Please label everything

Folks,

When you are sending email or sharing documents with me and your classmates, PLEASE LABEL everything. I need you to include Section# and Assignment NAME. I've had a lot of "Untitled" documents or docs with just your name. Or emailsthat do NOT include Section #s. I get about 200 emails a day from 200+ students.  

Tags: logistics

turnitin.com formatting

When you submit your papers to turnitin.com the formatting will be stripped from your essays. This is NORMAL. Not a problem. The service only requires the text of the essays. Do not worry when it doesn't look the same. I don't assess this version; I assess the version on Google Docs.

Grading checklist

Folks, As I grade these I am concerned. There are two major things I need to remind you.

1. For each Deadline #, I need a post on your blog. If it asks you to reply to a peer's blog comment and then post about it, then please do it. If it asks for a Reading Reflection & Deadline Reflection, please do both. The way I grade the homework is looking for each and every step. Believe me, if you begin skipping things, the zeroes add up.

2. Everything that is suppose to be submitted to turnitin.com should be submitted. If final papers are Not submitted, I will NOT grade them.

Computer File Names

Have you ever notices that computer files have three or four letter suffixes after their titles? Many audio files generally have mp3, wav, or wma. Digital image files usually have jpeg, gif, or tiff. Most documents have doc, pdf, or rtf. To better negotiate and share documents in electronic formats, you should know a little about docs, pdfs, and rtfs.

doc—“doc” stands for “document” and represents a Microsoft Word file. If you do not have MS Word, you will either need another word processing program that can read MS Word files, like the open source program Open Office (http://www.filehippo.com/download_openoffice/), or an MS Word viewer (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=95E24C87-8732-48D5-8689-AB826E7B8FDF&displaylang=en). FYI, older versions of MS Word will not read newer versions of MS word doc files.

pdf—“pdf” stands for “portable document format.” Most computers come with Adobe Reader (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) that allow you to read pdf files. You can not make pdf files without Adobe Acrobat (or one of it’s open source equivalents). You will not be required to make pdf files for this course; however, most of the resources in library databases are in pdf format. You will want to be sure to download Adobe Reader.

rtf—“rtf” stands for “rich text file.” Basically, it is the same thing as a “doc” but is readable by a variety of different word processing programs. When electronically sharing documents, you should try to default to rtf files. If you save and share as an rtf file, you usually do not have to worry about what program, or version, that the other person is using. You can easily save your documents as rtf files when you either initially save them, or click on the “save as” option (under the “file” tab). At the bottom of the save window is a “save as type” option. You can search through the options for the “rich text file” option. If you are using an online word processing program like Google Documents (http://docs.google.com/) or Zoho Writer (http://writer.zoho.com/jsp/home.jsp) you can usually export your files in a variety of formats including doc, pdf, and rtf).

To make sure that all of your classmates can read your documents, I highly suggest that you submit all documents in the rtf format. And if you don’t have MS Word, I highly suggest you either download Open Office or the MS Word viewer so that you can read other’s docs.

Tags: tech_tips

Grading Update

Folks,

All grades are done through Deadline #4. Now that we're four deadlines in, there's no more late work. If you aren't caught up, and don't have a really good reason (flu, death, medical) you don't have credit on those assignments. If you've had technical problems, consider 1.) using the library computers 2.) going to the tutoring center for help. We're quickly heading to our first paper, and I want to make sure no one gets a zero on that. Please keep working. Set aside time to work on Eng 101 weekly. Pretend you actually go to a weekly class, and use those few hours to get your work done. 

Tags: update, grades, technical_difficulties

Combining

Yesterday I was formatting Module 2 for you, and I realized since boh of my online Eng 101 sections are smaller that we should combine the student information. Since you know you have to be commenting on one another's blog posts, this will give you twice as many people to read. Also, it' twice as many people who can read your paper drafts and comment on them.

 On the instructor's side of things, it's one less file I need to open to assess you. Now that Deadline #4 is over and the smoke is clearning, I am going to begin to contact people who are struggling. Everyone who has emailed me for help, has received it. If you miss deadlines from here on out, I've got no love to show ;) .

Tags: grades, deadlines