What's the difference between a regular course and the online course? Well, as far as the time an effort you'll need to put into the course, not much. You'll have to do just as much homework, just as many assignments, and just as many tests and quizzes as you would in a traditional course.

The main difference is that you won't be meeting in a classroom two or three times a week. Instead, you'll be doing one to three online tutorials per week. These will include the same information that you would get in a traditional classroom lecture. You can expect to spend approximately the same amount of time completing these as you would normally spend in class - about 2.5 - 3 hours per week. To show that you've completed the work, you may be asked to take a quiz on the tutorial and/or complete an assignment related to it. In order to facilitate communication between students, you may also be required to participate in online discussions or work on projects with classmates.

Just like students in a traditional course, you'll have regular reading assignments in the textbook. And, of course, you'll have to take some major exams. These will have to be taken on-campus. (Click on the “Testing” link for more information.)

One of the nice things about an online course is that you have more time flexibility. If you want to do your lessons at 2:00 in the morning, no problem! (Of course, your teacher won't be awake to answer your questions then!) Online lessons are great because you can work at your own pace and review the material as many times as you need to. But the downside is that there won't be anybody standing over your shoulder making sure you do the work. It's easy to fall into the "I'll do it later" mode and, before you know it, you're way behind. In order to prevent that from happening, there will be strict deadlines on each assignment. If you don't finish the assignment by the deadline, you won't get credit. Generally speaking, you'll be given a weeks worth of tutorials and assignments at a time and you'll have until the next week to complete the work.

How do you turn in assignments when you're not on campus? We will be using a program called Web CT that will provide us with a number of tools to submit assignments and quizzes online. Throughout the semester, you will be logging into our Web CT virtual classroom. There you will find all class assignments and announcements posted, links to quizzes and discussion groups, a course calendar, a copy of the syllabus, and an e-mail program that will allow you to communicate with the teacher. You will also be able to view your grades online. (You'll have a special password that will allow you to view your grades online. Nobody else except the teacher will be able to see them.)

You may be wondering what you'll do if you need help with an assignment. The quickest way to get help is to e-mail your teacher using the Web CT e-mail program. She will be checking the e-mail regularly. You can also contact the teacher during regular office hours. Or you can get help from your classmates by posting on a special online bulletin board or contacting them by Web CT e-mail.

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