English 102

Sections I81 and I82

Instructor Information:

Textbook: Kennedy and Gioia, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 10th ed.

Testing: Students will take 2 supervised, timed on-line exams on campus.

Accessing this Course: Click the Creating my WebCT account at the top of this page for instructions on creating your WebCT account. Once you have created an account, click on Adding Courses to my WebCT account for instructions on adding courses to your WebCT account.

After you have completed the orientation activities linked above, read all the information on this page, and enrolled in the course through the college, send an email message to me (profshier@yahoo.com) with this information: (1) your full name, (2) your phone number, (3) the course and section number, and (4) any questions you might have about the course. Send this message from the email account you will be using during the semester.

OBJECTIVES

Upon completing Eng 102, students should:

• Be able to generate and comprehend written communication through writing coherent critical and analytical essays and through reading and analyzing literature in a variety of genres.
• Be able to evaluate the validity of ideas through analytical thought and problem solving in reading, research, and critical papers.
• Have organizational and research skills which will enable them to locate, analyze, and synthesize information from both traditional and electronic sources.

You will also gain experience designing and creating web pages and in contributing to online discussion boards and chat rooms.

The student is required to:

• Read all assignments and submit all reading responses.
• Participate in all online discussions (a minimum of two posts weekly). You should check the discussion boards for new posting daily if at all possible.
• Take all reading quizzes. You will also design a quiz for one lesson and supply an answer key. Unsatisfactory questions will be returned to you to revise and resubmit. I will ask volunteers to sign up to do the quiz for a particular lesson. Don’t share your quiz questions and answers with your classmates! It will be obvious to me that the quiz was compromised and you will have to repeat the assignment.
• Write three analytical essays and revise if necessary.
• Work as part of a group to design and produce a research project. The group will use small group discussion boards, email, or chat rooms to collaborate on this project. This project will require access to a large college library. You will be required to submit a confidential evaluation of your and your partners’ participation and effectiveness.
• Submit two on-line exams at the Testing Center.

COURSE GRADE Your grade for the course will be calculated as follows:

COURSE OVERVIEW Here's a quick overview of the course. We begin the semester by noticing details, reviewing the appropriate use of quotations, paraphrases and summaries, learning some new terminology, and applying analytical reading skills to imaginative literature, including short stories, drama and poetry.

Writing assignments? Throughout the course, you will be submitting reading responses and short essays (or microthemes) to me for a grade. These average about three paragraphs per theme. You should also be contributing to the discussions on the class bulletin board. You will also work in groups to produce a research project.

I'll be posting quizzes on the web site weekly. The questions I ask are not demanding, and you can take the quizzes 2 times. I give these reading quizzes only to encourage you to complete the readings on time and to focus the discussion that follows. Doing well on them will help your course grade in a major way.

You will also contribute an objective, 10-question quiz (multiple choice or matching) on one lesson, based on the textbook and 5 of my questions. Five of the questions must be your own, and I will ask you to revise them if they are confusing or too obvious. You must also provide the answer key.

1. Am I an independent learner, able to take responsibility for my own education?

2. Are my reading skills strong?

3. Can I easily follow written instructions?

4. Am I willing to commit a significant amount of time to reading and writing?

5. Do I have strong time-management skills?

If you can honestly and confidently answer "yes" to questions 1-5, then an internet course may be right for you. HOWEVER,

6. Do I need a lot of interaction with the instructor and classmates?

7. Do I need verbal instructions and lots of one-on-one talks with a classmate or instructor?

8. Are my reading skills so-so, or even weak?

9. Am I pressured for time, struggling constantly to juggle work, school and family?

If you answered "yes" to all or most of questions 6-9, then an internet course is probably not a good choice for you. Students who do well in internet courses are independent learners with strong time management and reading skills.

As an instructor, I am committed to delivering quality educational opportunities to Midlands Tech's students, and I want to see all of my students succeed. For some students, that may mean an Internet course is a good choice, and for others, it means that traditional, live classes are a better choice.