First, take this brief survey. Consider the results carefully. If you earned less than a “B” in ENGL 1102 and 1101, you might find an online course too challenging.

In additon, if you are a more passive learner — one who likes lectures, assignments printeed on paper, and pleanty of oversight — you might be better served by a traditional face-to-face course. Online courses are for those who have the self-confidence to take risks, engage in non-traditional assignments, and self-motivate.

To restate: if you’re the type of learner that requires the regular guidance and direction of an authority figure, you might do better by choosing a traditional face-to-face course.

When registration begins each semester, online courses are the first to fill up for some reason. Subsequently, I get numerous phone calls and emails asking me about this course. Let me begin by saying that I cannot add you to the course if it is closed. I get several requests a week, and I cannot accommodate them all, so to be fair I will not accommodate any. Sorry about that.

Logistics

I do not use Desire2Learn or any other traditional LMS. As of Summer 2013, all coursework, lessons, and activities start on LitMUSE and use Medium and LitMUSE+ as supporting sites. Students will not only be responsible for navigating these sites, but will also be required to have accounts through other services, like Twitter and others.

Fully Online Courses

These courses, as the name suggest, never meet face-to-face. They require even more commitment from students, as they are self-paced and depend on students’ ability to complete lessons without the traditional presence of the professor. Students should be very comfortable with technology and have a current computer (see “System Requirements” below). Before attempting a fully online course, look through the syllabus and its requirements; if you are confused or have many questions, please consider a traditional, face-to-face section.

Hybrid Online Courses

Hybrid courses will meet only once for orientation, and other mandatory days will likely be assigned, depending on the class’ needs. Therefore, the first meeting is mandatory; if you miss it for any reason, you will be counted as a “no-show,” your final grade will suffer by one letter, and you will find it very difficult to get started in the course on your own. After this first meeting, we will sometimes not meet in a classroom again. All subsequent evaluation, discussion, and lecture will take place online. Each course will vary, so it’s crucial that you show up the first week for an orientation.

Other Considerations

Here are some additional aspects that you should consider:

Time

You may believe that because this course is offered online, that it will not require as much time as a traditional classroom course. However, you should plan on spending at least twice the amount of time working on your own to make up for what you would receive from class discussions and lecture. This includes doing extra secondary research, something you may not be used to doing.

Motivation

Since you will be required to budget your time, you must also be self-motivated. You will not have the benefit of having a professor’s presence compelling you to do your work each week; you will have to take on the responsibility. The reality of this is more difficult than it may seem. Procrastination will put you behind and make it very difficult for you to recover. Have a question? You should be comfortable and confident enough to find the answer on your own.

Procrastination — putting off doing your work until later or not doing it consistently — is the number one casue of online course failure.

Course Work

If you have not successfully completed an online course before, I recommend that you do not begin with one that is fully online. If you have not successfully completed a college-level literature course before (including 1102), you should not begin with this one. Literature courses benefit from in-class discussion; many find the literature challenging, so without the benefit of a professor’s in-class guidance, many find the challenge too difficult.

The bottom line is that online humanities courses are very challenging, which unfortunately produces high attrition rate because many students are just not ready for them, but they can be with a bit of foreknowledge. I do not want to discourage anyone from taking one, and I’m willing to discuss this further with anyone during my office hours or by appointment. However, I ask that you consider this carefully.

Do not sign up for an online class with the expectation that it will be easy.

If anything, it is more difficult than taking the course in-class.

System Requirements

For minimum computer requirements, see those Second Life outlines (this does not necessarily mean that your class will use Second Life). A fast, reliable Internet connection from your residence is also a requirement for this course. Yes, there are open-use labs on both campuses, but I would not recommend that you rely on these to accomplish this course.

One final point: I cannot answer your technical support questions. You should know your system and its capabilities. I can, however, recommend some software that might help you in your studies.