students must always show thier work fully to prove that they understand how they solved the equation.

#$&*

I appreciate your comments and invite more. The interface is 10+ years old and could certainly stand redesign. However Blackboard isn't the answer, professional web designers aren't the answer (witness the results on the VHCC website, where a prospective new student is unlikely ever to find a schedule of classes or the college calendar, both buried at least two levels deep), nor would the effort justify the time away from interacting with students.

In any case see my response, following your response to the first question.