Hi all

Below is my response to your introductory comments in “Discussions” and to your “Week 1 Work” posts. But first let me say a little bit about how I will be commenting on your work. I will often do as I did today and read all your work and then write a post in which I respond to all of you together so that everyone can see my responses. In these posts I will group together comments and questions that seem to go together.  Other times, I will give you individual comments on your posts.  This is more likely to happen when you are writing a post that will be part of one of your Unit Assignments and it is a way for me to give you feedback as you write.

As for today’s posts and comments here are the main questions and concerns that came up:

Amenah Elenani asks about where grades will be posted.  I’m still deciding this but they will likely be here on OpenLab in the Grade Book which allows each student to see their grades, and only their own grades.

Maiya and Ajoy dey(jay) asks whether we will use Blackboard– we will not. All our work will be here on our OpenLab site.

Amia, Hakyung, Britney, Amenah Elenani, Maiya, and Zack ask about drafts and the process for writing your essays. You will find that many of the posts you write will be work for your essays—I will use these to give you feedback on your essays as you write. Then you are also always welcome to finish a draft and come see me during office hours or make an appointment and we can look at your essay together.

Beddour Ahmed asks about whether the OpenLab assignments will relate to your Unit assignments. As I say above,  all of your assignments lead to the unit assignments by helping you think about the ideas and topics you’ll write about, providing models, and/or helping you generate parts of your unit assignments.

Hakyung, Amia, Britney, Vanessa, and Maiya ask whether we’ll have quizzes and tests in addition to the assignments listed on the syllabus. The answer is that no, we will not.

A few of you mentioned working on phones to do your work four our class. If that is the case,  you might consider applying for a loaner laptop. You can do so here: Laptop Loaner Request Form

One last thing I want to share with you, that might help answer some of your questions, is the weekly work flow for our course. Here is how I’m currently planning for things to work (I will of course let you know if anything changes.)

Our Week:

Mondays:

  • Office hours from 3-4
  • You have work due by the end of day (that just means it has to be on the site by the time I wake up on Tuesday)

Tuesdays:

  • Most Tuesdays you will see me commenting on your work from the previous day. However, longer assignments will take me longer to read through.

Wednesdays:

  • You have work due by the end of day (that just means it has to be on the site by the time I wake up on Thursday)

Thursdays:

  • Office hours 12-1
  • I will post work for the following week by the end of day
  • Most Thursdays you will see me commenting on your work from the previous day. However, longer assignments will take me longer to read through.

Email with any questions you might have or come see me during office hours next week. In the meantime, be sure to check out Week 2 Agenda and my announcement about office hours.