Beginning of the fall semester -- Latest Messages are at the top

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 04:00:53 08/15/99 Sun
Author: Ken Long
Subject: Beginning of the fall semester

Sunday, August 15, 6:00 A.M.

Hello to everyone and welcome back for the fall semester. I am looking forward to many of the new additions to my Web courses. The new and expanded tutorials, online practice tests, and using the computer for giving real tests for the first time should be interesting. I have related my summer semester experiences below and will keep everyone posted as to my progress.

Kaya, in regards to your message, how do you plan on using the Internet for your new course? I only meet my students once at the beginning of the semester. The IDL Department hosts a Saturday when all IDL students come to meet their professors and to learn about the courses and how IDL works. One thing that has really helped me is to get an email address from every student. I then group them in my address book and send out messages during the semester on a regular basis. A good portion of my students communicate with me via email throughtout the semester.

I am always looking for ways to expand my Web offerings, to make my Web site more interesting, and to facilitate the use of this media. I am also spending time developing non-Web components to my courses. For example, the school made a video of my Eco 202 lectures in the spring semester, so now all my eco 201 and 202 students receive a video of my lectures when they pick up their course materials. I just purchased a new cassette tape recorder so I can start making new cassette tapes of my lectures. I have been doing this for years and they have proven go be very popular with my students.
If you can finish the tutorial questions and answers, building upon what I provided you at the beginning of the project, we can rap up this part of the project. The second part is for everyone to have a fully functional Web site for the Eco 202 course.
Yes, I am using McEachern and I am not familiar with the Schiller text. I originally adopted the McEachern text because it has a lot of Web support, but now almost all textbooks have a lot of Web support. The online testing program that comes with the text has most of the features I was looking for in a testing program. Multiple versions can be made available, the tests are timed, test scores can be retrieved from a central source, and I have a choice of offering the tests from the school's server and/or on the Internet. I have found a Web site (see below) that will generate random passwords. This is better than using any system that utilizes student's social security numbers.

I know of at least one school that has cut back on its Web offerings this semester because the administration is concerned that the failure and drop out rate is so much more than traditional courses. Starting with the summer semester I am going to keep track of certain statistics and compare them with my non Web sections and with the school in general. If these Web courses are going to be supported, we, the faculty that are excited about this method of teaching, will be required to make it as successful for students as traditional teaching modes.

Well, keep us posted as to your experiences. The whole point to this forum is for all of us to learn and share with one another. I am looking forward to learning more from everyone as the semester progresses.

Stay in touch, bye for now, Ken

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]