Course orientation
Readings
Instructor notes
Learning activities
Readings
During this orientation week, you should familiarize yourself with the course Web site. If any of the Unit pages have an "Under Construction" warning at the top, that indicates that they have not yet been updated for the current semester.
Once I have registered you for the P540 course conference, please begin to familiarize yourself with that system.
Note: There is no text assignment for the Pre-Unit. However, by the end of this week, you should have completed the reading assignment for Unit 1.
Instructor notes
Your job for the first week of the class is to familiarize yourself with the course and with the course conferencing system. Note any questions you have, or things that seem confusing. You can ask me about these by email or phone.Learning activities
Intro A: As soon as possible, please send me an email message with the following information about yourself (Note: This is for my use only and will not be shared with your classmates):- Your full name
- What you prefer to be called, if different from your first name
- Telephone number, preferably one where I could reach you during the day
- Your mailing address
- Undergraduate degree, major, institution
- Highest degree held, if different from above
- Present degree sought, number of hours completed
- List graduate courses taken in psychology, learning theory, cognition
- Briefly summarize your professional work experience
- Career plans or goals
- Current job
- Reasons for taking the Web version of this course
- Previous experience with online courses
Intro B: Post a brief autobiographical sketch in the Course Orientation folder of the P540 Conference. The purpose of this is to introduce yourself to your classmates; it will be available only to them and me. The following is a suggested outline:
- Your name and the city and state or country where you live
- A little about your past, present, and anticipated academic preparation
- A little about your past, present, and anticipated professional life
- Anything you care to share with us about your family
- Your hobbies and interests, outside of career and family
- Reasons for taking the Web version of this course
- An interesting fact about yourself
Directions for connecting to the conference are provided on the Conference page.
Note: It may take two to three days from the time I receive your email username until I can arrange to activate your conference username and password. You may want to write your autobiographical sketch in your word processor; then, when you have access to the conference you can just copy and paste it into the appropriate spot.
Intro C: Please send me a recent photo of yourself. A "head and shoulders" shot is preferred; the sharper the better. If you know how to do this electronically, that would be great; otherwise U.S. or campus mail is fine. I will post the photos in the P540 course conference, so that your classmates and I can have an image of the person we're communicating with throughout the course. This is one way to counteract the anonymity that accompanies a class like this. Your picture will not be available to the world; only to the members of P540 this semester.
Last Updated: 8/13/03