Important information about taking English 201 or English 202 as an on-line course:
 

 

English 202 over the Internet has several benefits for the student:
  • There are no attendance requirements beyond having to take the quizzes and the essay exam either on the Tech campus or in a monitored remote setting;
  • It allows you to work on your assignments according to your own schedule;
  • All of the lectures are available to you on the Web site, in a form which you can print out rather than having to take notes;
  • My Web site has its own search engine and contains links to search engines to search the Internet; and
  • Communication between the teacher and student can be done by e-mail, telephone, FAX, or by personal conferences or a combination of all of these means.  But it is not necessary for the student and teacher to be in the same place at the same time for the course information to be conveyed to the student.

But, this on-line course may present some difficulties for the student:

  • I will not be lecturing.  If you need to hear the material to learn it, don't take this class.  If you can learn by reading and don't need to hear something to remember it, then this course may be for you.
  • Because there are no attendance requirements, there is no specific time when the student must work on English 201 or 202.  You must decide on the times to work on the course; you may use as much time or as little time as you decide.  Your grade will be dictated by the quality of your work.  However, there is usually a direct correlation between the time spent on the work and the grade the work receives:  it takes longer to do a high-quality job than it takes to do a low-quality job.
  • The general rule for college classes is to spend two hours outside a class doing work for every hour spent in class.  Since we would normally spend 4 hours in class per week, I recommend that you spend those 4 hours plus an additional 8 hours reading and studying the assignments.  For those of you who are math challenged, that's a total of 12 hours per week as a general rule.  Your own abilities will determine how much more or less time you will need to devote to the class. 
  • You cannot be passive when taking this course; you must be actively involved in accessing the Web site, keeping up with the assignments given in the Syllabus, and must make a point of asking questions by e-mail or some other means.  
  • There will be no lectures or question/answer sessions as there are in classroom classes when information is conveyed to all students without active effort on the student's part.
  • Did I mention that I won't be lecturing and that you'll need to learn this on your own?  You'll need to be self-disciplined and a self-starter if you want to do well in this class.

COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS

Students must have access to the Internet and the WorldWide Web, with Web-browsing software such as Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Also, students must have access to E-mail; some of the assignments will be sent as E-mail attachments, and it is possible that some of the assignments may be submitted via E-mail.
The English Department at Louisiana Tech University has a 62-station computer laboratory in George T. Madison Hall, which may be used by any student currently enrolled in an English course. In addition, there are two new computer labs open to students in Wyly Tower. Also, a new computer lab is open in Madison Hall Room 165; it is open to all Tech students.