Matters of Life and Death
online assignments and activities.

Some of the assignments and activities for this course will be conducted online using WebCT. There are two main reasons for this.

First, WebCT will allow you more interaction with your classmates as you work through the readings and ideas in this course. Rather than having to figure out a difficult reading assignment all by yourself, you can discuss it online and figure it out together. (And, you can do this anytime you're online instead of having to wait for classtime or trying to make arrangements to meet outside of class.)

Second, more and more courses are being offered either partially or fully on line. (Check out the current listings at SJSU's eCampus.) Becoming comfortable with WebCT can help you succeed in such courses in the future (and give you a feel for whether online courses are a good choice for you).

Online components of this class:
Discussion threads. I'll open up a discussion thread for each of the reading assignments and for each lecture topic. I'll also start some more free-form discussion topics to give you a place to play around with ideas.

Assignment drop-box. You will use this to upload each of your three analytic essays and each of your two response essays. Click here for assignment dropbox help.

Downloading the essays for your response. Each of your two response essays will be a response to an analytic essay written by one of your classmates. You will be able to download the essay to which you're responding via WebCT. (The identity of the author will be hidden!)

"What's my motivation?"
* In order to get a passing participation grade, you are required to post at least six (6) times in the discussion area over the course of the term. At least three (3) of these posts must be thoughtful responses to a question or comment posted by someone else.

* Regular participation in the online discussions will probably be a big help in working out the ideas you'll be writing about in the analytic essays and response essays.

* Reading and posting in the online discussions can help you figure out what to write in your course log.

* Regular high-quality contributions to the discussion thread will earn extra credit! If you average 2 high-quality posts a week (for a 16 week term, at least 32 posts total), and post in at least 12 weeks of the term (i.e., you can't do all 32 posts in week 2 or week 16), you will earn 10 extra credit points to be added to your average grade for the course.

We will be having class in the computer lab IS 134A on Monday, August 30, to get you oriented to WebCT.
Don't miss this important meeting!

Go to the WebCT shell for this course. (Note that the course title may not say "Matters of Life and Death". Don't worry; you're in the right place!)

 

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