Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Hi all! I've been reading over your posts on the discussion board and think you are all doing a great job! By the way, I will read EVERY SINGLE post on the board this summer, in case you were wondering.

Here are a few things to keep in mind while you are completing your Week 1 assignments:

1. Email confirmation? I have heard back from 15 of you in response to my email confirmation, but there are 24 of you currently enrolled. For those of you who have not yet responded, you have until Friday at 11:00 p.m. to respond to my email. It's very important that I know I can reach you through email!

2. Responding to posts: Don't forget to respond to posts with 0 or 1 response first--we like to spread the love in this class!

3. Names! Please begin each of your responses by addressing the person by their first name (e.g. "Hi, Jessica!")--it's part of discussion board courtesy! Be certain to check on the "I like to be called...." discussion forum to make sure you are using the correct name!

4. Substantive responses: Many of the assignments this semester require that you respond to your peers with a "substantive response." So far, most of you are doing a GREAT job with this and have obviously put a lot of time and effort into responding to your peers! There are a few responses, however, that are not substantive (i.e. they do not bring something new to the conversation) and just one or two that do not meet the length requirement for responses. For help with this, check out this site on what constitutes a good or bad response and please email me if you are still not sure! Nobody wants to lose points for something as simple as a response!

5. Declaring your work? Once you have completed each of the assignments and met all of the criteria, you can then declare your work. What exactly does this mean? When you declare your work, you are agreeing that you have met all of the requirements of the assignment. Once you have agreed to this (by completing the "quiz" on D2L that corresponds to your assignment), the computer will award you with the points you declared (check it out by going to the Grades link in D2L).

Here's the thing: if you don't declare your work, you don't get credit for it. Declaring is equivalent to turning in your assignment to your instructor in a face to face course--if you don't turn it in, you don't get a grade for it. Remember: you have agreed to operate under the Honor Code in this class. That means that if you falsely declare work that you have not completed, you are guilty of academic misconduct.

Ok, I promise that my daily announcements won't always be this long! I just want to make sure that we are all on the same page! As always, I'm here if you have questions!

Heather