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The primary work of this course -- at least that work which we
share together! -- will be accomplished using e-mail. There will
be two kinds of e-mail discussions you will participate in. The
first is the "large group" discussion, which means that
a message you send to the main class address (ls_ce1515@mailman.fishersnet.net)
will be sent to everyone who is enrolled in the class. The second
kind will be a "small group" discussion, which will be
something you participate in with just a few of your colleagues.
I have already assigned you to these small groups, arbitrarily,
and they are named with colors (blue, green, orange, teal).
Many of you may have already taken an online course at Luther that
was run using "Blackboard," which is a web-based bulletin
board discussion space. This class will not be using Blackboard,
and will instead be trying out this other technology. I have chosen
to do that because e-mail listservs allow you much more control
over your own posts, and how you receive and file posts. They also
are more accessible to people with slow internet access. I hope
that we will find a way to make this work well for us! In an effort
to support our work, I have started this page which will likely
grow over time, as we discover and uncover the questions and concerns
that you have.
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Sending and receiving messages
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Each of you who is enrolled in the course has been subscribed
to the course listserv, as well as to a small group listserv. That
means that you will receive course messages directly into your e-mail
inbox (to your luthersem.edu address). To send a message to the
list, simply "reply-to" a message you have already received,
or address a new message to: ls_ce1515@mailman.fishersnet.net.
(Clicking on this link should pull up your e-mail client, with this
address already in place.)
To receive your messages at any time of the day or night, simply
check your e-mail. Messages received from the course will have subject
lines that begin with: [Ls_ce1515]
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Filing messages
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Although the large group discussion will be archived on the web
(at http://mailman.fishersnet.net/mailman/listinfo/ls_ce1515),
you might find it more convenient to keep class messages in specific
folders in your e-mail program. How you manage those messages is
-- of course! -- up to you, but you might want to consider keeping
at least two folders, one with the large group discussion and one
with your small group discussion posts.
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Subject lines
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It's very important to choose appropriate subject lines for your
posts. Some people will be reading the discussion boards in a format
that only shows them the subject lines, so please choose yours --
especially if they are an initial post -- carefully. We may also
work out some specific guidelines as the course progresses.
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Writing a post
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There are lots of ways to write posts for a discussion board,
but two are probably most familiar. The first is an 'ad hoc' spontaneous
post. You read something, you hit 'reply' and then you jot your
answer. As spontaneous as this form is, you might want to force
yourself to always read your post once again before you click 'submit.'
The second kind of post is largely one that you write "off
line" in a word processor and then cut/paste into the discussion
board.
One thing to watch out for, especially in your spontaneous posts,
is whether your answer is directed to one person in particular,
or to the whole group. If you're simply saying "thanks!"
or "sorry to hear that" or some other response, it might
be more appropriate to send it directly to that person, rather than
the whole list (that means typing in their direct address, rather
than simply hitting "reply").
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Not getting overwhelmed...
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One of the advantages of doing course conversation via a listserv,
is that the messages come directly into your inbox as they are sent
out. You don't need to check back all of the time to a bulletin
board to see if anyone has posted anything lately.
On the other hand, that same advantage can be kind of overwhelming,
when you receive lots of messages in any one day. One way to avoid
getting overwhelmed is to set up a specific time at which you'll
deal with the course. The same way in a typical classroom you go
to the classroom twice a week at a set time, or once a week for
a longer period of time, you might try scheduling for yourself a
time when you will read messages from the course.
Then, don't open any course messages until you have the that time
to deal with them.
These are simply some ideas. As you come up with others, let me
know and we'll add them to this page.
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