Online Method 301

Course Method

This course is organized around short -- three to four day, units, with a few break days thrown in. See the coursewebsite (note term) at alfino, click "courses," click "your course." You will be organized into groups of 4-6 students. These are your chat groups. They were selected with your preferences (blackout dates, preferred days of week,) in mind. Aside from chat groups, you may work independently on course material. Your other assignments involve online discussion board. There is minimum posting rule, but the best discussion boards occur when people get interested in each other's ideas and generate good and helpful posts. The deadlines for discussion board posts are always Friday midnight, but you should pick two times each week on your own calendar to do some posting.

The Prep Cycle!

You should generally follow the rule of having your reading done for the unit within the first two days of the unit. Here's the "prep cycle" (note term) that I strongly encourage you to follow with each unit of the course. The harmony and level of achievement of your chat group will be greater if you all follow this prep cycle.

1. Check the assignment for the unit on coursewebsite, read focus paragraph, note page numbers. 2. Read. (Note: Study Questions by unit are on the wiki. Look at study questions before you read. Even record notes about them as you read.) 3. Chat. (The timing of chat sessions to unit dates will be hit or miss. Follow the instructions for chat sessions on the wiki. The goal is for your group to move from good from study question work sessions to more open ended philosophical discussion of the material. So be prepared to discuss and answer study questions or issues raised by each of you for the most recent reading first. (See the wiki page on Chat and Discussion Board and the Assignments link on the course website for more information.) 4. Engage in Discussion Boards. 3 posts a week. See wiki page for more information. 5. Repeat for each unit. 6. Complete end of term assignments and any assigned papers.

I'll be giving real time feedback on the discussion boards in part through my own participation, but also trying to record and post points each week for discussion board and chats. Always check the assignments page on the coursewebsite for specifics about scoring and grade weights.

Each chat group has an organizer who gets a 5% A- to A for performing the duties of CGO, chat group organizer. More information coming on this, but if it appeals to you, let me know.

Technology:

You only need to come to terms with three pieces of technology in this course:

1. The Course website: grades, assignments, schedule, email utility. alfino.org, click "courses", then your course, login with email on roster and "bulldog".

2. The Course wiki. A place for notes, study questions, new and student created content, schedules of chat sessions. This is where most information about the course itself can be found, aside from the course schedule. No need to login to view information. First login: alfino.org, click "wiki," click upper right corner "login," first time: click on "Create an Account," use all of your GU network login information (this authenticates you). Subsequent logins are briefer. When logged in edit links are visible. Visit the student practice page to experiment with wiki edits. There are more resources there. You just need to be able to post text and links.

3. The Google Group. Please join "AlfinoEthics" for Summer Ethics course. I'll acknowledge that you've done this. This is where our Discussion Board will be located. Google chat is part of this, but your group can decide to use any chat utility that allows you to save a transcript. On Google Chat, you can find me as "Mark Alfino" or as "malfino@gmail.com" (but use the gu email for email communication, please). Add me to your chat list and you'll always know if I'm online and avaialable to take a question. I would like to make sure you can get quick answers to questions that might hold up your progress.

Ok, so this page also gives you some things to follow up on and go back to. Let me know if the instructions are clear.

Alfino