Below I’d like to sketch out in more detail for you how this course is going to work, what is expected of you, and what you can expect from me, your course instructor. Let me begin by saying that you can easily do well in this course; but in order to do well you will have to follow the course guidelines very carefully and especially the course calendar. Because this is a distance course, the course structure becomes especially important. Success usually comes to people who are proactive, that is, who look ahead at what is coming and prepare for it. This strategy is especially key to succeeding in a course that operates on-line, in a distance format, and particularly in what is known as an asynchronous format (that is, you have the freedom of “attending class” at your convenience, not at a specified time--but that freedom can turn out to be a burden if you are not going to be responsible, if you are not going to be disciplined).

There are a number of texts assigned for this course (listed on the course syllabus—accessible from the Moodle course page and to be found here: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/hss403romanceDL.html). I hope these texts will provide you with a fertile reading and thinking experience. Besides reading, we will also be doing a lot of writing. If you wish to succeed in this course you will need, as I have already suggested, to adhere strictly to the course schedule by getting your reading and writing assignments done on time; indeed, you would be smart to start reading ahead of the scheduled class activities—moreover, as soon as possible, you should begin to think about your term research project and writing me about what you want to do.

I have tried to anticipate your needs as well as the needs of this course by setting up a number of venues for us to communicate among ourselves, as you will see, for example, by the topic headings in Discussions (on our course Homepage in Moodle, look on the navigation bar on the left or for the Discussions icon to the right of the bar). Please place comments in the appropriate topic sectors (such as you find them indicated in Discussions when you click there). Check for new postings in this bulletin board and elsewhere at least once daily (though more frequent participation will serve you as well as your classmates better), and respond to them as required or otherwise as you wish, with your comments or questions (daily/weekly classwork makes up a major portion of your course grade). Overall, you will need to familiarize yourself with all the various functions—which allow us as a class many ways to communicate—the Moodle class conferencing system provides. There is also a “Chat” venue that you can use with others in the class or with me—of course, you can always write to me in Moodle—see the appropriate icons on the course homepage, but for doing group work the Chat venue has its downside, insofar as I won't be able to participate with you and, also, I won't have a record of your participation--such a record will exist in Discussions, and I can have recourse to it when making up your weekly and final grades.

It is STRONGLY recommended that you learn the Moodle system thoroughly right away; you may wish to begin your learning process by following the links listed under “Need Help?” at the main Moodle website (look for “Tutorials”).

The basic plan for this course is as follows.

Every few days you will have some reading to do. You will do the reading, and then you will work within a group of your classmates to create a study question based on what you have read (the group study questions should not merely require that someone regurgitate facts or details--rather, the questions should be thoughtful and imaginative, and should provoke thoughtfulness in anyone who would try to answer them--try to create a question with a shape but one that is open-ended), and your group will post the question (but each group member should contribute at least one question to the member's group, and the group should decide which question, probably a modified version of it, will be posted to the rest of the class). Each post your group makes (someone in the group must volunteer to do the posting) must specify which section of which reading the posting concerns itself with, and must contain the name of the group and the names of group members who participated in creating the posting--please note that if someone has not participated substantially then that person's name is NOT to go on the posting--that is, each posting is to be signed only by the group members who worked substantially to create the text of that posting.

Your group will subsequently have to answer study questions posed by the other groups in the class; again, each answer must be signed with the name of the group and names of participating group members. When replying to a question (or to any posting, for that matter), click "Reply" and then add your reply in the window that will open up for you. All of this work needs to take place in the proper topic area in Moodle. Groups will reply as groups to the questions posed by other groups (thus each group will have to decide on the text to be used as an answer to a posted question); after the groups have posted replies or answers then individuals may follow up with further commentary or answers. And there will be times when I will post a follow-up question, which you are expected to answer (not doing so will ensure that you will not receive a higher grade in this course).

When someone is posting in behalf of a group, the language of the posting must reflect the group's point of view; thus a posting should not have language like, say, "I think that Sir Gawain should have [etc.]" but rather the language should read "We believe that Ywain was really better off when he [etc.]." If there are irreconcilable differences among group members about a question or issue then the posting should read something like "Moustafa feels that Ywain was [etc.], while Nancy has said that [etc.]." Another related matter: your group may possibly (though it is not likely) wish to meet in a chat room in real time; but please keep in mind, as I have suggested above, that your discussions there will need to be summarized in your group’s discussion area, since I look there to determine the quantity and quality of each student’s participation. One alternative to providing a summary of the chat is to copy the entire chat transcript and then to post it in your group study space, and then  to notify me that you've done so.

 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 (please keep in mind, however, that text composed in a word processor and then pasted into Moodle will end up as being preceded by a lot of programming code--i.e., textual "garbage"--showing up in the Moodle text window, and so you will have to reenter the window, by clicking on "edit" to do so, and remove that "garbage" coding). All postings to the class must be spell checked before sending; check for grammar problems too. CLARITY and ORDERLINESS is VERY IMPORTANT in an on-line course.

