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hi everybody, this is a note to figure out what folks would like to be doing with the few more weeks we have left now at the end of the semester. so, there are two basic questions:
 
-- do you want to keep meeting? I have the impression that people would like to keep on meeting even though we are getting to the end-of-semester crunch. is that right?
 
-- what topics would people most like to cover?
 
here are some possible topics that people have suggested (I've put the name next to the item if I remember who had suggested it, but I'm not very good at remembering all these things, so please remind me if you had thought of a good topic for us to cover that I've simply left out here) - are there some of these topics that are of general interest?
 
1) overview of online course "best practices" (Larry) - I've looked at some very nice "self-assessment" inventories for online course design that might give us a good basis for that discussion. here's one such inventory that is very useful and would perhaps be very useful to talk through together:
http://www.imd.macewan.ca/imd/content.php?contentid=36
 
2) designing online forms using Dreamweaver (Kerry) - some people have asked about online forms. this is something you CAN do without special server technology: the results of the forms are sent to you via email (in order to collect the data and record it directl in a database requires special server technology that we don't have acccess to). if people already know the basics of Dreamweaver, and would like a workshop in creating such forms, I would be glad to do that.
 
3) what you need to know to have students publish on the web (Larry) - I do not know if Netscape is installed on the machines in the computer lab that is available to us, but if people are interested in learning how to use Netscape Composer as a tool for web publishing (a free tool that students can use), we could have a workshop on how to teach students to publish on the web
 
3) general IT procedures, back-ups, coping with problems (Lynn) - several times we have talked about what to do when things don't work - it might be useful to brainstorm together about how to prepare in advance for technology glitches so that they aren't an insurmountable problem if they do occur. I've got a "computer help" page for my course that covers at least some of these issues from the students' perspective, but not from the faculty perspective exactly:
http://www.mythfolklore.net/3043mythfolklore/resources/help.htm
 
4) writing assignments in online courses (Laura) - Marielle's great CPR presentation showed how you can run an anonymous, randomized peer-review process using CPR software. there are also other kinds of online writing assignments that lend themselves to peer input, plus the whole formal writing versus informal writing assignments issue. what are the best assignments that can help students improve their writing without gobbling up teacher time?
 
5) building quality online quizzes/exams (Nevine) - given the kinds of online quizzes and exams we can create using Blackboard, what are the best kind of questions for testing student knowledge of the material? (this is not so much just about online course, but about constructing good tests or quizzes in general, but with the limitations of what can be done in Blackboard, and the special "honor code" situations that come up in an online environment)