CON8430     On-Line Activities  Ungraded Participation

(Individual Work)

CON8430 ("Computers and You") is weighted at three hours per week. As it is a hybrid course, only two of these will be held in a classroom. The expectation for the third hour of attendance is that it will occur over a one-week period in the form of learning through Internet work. As a result:

  • you must be motivated to do such work every week for approximately one hour in addition to course "homework," as though you were participating in a class activity; and
  • this participation should contribute, as any class participation should contribute, to the intended learning of the course for the entire class.



    • Instructions

      Gather Information

    1. Read the assigned on-line textbook and assigned on-line NON-textbook materials for the week. Finish well before the next weekend class.

      NOTE: Every week, you must complete all following steps at the latest twenty-four (24) hours before the next class.

    2. Note all technical terms that you understand with difficulty, all abbreviations or acronyms that you cannot expand without looking them up, all difficult sentences or concepts, and any key ideas that are new to you in all the readings.


    3. Consult other students' postings for the week. You will not receive credit for this segment of the course if you post the same information or hyperlink (see below) as before, or as another student has already done, at any earlier time in the semester.


    4. Within the remaining alternatives, find one (1) new Web page that contains one of the following:

      • A definition or description of a difficult technical term
      • An expansion and definition of a difficult abbreviation or acronym
      • A clearer expression of a difficult sentence or concept
      • An analysis or critique of an important idea in the readings
      • Interesting or informative reading or graphics clearly related to the next week's seminar

      5. NOTE: If you are the first student to make a forum posting for a given week's readings, click "Thread." If you are not the first student to make a posting for a given week's readings, answer the first posting for that week's readings (start your forum posting by clicking on the link to that message). In this way, as long as you are up-to-date before the next class, you and others may work ahead of schedule.


    5. After checking again to make sure you are the first student with the Web page you have chosen (in the whole discussion board), copy and paste the Web address (hyperlink) of the page you selected into a message in the designated discussion board.


    6. Add a passage summarizing your Web source and clearly indicating its relationship to the following weekend's seminar. Choose a title linking your posting to the relevant reading; click "Submit," and enjoy everyone else's postings.


      7. Those conducting the next class' seminar are encouraged to use any or all the postings in their work, and all students are encouraged to use and to document any of the posted sources in their Computer Assisted Design and Ethics submission. You may also use these postings for final exam studies (or for any other "wholesome" purpose)! 15% toward your final grade will be awarded if you follow these instructions successfully every week for which there are assigned readings. If you find out later in the week that you have posted the same hyperlink as one posted earlier in the course, you may modify your link and message until 24 hours before the next class. After that time, any duplicate link or message, or any missed week for which readings have been assigned, will disqualify you from receiving the 15% on-line participation mark.