Online Class Preparation

MOOs are indeed a challenge for class preparation. And the issue of the degree to which we as a profession should be engaged with teaching computer literacy is a knotty one to resolve. Many humanists take the position that the teaching of computer literacy lies more properly with professionals in computer science departments. Moreover, teaching computer literacy skills presupposes that we ourselves are already comfortable with all the technology available. Many of us aren't, and many more of us believe that we simply do not have the kind of time required to accomplish that fluency. Yet burrowing our fingers in the sand and crying over the direction of humanistic study is not going to solve the problem. We need to work with our colleagues in education, computer science, and technology departments to develop ways to help our students succeed in today's technological arenas. While computer science courses may help students learn the ins and outs of software programs, we are in a better position to help them use those programs in a critical, analytical, and sophisticated manner. Adding technology to an already overly stuffed syllabus is a real problem. Many students come to us with little to no experience using computers, even for word-processing. Finding the time to train these students to use such programs as Netscape and telnet is no easy task and takes a fair amount of time. I finally decided that I needed to cut down on the amount of material I covered in the course of the semester. There are, however, resources available to you and students that significantly lower the amount of time necessary for training. All MOOs have extensive online help indexes, for example. Rather than having to teach students all the MOO commands at their disposal, you can simply teach them how to access the online help. You could then assign students--or groups of students--to investigate and report back to the class via e-mail a set of MOO commands. In addition, while somewhat intimidating to students, you need to provide a fair number of handouts on using e-mail or Netscape or Usenet groups.

In addition, MOOs provide a real challenge to traditional course syllabi and daily class preparation if they are to be used as effectively as the medium allows. Because of the more rapid, free-flowing exchange of ideas that take place on a MOO, I like to use the material that gets generated in one session in the next. Ensuring that you adhere to a strict syllabus at the same time is quite a challenge and not always possible. Yet I've never strayed so far from the initial syllabus that it's been difficult to get back on schedule. You need to build some flexibility into your syllabi and be willing--sometimes--to move large sections to an earlier or later date. For example, it's not easy to separate issues of ethos from discussions of audience. Invariably, questions or comments arise that pertain to the one in a discussion of the other. I've built into my syllabus enough time and flexibility to allow for a constant back-and-forth flow between the two. I try to leave the order that we follow up to the particular class.
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jane@wtamu.edu