Furthermore, all postings to the class must be in standard English and using standard writing format and formal language. Different communication venues allow, perhaps, or demand different forms of language or writing. How you might write when sending a text message on your telephone or in, say, Twitter, may be acceptable in those venues but may not be acceptable for our formal class discourse that will take place when someone posts a message to the class as a whole. In your group, if your group mates don't mind your using informal language and writing, then informal writing will be alright with me; but informal, or for that matter careless, language and/or writing will not be tolerated in messages meant for the entire class. Needless to say, perhaps, writing assignments submitted to me must be in formal language and must obey formal writing protocols.

The final exam will be "open-book" (but don’t kid yourself that you won’t have to study for it) and in essay format. Please also note that all your writing must be spell-checked and to the best of your ability grammar-checked. If it is not, then you will not receive credit for it.

What you can expect from me is that I will be fair and helpful. But 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 that earn high grades. If you are “silent” in this course, that is, if you don't participate, then the great likelihood is that you will do poorly in it and may even fail it.

What have I left out? How about plagiarism? Okay, then, here’s the deal: If I find you have plagiarized something, I’ll fail you for the course. Blatant plagiarism will be reported to the Dean of Students. Please see here and its linked pages:http://integrity.njit.edu.  If on occasion you are to make use of the ideas or words of someone else in your writing, then the source(s) of those ideas and/or words must be cited; that is, when appropriate, papers must be fully documented (you must cite sources--using footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical documentation, which include when possible specific page numbers keyed to particular passages in one's text, and complete bibliographical information). If you are not sure about documentation principles and/or procedures, you should consult a freshman English textbook such as The Beacon Handbook or better yet The MLA Handbook. Both Writing and Documentation help can also be found at the course website, or at my website (http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/) by clicking on "Writing Guide" (http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/writing.html) and "Documentation Guide" (http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/documentation.html).

Are you ready for this? Well, if you really, seriously, think that you are, then the very next thing I hope you'll do, now, once you have closed out this message from me, and then have familiarized yourself with Moodle, is to introduce yourself to the class, in the Discussions topic sector called "Introducing Ourselves." Tell us about your likes and dislikes, about why you have signed up for this course, about what you hope to do in the future. What year of school are you in? What is your favorite book, movie, song? Do you have a hobby, a job? What is your impression of the Middle Ages?

Personal or private questions? E-mail me from within the Moodle system. DO NOT E-MAIL ME AT MY CAMPUS EDDRESS unless it is a real emergency. By the way, I will normally be e-mailing you if necessary within the Moodle system, which means I will be e-mailing you at your NJIT eddress (so, if you do not regularly check your NJIT mail then you had better be sure that any mail going there gets forwarded to you at the eddress you use regularly).

Class/public questions? Post them in our Housekeeping sections.

One final caution: Please MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT ALL COMMUNICATIONS YOU INITIATE ARE VIRUS-FREE.

I look forward to getting to know you, 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: We all must be aware of how we conduct our virtual selves on-line. Perhaps you have heard 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 anyone. Below are some “Netiquette” concepts I ask you to adhere to when participating in this course.
- Respect. Treat all participants with respect and in a professional and courteous manner in e-mail, chat, and in discussions.
- Kindness: Refrain from using profanities, insults, or other disparaging remarks.
- Truth: Endeavor to cite only the truth and not knowingly misrepresent, mischaracterize, or misquote information.
- Responsibility: Take responsibility for your own actions instead of blaming others.
- Cooperation: Work together with other students and the instructor in cooperation toward our common goals of seeking
   and providing a quality education.
- Nondiscrimination: Respect the differences in people and their ideas and opinions.
- Civility: Always treat your fellow classmates and instructor civilly.

Okay?

Oh, Oh, one final, final, final thing: Please e-mail me (using the Moodle  function) to let me know that you have read all of the above and that you understand it completely. Thanks so much. (And, please see the P.S. below.)
 

Yours cordially,

Burt Kimmelman
http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma

P.S. Matters related to the above course introduction, which are meant to augment it, can be found at the course Website. Please make sure you read the material there before going any further in this course. The course website is: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/hss403romanceDL.html.
 
* Once you’ve found your way around our course in Moodle, I recommend you do two things to make your life easier and also more functional, and so that you optimize (at least, I believe doing this will be an optimization for you) your chances of doing better in the course. First of all, click on “Participants”in Moodle (left side of the screen) and then click on your name. Then click on "Edit Profile.” Then select “Yes: Highlight new posts for me” in the box next to “Forum Tracking” (this is about halfway down the list of options in Edit Profile). Secondly, go to moodle.njit.edu and click on "Student Tutorials." Then click on number 12, “Email Digest Type,” and follow the directions you will then be presented with in a pdf file. Following these directions will allow you to receive email notifications of forum posts in a "digest" form. If you receive your Moodle notifications in a Digest form then you will be receiving the emails all at once but only once a day. This may be a better option for you, since you will be able to set time aside to prioritize your responses to the posts in Moodle, and you won’t feel overwhelmed by emails from the course constantly coming at you and perhaps distracting you.