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Hello, my name is Cliff Hudder,
and greetings to all signed on for English 1302
Online Class for Summer of 2008, section 4W101
This document is not a syllabus, but a way to
give you all an idea of what's coming up for the
course this summer. There are some things you
can be doing now to get started, but don't fret
too much. Like any "normal" class, English
1302 Online proceeds week by week at a reasonable
pace, and does not require anything to begin save
fulfilling registration requirements, having access
the Internet and email and knowing how to use
them, and basic keyboarding skills. The course
itself will be available in your “Vista”
page on June 2, 2008. If you don't know what a
"Vista" page is, no problem! Read on:
(Although I stand by the “reasonable pace”
statement above, like all summer courses, the
schedule is squeezed compared to Fall and Spring
sessions, and that should be taken into account.
There is also an “attendance requirement”
that counts your weekly logins. One important
aspect to think about: English 1302 online is
not a "correspondence course,” but more
like a class that meets on the internet, asynchronously,
every week. Although you've got a lot of flexibility,
keeping up with the material each week is important.)
THE ORIENTATION: To quell your
fears and questions about the orientation--it's
the sort of thing which can be done online, and
will not require your presence at any particular
location or any particular time before the class
beings. This is pretty much how I run the course
(with one important exception). I'm always trying
to utilize the versatility available to us in
an online section.
Orientation Part One: This concerns
Vista, and information concerning it is available
now by clicking here.
Everything listed for the orientation is of interest,
but the "Vista
Student Orientation" is most helpful,
and is the part I require. (It'll tell you about
your Vista entry page for example.) I'm sure that
some of you have used Vista or some other online
course delivery system before, and will find this
an easy review. This part of the orientation includes
a quiz, but it won’t be active until you
log on to our course after June 2.
Orientation Part Two: Another
part of the orientation is a short introduction
specific to our course which you can read on Week
1 after class starts on June 2nd. Should you have
questions after examining the online orientation,
feel free to ask me via email, phone, or you can
even come see me in person in Rm E205J on the
Montgomery campus. I do think that even if you
haven't used Vista before, like any software,
playing with it for a week or so will bring familiarity,
and I'm expecting a learning curve for such things
at the start of the course.
ABOUT THE COURSE IN GENERAL: Like
its face-to-face counterpart, Online English 1302
will require approximately two hours of "home"
work for every "classroom" hour: thus,
including the readings, devoting twelve to eighteen
hours per week to the course isn't unreasonable
if you do it right. For me, the beauty of this
sort of course is that you can pretty much choose
which twelve to eighteen hours those will be.
One important aspect is worth repeating: English
1302 online is not a "correspondence course",
but more like a class that meets on the internet,
asynchronously, every week. Although you've got
a lot of flexibility, keeping up with the material
each week is important.
There will be assignments every week as well:
some quizzes over material covered, others written
journal responses to our readings, and a few responses
that will go on a discussion list. In addition
to these short assignments and journal entries,
we will be producing three essays along with drafts
for each. Finally, there will be a final exam.
English 1302 is both a writing course and an introduction
to the study of literature. It’s next to
impossible to write meaningfully about literature
without first considering some technical aspects
about it, therefore the weekly readings (something
like my classroom lectures) on the website are
important, and information from there will make
up most of the quizzes, mid-term and final exams.
That said, I’ve been working over the past
years to come up with ways to present literature
that doesn’t reduce it to some sort of long
dead specimen to be dissected and analyzed until
all joy is drained from it . . . and I hope you’ll
find the process more enlightening than painful.
OUR BOOKS: Kennedy, X. J.
Backpack Literature, New York: Addison Wesley
Longman, 2008. 2nd Edition. This is the anthology
from which we’ll be examining drama, poetry,
and fiction. Beware: many of the other sections
are using something else by an author named Barnet—do
not purchase the Barnet text, just the Backpack
Literature from X. J. Kennedy. This book
is much cheaper (and better) than the one used
by the other sections.
Also I'll be sending those of you with grammar
or mechanical issues to examine reference books
for this course: Faigley’s Little Penguin
handbook. If you have a different handbook
from having recently taken English 1301 it will
most likely work fine for our purposes: I just
want you to have access to a grammar and writing
reference work.
THE FINAL: I mentioned an exception
to the "not having to show up at any particular
place at any particular time" aspect of the
course, and this is the final. An "in-class"
writing assignment for the course will be available
from July 2th through 8th at all Lone Star College
campuses (approximately the last five days of
class). Many other locations can also be arranged
by students so long as they are proctored. See:
< http://montgomery.lonestar.edu/11574/
>.
These “on location” exams are the only
way to insure that those who say they're taking
the course actually are, and are not optional.
You should consider them something that guarantees
the integrity of your three credit hours.
SPECIFIC TO THE SUMMER of ‘08:
I don't want to keep harping on this, but Make
sure that you’ve set aside enough time to
take this course this summer. The amount of material
covered is exactly the same as in a sixteen week
section. Getting behind on such a short schedule
can be fatal to your grade. When it comes to the
weekly assignments (approximately two essay drafts
per week, plus more informal written responses),
accepting late work is simply impossible. If you
feel you can’t be available between July
2th and 8th to visit a testing center due to prior
engagements, this is not the semester for you
and this course unless you’re prepared to
set up proctoring at some other approved location.
That's probably enough to burden you with before
the semester is upon us, but feel free to email
me with questions: After June 2, I will answer
within a working day. You might also catch me
before the semester starts at my office: 976-273-7399,
or leave a message. As I said, I believe the course
will be enjoyable, and I've always found that
if you jump in, keep up, and attempt everything,
it's difficult to do poorly in English 1302 Online.
Thanks, and welcome aboard,
Cliff Hudder
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