It is STRONGLY recommended that you learn the Moodle system thoroughly right away; you may wish to begin your learning process by following the link listed under Student Tutorials at the main Moodle website (http://moodle.njit.edu).
When you go to the Forums sector of the course’s Moodle site, you will find a number of discussion spaces delineated according to our readings and to other needs of the course, such as, for instance, "Housekeeping." Please look over the various discussion topics to be found in Discussions and, when you are ready, place comments in the appropriate topic sectors as you find them indicated.
Please keep in mind that on-line courses operate according to a different paradigm than the warm-body variety. In the real-time, on-site, physical classroom the course instructor is more the “sage on the stage” than, in our case, the “guide on the side.” This course is YOURS, not mine. Take control of it. Use it and it will pay off for you. When you are asking questions or volunteering your opinions, you are allowing the process of understanding and appreciation to go forward. The end result of this process, if you allow it to happen, is well thought-out exam essays and papers. If you are "silent" in this course, then the great likelihood is that you will do poorly in it (class participation contributes toward the course grade, btw—cf. the syllabus).
You should be sure to log into this course at least once daily; once logged in, check for new discussion postings, assignments and other reminders.
This course will have a lot going on in it, and trying to take it all in will be easier if you participate often and in a forthcoming manner. And, because a lot will be going on, it is important that we do things in an orderly way, such as by specifically replying to postings so that a "bulletin board" discussion thread is formed for future reference, and such as by making sure that all messages you send are spell-checked and proofread for grammar and otherwise for clarity (in a distance course this is especially important—we want to prevent unnecessary “noise" that can be very debilitating—doing things on-line is a unique experience, as you may know already). It is best to compose your messages in a word-processing program and then copy and paste them into Moodle when you are ready to send them, after you have spell-checked and proofread them.
One caution: Please make absolutely sure that all communications you initiate are virus-free.
The very next thing I hope you'll do, now, once you have closed out this message from me, is to introduce yourself to the class (if you have not done so already), in the discussion sector called "Introducing Ourselves" (start a new discussion thread with your name as part of the subject line). Tell us all why you are taking this course and what you hope to get out of it, what your interests are, and your goals, and anything else you care to say so that we can get to know you a little. I look forward to becoming acquainted with everyone, and to you becoming acquainted with me too, and to our exchanges, and otherwise to our sharing of our reading experiences that I think you will find enriching and enlightening.
Oh, one final, final thing—a reminder: We all must be aware of how we conduct our virtual selves on-line. You may know the term “flaming”; it means the verbal abuse of someone who is receiving your on-line message. People, if they don’t watch themselves, can end up flaming someone even without fully realizing what they are doing. Working on line has its frustrations, but that does not mean they should be taken out on someone. (Forgive me if I am telling you something you already are quite familiar with; but I need to be sure that we are all on the same page, so to speak.)
Okay?
Your first assignment (cf. the syllabus and calendar) is, once you have introduced yourself to the class, to read the poems by Bronk, Oppen, and Schwerner (accessible from the course homepage) and post your thoughts about them in the discussion section titled “Poems.”
Oh, oh, one final, final, final thing: Please send me a message in Moodle to let me knMoodle ever goes down. There may be an occasion, for instance if Moodle is not working and I have to tell you something in a hurry, when I'll e-mail the entire class by using Highlander Pipeline. Such a message will go to your NJIT eddress (my messages to you via Moodle will go there too), so, if you don't regularly check there, then please create a forwarding function to an eddress you regularly use. Please contact me via Moodle unless there is an emergency of some sort, in which case you can write to me at kimmelman@njit.edu (the syllabus and my website have other contact information). Thanks so much.
Here's wishing you a great semester!
Yours cordially,
Burt
Dr. Burt Kimmelman, Professor of English
Department of Humanities
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark, New Jersey 07102
973.596.3376 (p); 973.642.4689 (f)
kimmelman@njit.edu
http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma