COURSE LOGO TO BE DEVELOPED BY STUDENTS

Logo by Arthur Lawerence, Fa '03
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CURRENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

( If you are an independent learner (not enrolled in the on-campus COSC 330 class) and this is your first time on this site, go to the checklists page for this course by clicking here .  If you are only interested in studying the JavaScript part of this course, click on the JavaScript Thread .  A concise description of all my online course may be accessed by clicking here .)

CONTENTS:

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
  3. ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR COSC 330
INTRODUCTION :

          This will be the opening page (when accessing this Web site) in the right hand frame of the course presentation. It will contain announcements chronologically (most recent first). Students should read the announcements before coming to class (tutorial).  However, to accomodate the absent-minded, I will begin each class/tutorial by reviewing the announcements.  (Thehorizontal bar separates announcements that have not been made in class/tutorial from those which have.)  The following items in this introduction are "timeless announcements", i.e. that apply throughout the course.

  1. You must access this page at least once a day in order to stay current.  I will assume that any announcement I make here will have reached everyone by the following day!  Unless otherwise announced, on this page, we will follow the schedule accessed via the Tentaive Schedule link under the Course Management heading in the Navigation Panel on the left of all couse Web pages.
  2.   This couse is entirely online and self directed .  Therefore, you are not required to attend the scheduled class sessions, UNLESS THERE IS AN ASSESSMENT  or unless attendance is specified in the schedule or announced on this page. (Required attendance will normally be for assessments and video presentations.) Other, normal on-campus sessions will be exclusively for discussion of the current learning module or lab assignment. I will not be "lecturing" ; instead I will be responding to questions from students or demonstrating lab techniques, more of a "trouble shootin' session" than anything else.  I will try to summarize important discussions on this announcement page or in the Class Forum. (See the link on the Navigation Panel, to the left.)  The following was eleminated, in the Fall of '02, after two semesters where it lead to chaos, so we will not follow it this semester either.
  3. I suggest that, if you attend a class/tutorial, you bring a printed copy of the current learning module so that you can write on them during the class discussion.  I will try to distribute copies content not available online the class before the material is to be presented in class.  If there are any class/tutorial handouts, will leave extra copies on the cabinet in the hall outside the computer science department.  If you miss their distribution, you are responsible for picking these up.
  4. All assignments are due on Friday.
    1. Online submissions, e.g. e-mail messages or Web page publications, are due by midnight Friday.
    2. Hardcopy submissions, e.g. printouts or reworked assessments, are due by 4:30, when the office closes.  Submit them during class or place them in a folder, labelled "IN COSC 330" outside my office door, GC235.
    I will return hardcopy assignments, assessments, and assessment reworks during class; if you are not in class, I will by place them in a folder, labelled "OUT COSC 330" outside my office door, GC235 as well; you ar responsible of picking these up as soon as possible.
  5.   Having all learning material online in digital format provides a unique new facility in learning .  Because this material is digital you can " clone" it, i.e. copy it and modify that copy.  This makes it possible for you to get a copy of the teachers note (without waisting time copying it from a blackboard) and modify the notes any way you want, i.e. you can customize the teachers notes into a personalized version that suits your learning style.
    1. You create your " HTML clone" of the LM by downloading a Web page and editing it. (Simply access the page on the Web, select edit from the browser's menu, and then save it on your system.)
    2. Once you have your own copy, you can use an HTML authoring tool (e.g. Netscape composer, MS Word, etc.) like a word processor, i.e. you can edit your copy by changing the style/format, rearranging the order of presentation, cut 'n pasting material from online references like the Webopedia , or simply adding your own annotations or comments.  In other words, you will convert Tony's learning material into "your" customized version of its content.  If you place each LM on a separate diskette, they will be portable.
    For a more detailed discussion of cloning see The Checklist of Course Activities, section 3.1 .  A (perhaps overdone) example of the evolution of an HTML clone that I developed in order to internalize an Introduction to the Human Genome can be found here.
  6. We will establish a class forum (See the Class Forum link under Feedback in the Navigation Panel to the left of your browser display.) Be sure to use this forum for ALL your questions (instead of coming to my office or sending e-mail); this will simulate a "class environment" where your classmates can "hear" the question and benefit from my response and subsequent class discussion.  (This will probably take some "getting use to", even for me, so be sure to try this!)  Since it is accessible 24/7, the Forum remains as our central communications point.
