Expectations for Online Courses

During this semester, you have the opportunity to take this class either in a traditional classroom environment or in an online environment. Please consider your choice carefully. An online course is not an easier version of a traditional course.

The assignments and requirements are the same for either course, but taking the course online will present you with additional challenges. See Learning On-line for a more detailed discussion of the online learning experience. These additional challenges are no big deal, and, if you decide to take this course online, you can count on me to help you learn in this new environment.

Also, even though you won't see me face-to-face two or three times a week as you would in a traditional classroom, you will have plenty of opportunities to interact with me online throughout the course. I discuss below what you can expect of me during this online course.

Learning online is a different kind of learning experience in many ways. As in a traditional learning experience, much depends on what you put into the experience. And it helps if you have many of the qualities or skills listed below.

Personal Qualities

You should be patient.
You should expect things to go wrong on occasion.
You should realize that it's not easy to work with other people on a project, but that you will have to make every effort to do so anyway.
You should be persistent.
You should be prompt. Don't keep people waiting if they are expecting to hear from you.
You should be flexible and adaptable.
You should have a sense of humor.
You should be honest and do your own work.
You should be a team player. You have to be willing to work with others to succeed in the online peer reviews and other online collaborative work.
You should be willing to ask questions when you're not sure how to do something correctly or if you're not sure what is required. I want to help and so do your group members.

Computer Skills and Knowledge

You must have good computer skills to succeed in this course. You should know the basics concerning opening, saving , backing up, downloading, and sending files (as attachments via e-mail). You should be familiar with your computer's operating system whether it's Windows, a Mac operating system, or some other system.
You must be familiar with Microsoft's Word or Adobe Acrobat to create your documents. You may use either program for all of your documents for this course.
You must use an e-mail program that allows you to send attachments.
You must be familiar with using a browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer.
You must be familiar with what the UCF library offers online and how to access at least some basic information via Web Luis. Of course, I'll provide you much more information on this topic as the course develops.

What You Can Expect From Me

I will answer any e-mail sent to me, but, unless the matter is urgent, I will usually take a day or so to respond to your message. Please keep in mind that I receive a great deal of e-mail from many sources other than the students in this class.
I don't respond to e-mail during the weekends.
I will read your postings in the various discussion topics established for the course, and I will post announcements in the main discussion topic for the class.
I will provide a detailed discussion of each assignment in the Modules part of WebCT for this course. You should check this part often for any new information.
I will treat you with respect, I will be polite in all of my postings, and follow all the other Protocols and Collaboration Protocols that I expect you to follow.
I will grade your assignments promptly, but I probably won't return them to you as soon as you would like me to. I will always return a major assignment to you before another major assignment is due.
I will be sympathetic when you tell me you lost your work because your computer crashed, your computer has a virus, you forgot to save your work, or a hurricane blew your apartment and computer away. However, I will still expect you to turn in your assignments when they are due. Expect the unexpected.
I will make every effort to make this online experience successful for both you and me.