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About English 102 Online  Where do the classes take place?
Where do the classes take place?
 TOPNo, there are not fixed or regular times when the course takes place. To participate, you log on to English 102 Online, read the materials and messages left by the instructor and your classmates, and, after you’ve taken all the time you need to react to what you’ve read, you post your own responses. You can do this at any time of the day or night which is convenient for you, and so can your classmates. Be sure to log on to the class at least 4 times a week, though. TOPFor the Fall 2011 semester, English 102 Online begins on Monday, August 22, 2011 and ends on Sunday, December 11, 2011. For the Spring 2012 semester, English 102 Online begins on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 and ends on Wednessday, May 9, 2012. TOPNo, this is not an independent study or correspondence-type course. Participation and interaction are vital to your learning (see 12 Tips for Success), and so it is important that all students in the course stay on roughly the same schedule. Although there is flexibility in when you log on to the course, be sure to keep up with the weekly course schedule. TOPEnglish 102 Online is 16 weeks long, the same as the classes being held face-to-face at Oakton. In fact, it will follow the same schedule they do in terms of beginning and ending dates, withdrawal deadlines, and so on. TOPNo visits to campus are required. TOPNo. The maximum enrollment for online classes at Oakton is 20 students. Since active participation in this course is required, you will soon meet your fellow classmates online and begin to feel part of a learning community. TOPAbsolutely not! In fact, you’ll probably be surprised at just how congenial an online course can be. Not only will you have many direct communications with your instructor, you will also be involved in many individual and group discussions with your classmates. Far from being cold and impersonal, the online environment enhances communication in ways that would not be possible otherwise. TOPFor traditional, face-to-face courses, the general rule of thumb is that you should expect to spend 2-3 hours per week outside of class for each hour in class. So a 3-credit-hour class meeting for three hours a week requires an additional 6-9 hours of work outside of class, for a total of 9-12 hours. This rule of thumb also applies for English 102 Online. You’ll spend the same number of hours as in a traditional class, but you’ll have more flexibility in when you spend them—and you will save time by not having to travel to and from campus. Please make sure that you budget 9-12 hours per week for this class. TOPHere is the "official statement" on the Oakton website: "The minimum hardware you will need is an IBM-compatible PC with a Pentium or Pentium-equivalent processor and 64 Mb of RAM running Windows 98 or later, or a Macintosh with a PowerPC chip and 16 Mb of RAM running MacOS 8.6 or later. Your web browser must handle tables, frames, and javascript. Firefox 2.0 and higher; Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher; or AOL version 7.0 or higher are the currently supported browsers." Rather dated, obviously. I use Firefox 4.0 and IE 8.0 and have experienced no problems. There do not seem to be any issues with Opera or Safari, either. For more details, please see: http://www.oakton.edu/online/tech/minspecs.htm TOPNo. All readings will be taken from materials available on the internet, and all assignments and exercises will be provided to you through the course web site. TOPWell, no videotaped "talking heads." But there will be short written "lectures" posted on the course web site every Monday. TOPOn Monday of each week, a lecture, a list of readings, and assignments will be posted in the Content area of the course web site. Information about due dates is also contained in the Syllabus and Schedule areas of the course web site. TOPYou will submit your work in electronic form through the course web site - no paper involved. Depending upon the assignment, you will post messages in the discussion forums, send e-mail to your instructor, and upload word processing files to to the Dropbox (or send them as e-mail, depending upon the assignment). You will be given specific, step-by-step instructions for each of these tasks beforehand. TOPYou will also receive responses to your work from your instructor and classmates in electronic form through the course web site. TOPYou should log on four times per week at a minimum. The Desire2Learn software keeps a record of the total number of times you have logged into the course and the most recent time you have logged in, which allows your instructor to keep track of your "attendance." And if you go five days without logging in, your instructor may contact you directly to see if there is a problem with which you need assistance. However, just logging in and reading messages is not considered participation - you must also contribute to the course discussions on a regular basis. TOPI will be available for an hour or so each week in the course’s chat room, probably at varying times and days in order to give everyone the greatest opportunity to make contact. I’m also available by phone and e-mail, so I doubt you’ll notice the absence of traditional office hours. (But if you really, really want to sit together in an office, that can certainly be arranged.) TOPMike McNett can be reached by phone at : (847) 635-1435 by fax at: (847) 635-1496 by e-mail at: mmcnett@oakton.edu TOPMonday through Friday from 9:00 AM through 5:00 PM, you can phone the Oakton Help Desk at (847) 635-1965. Outside of those hours, first check the Oakton online Help pages at http://www.oakton.edu/online/tech/probcall.htm If you are not able to get the technical help you need, please contact me and I will try to expedite the process.
 Courseware created by Michael McNett |