• email - CSM account preferred

• attachments

• discussion board

• Links Page - a lot of useful information

Course Material
Once you access the course website you will find the course syllabus, assignments, instructor contact information, and other course related material.  Rather than having a class lecture, you will be reading information from your instructor on the course website. This course website includes links to other related websites in order to expand your base of information. 

Assignments & Exam
Most assignments will be submitted  as attachments to email messages.  Collaboration for the critical friend exercise is to be done with email. The exam will be given online.

Communication
Since you will not be meeting on campus, keeping in contact with your instructor and fellow students will be done with the discussion board and email.   Online discussion groups will take the place of classroom discussions.  They are not live chat rooms, so students do not have to be online at a specific time to post a message.   An example of this would be an instructor posting a comment such as “Why does a middle school math teacher need to understand language arts?”  Each student would post her response on the course website’s discussion board.  This way every student and the instructor can see the various responses as they are posted. 

If you need to contact your instructor send an email message to mschulz@csm.edu I will usually respond within one day.

What Do You Do in an Online Course?

• Participate in discussions over reading material (e.g., from the textbook).

• Share teaching ideas and lesson plans.

• Visit web sites of interest.

• Learn a few computer skills (to make the course go more smoothly, but this is not the primary focus of the course).

• Work with a partner.

• Take exams.

• Do Projects.

• Prepare learning activities for your own classroom.

Is There a Specific Class Meeting Time?

No. The class is "asynchronous," which means there is no set time students must be online. However, students are expected to take part regularly (see next item). There will not be whole-class chat room discussions. However, there may be times when groups (of three or four students) may want to "meet" synchronously to discuss questions or a project.
 
How Is this Different from an Independent Study?

An online course is not the same as independent study. In an independent study course you "work at your own pace"- which means you might work real hard for two weeks then take two weeks off.  In an online course you "work at your own time," but generally with the flow of the course. Fast Track courses require intense participation in order to be completed in three weeks.  In this online course you can choose what times of the day, and what days of the week you will be online--but, on a weekly basis, you will need to stay with the group. Though all discussion questions are posted, it is suggested that you focus on a topic every two days for the online discussion. Another difference is that in an online course there is a lot of interaction between all participants in the course, whereas in an independent study the student primarily interacts with the professor.
 
Will I Have Contact With the Professor?

YES.

You should email the professor if...

• you have trouble using the web site in the first week.

• you have a multi-step question.

• frustration level is high and waiting for a discussion board or e-mail response won't do it

You should post your question on the discussion board (which will be answered by students or the professor) if ...

• you have a question about an assignment (because others will have the same question).

• you have a technology question (because others will have the same question).

How does a typical weekly class discussion work?

• Discussion questions are posted.

• Student A reads some of the questions at 8:15 a.m. Monday (but decides not to respond right away). BE SURE TO CLICK ON THE MESSAGE TO WHICH YOU ARE REPLYING AND THEN CLICK ON "REPLY" SO THAT THE THREADS OF THE DISCUSSION ARE MAINTAINED.

• Student B reads a question at 8:45 a.m. and types up (and sends) her response.

• Student C reads a question and Student B's response at 9:05 a.m. and types up (and posts) her response.

• Student A returns at 11:45 a.m., reads all the responses posted so far and posts a response.

• The professor, at 9:15 p.m. Monday reads the questions and responses and sends a response to the second question.

• Student N, first reads this week's questions and responses Tuesday at 10:15 p.m. and posts her responses.

• Later in the week students return to see what new postings have been made and comment further.

I will try to keep the workload similar to a face-to-face course. Being a three semester-hour Fast Track course, you can expect to be on-line ("in class") approximately five hours per week and allot ten to twenty hours per week for reading and course assignments. Historically, online courses have a tendency to be slightly more work than face-to-face courses (but they also can be more advantageous).