  7. We will also establish a teleconferencing mechanism using Microsoft NetMeeting so that we can conduct online class/tutorial sessions .  This will allow students who want to attend a class/tutorial but can not (or those  who normally have to commute) to attend via the Web!  Since the course is now entirely online and class attendance is not required anyone who has questions or problems can meet with me, during class time or office hours in cyberspace, using NetMeeting. Those who have Internet access at their residence could attend in their pajamas (!) but others would have to go to a friends or a computer lab.  In other words our classes will be virtual classes, i.e. we'll meet in cyberspace, without regard as to our physical locations.  I want see how this works out and now seems like an ideal time to experiment; it worked well last semester.However, even with full teleconferencing facilities we can not effectively simulate a real 20-student class environment, but with simple text-based chat we can conduct fairly useful quesion-answer sessions for 5-10 people; during the last year this has been the norm.  We'll see what happens as we continue to experiment with teleconference.
    1. I will host a NetMeeting, during the scheduled class times, from home, my office, a lab, etc. where we can discuss your problems .  I will announce the NetMeeting on the class Forum and give the IP address of my host computer there.  To join the NetMeeting, all you have to do is (I will demonstrate this in class.):
      1. Open NetMeeting (It is typically listed with other MicroSoft Applications or under Accessories|Communications.)
      2. Select the Call menu and type the IP address in the To field.  Since I normally won't create a password, this is all you need to do to join the NetMeeting.
      3. I will automatically share my desktop, so it will appear in a window on your computer.  Then you can see everything I do.  Unfortunately, currently, we can not have multiperson audio, so we will have to "chat" via NetMeetings built-in text chat facility; this is the most limiting feature of NetMeeting, but maybe this will change or we can overcome it.
    1. there will be some classes when everyone is required to attend (at least in cyberspace), so be sure to watch this page for announcements about this.  Obviously this will apply to the Project presentations!
    2. If you "attend" a class/tutorial online, use NetMeeting (NOT the class Forum) for all your in-class questions.  (Note that the Forum should be reserved for out-of-class questions since it is always available, whereas a NetMeeting is only accessable during the time it is hosted.)
    3. Microsoft NetMeeting is, currently, the best free, multiperson, multiplatform, teleconferencing application is .  NetMeeting comes with current versions of Windows, but if you do not have it, you can download it free from the previous link.  Anyway, you should install, and play around with it.  You don't have to have a camera to receive, only if you want to broadcast video, which I find is unnecessary for class teleconferencing.  Anyway, I  have a lot to learn about conducting a class via teleconferencing .  We'll see what happens. I really want to find a way to combined multiuser voice chat with NetMeeting !  Since the Spring of 02, I have used PalTalk, a VoIP (Voice over IP) utility.  Its basic version is public domain, easily installed; the half-duplex voice chat works nicely, even modem-to-modem.   If any of you have a suggestion of how to get multiple voice chat going with NetMeeting let me know.
    4. Everyone will give their course project presentation online!
  8. Thanks to Tianna Tracy (who wrote the JavaScript), the online versions of the Prerequisite Evaluation and Proficiency Evaluation are published. Note that the purpose of these "Evaluations" (unlike the PreAssessments) is to measure your learning.
    1. The Proficiency Evaluation measures you knowledge and understanding of the essential content of COSC 330.  In fact, it is my "public final exam", the best Final I can write!  Being "public" everyone should be able to eventually get 100% on this.  Obviously doing this is a good way to prepair for the actual course final exam.
    2. The Prerequisite Evaluation measures your knowledge and understanding of the concepts required for beginning the course.  Note that this Evaluation is, in fact, the Exit Evaluation of COSC 120, the prerequisite course of COSC 330.
    Note that these also give you the feedback necessary to allow you to bring yourself to complete proficiency (at least as far as an examination can determine) because you can take them over and over until you obtain a 100%.  I hope it is obvious to you that answering these 50 questions does not really make you proficient; actually it only indicates that you "understand" the answers to the 50 most important questions (that I can come up with) that cover the respective courses.  At the very least, I can guarantee teachers of course to which COSC 330 is the prerequisite that EVERYONE has made 100% on the BEST Final Exam I can write -- at present.  (It will get better as I refine it throughout the future!)  NOTE that, to encourage this proficiency, you will have to take the Final Proficiency Evaluation, at the end of the semester, as a closed book exam; the score you make (hopefully 100% - since you have had all of the self checking questions since the beginning of the course!) will be multiplied times the final class normailzation factor to determine how much your final grade will be raised at the end of the course.
  9.    If you are already competent on a technique introduced in a Lab, you do not have to perform that particular lab.  However, you should do some independent exercise that is of equivalent challenge and takes approximately the same amount of time as the original lab.  If you want to do this...
    1. propose a lab subject to Tony.  If acceptable, complete the lab by the due date of the original lab.
    2. ask Tony for an alternate lab exercise.
    Those of you who do an alternative to my lab assignments MUST demonstrate that they have made an equivalent effort (at three hours per lab) and have something to show for it.  Therefore, I want you to create lab pages for each lab with an explanation of what you have done and a link to the Web pages you created.  If gradable, your grade on the alternate lab will be entered in the grades spreadsheet.
  10. If you are curious, you can access the announcements page for last (fall) semester by clicking here.
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS: