Last Update: 2/22/00 

GETTING STARTED ON THE WEB COURSE
A checklist for "Online Students"
Under construction!  First Draft! 

1. INTRODUCTION
2. BEGINNING CHECKLIST OF ACTIVITIES

   This is a first draft of of a "Beginning Checklist" of activities that a student enrolled in the online version of COSC120 (hereafter called "Online Students") should do.  Checklist of other course activities are available in the CHECK LISTS FOR COURSE ACTIVITIES.

2.  BEGINNING CHECKLIST OF ACTIVITIES:

1. Begin a "JOURNAL OF COSC120". This is a very important favor I am asking you to do for me. (It will not adversely affect your grade in the course, but if you are especelly helpful, it may have a positive effect.)  Student journals will help me understand the environment in which Online Students work.  This does not have to be a flawless technical paper nor a work of art, only a concise, continuous record of your activities, problems you encounter, criticisms, and recommendations for improving the course. Of course I would like this to be an HTML document, but if you don't know how to create these (You'll learn how in this course.), a word processed document will do; in fact, hand written entries are ok.  Begin your journal by documenting this initial activity of accessing the course Web site and jumping to this page.
2. Enrolling in the Course.  (If you are simply interested in learning the subject matter and are uninterested in receiving credit, skip this red tape.
1. Until the University implements a uniform online registration system, ...
1. if you are a registered FSU student, follow the normal registration procedures
2. if you are not a registered FSU student, print a copy of the permission form, fill it in, and mail it to Dr. Horton H. Tracy, Computer Science Dept., Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD 21532.
2. If you do not have an FSU e-mail account, you should immediately send an e-mail message to me containing an e-mail address at which I can contact you.   My e-mail account for course is: ttracy@mail.frostburg.edu.
3. Prepairing to start the course: The most important thing is to acquire the required hardware and software:
1. Software Requirements (all freeware, i.e. available, free, by downloading over the Internet):
1. Netscape Communicator, version 4.5 or higher.  One can study the course content using any browser capable of displaying multimedia, but Communicator will be our basic Web development platform in the Lab exercises.  This can be downloaded from:
http://home.netscape.com/computing/download/index.html?cp=hom02x4.1
2. WS-FTP LE (Limited Edition) is my personal choice of a free Internet file transfer application for the PC.  If you prefer another, feel free to use it.  (Obviously I won't be much help if you use software outside my scope of experience).  WS-FTP LE may be downloaded from download.com for the PC.  Equivalent FTP applications for the Mac may also be downloaded from download.com for the Mac.
2. Hardware Requirements:  Any microcomputer that will efficiently run netscape Communicator 4.5 or higher. Pentium based PCs and Power Macs or iMacs are adequate.
4. Studying the course:  The general guideline is to (1) follow the sequence of activities specified in the regular, on-campus course schedule and (2) submit assignments on the dates specified in that schedule.  If we iron out the inherent problems of teleconferencing, you will be able to "attend class presentations online", but that is not necessary.  You simply have to follow a self paced, independent study schedule that parallels the couse schedule and submit assignments on time.  (Note that I have not created links to all the online pages in the following instructions because I want you to become familiar with the user interface of this course as soon as possible.  If you have trouble, contact me any way you feel comfortable.)  My recommended procedure for studying is concicely specified in the CHECKLISTS FOR COURSE ACTIVITIES, particularly sections 2 and 3 of that page.
5. Each time you begin a new LM read the study guide for that module.  These are special comments specially directed to Online Students that are equivalent to comments made verbally during the presentation of the regular on-campus sessions.