L517: Advanced Study of the Teaching of Secondary School Reading

POSTING TO ONCOURSE

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You will be posting your responses to the weekly discussion topic(s), question(s), or activity/ies in Oncourse. Additionally, you will be responding to your assigned partners' postings. To find out what the weekly topic(s), question(s), or activity/ies is/are, go to the calendar and click on the topic for the week.

Each topic has its own set of Oncourse activities. Clicking on a topic brings you to a page that includes that topic's reading assignment, lecture, and Oncourse Activity. The Oncourse activity is at the bottom of the page. 

Weekly timetable for posting to Oncourse: 

Every week has a different timetable to follow.  Please check the specific topic for the week to see when and how many Oncourse postings are due for that topic.

Responding to a Classmate's Posting

You will have a different partner for each topic. At the start of the course your instructor will post a list indicating partners for all topics. How you will respond to your partner differs from topic to topic. Check the Oncourse requirement for each topic.  (Go to the calendar and click on the topic for the week. Clicking on a topic brings you to a page that includes that topic's reading assignment, lecture, and Oncourse question. The Oncourse question or activity, as well as information about how to respond to your partner, can be found at the bottom of the page.)

If Your Partner Does Not Post on Time

With the exception of the first posting of the week, your postings are in response to your partners' postings. Therefore, if your partner fails to post a response or fails to post a response on time, that will affect what you are able to do. Rest assured that you will never be penalized for posting late if it was due to the fact that your partner posted late. If your partner's posting is not in Oncourse when it should be you have two options:

1. Wait about 24 hours to see if your partner gets his/her posting on Oncourse and/or,
2. Abandon your partner and respond to your instructor's posting instead. Please send your instructor an e-mail that says that you have done so. Your instructor will then e-mail your partner to let him/her know that the abandonment has taken place.  If you are the partner who has been abandoned due to your late posting, you may also work with the instructor for that week.

Your partners are relying on you to post on time. Posting up to 24 hours late for a given topic will result in a 2 point deduction from the score your partner assigns you. (See below for partner scoring information.) Posting more than 24 hours late for a given topic will result in a score of 0 for that topic.

Each week you will assign your partner(s) a score using the following rubric. You will e-mail these scores to your instructor via Oncourse e-mail by the end of the day each Monday (except for the first Monday of the course). (The score(s)will be for the previous week.)

If your partner does not complete ALL postings for the week, his/her score will be 0.

There are 12 topics for which Oncourse postings are required.  Therefore, each student will receive 11 scores out of 4 from partners throughout the course. During week 7 (after you have received 6 scores out of 4 from various partners), your instructor will e-mail you your total score so far, which will be out of 20 points.

At the end of the course, your instructor will drop the lowest Oncourse grade that you received during the semester. (The lowest Oncourse grade dropped cannot be a 0 due to a skipped week. In other words, it is not an option to skip a week of postings assuming that that week's score will then be dropped at the end of the semester. If you have received a score of 0 due to the fact that you did not post during a week, your lowest score dropped will be the lowest score you received during a week when you did post.) Your final Oncourse grade will therefore be out of 40 points.

You will not receive your scores on a weekly basis. However, if it is clear from the scores you are receiving from your partners that there is a consistent problem with your postings, your instructor will e-mail you to make you aware of your partners' concerns.

Getting to Oncourse

    In the left-hand column of any L517 web page click on Oncourse.

To Post a Response

1. Along the top of the page you will see several tabs. One of them says "In Touch." Click on that tab.
2. Under "Discussion Forums," click on the forum to which you want to post.
3. Type in a "Subject" and your "Message" and click "Send." (This is called a first level response)

Reading Responses

1. Get into the forum you're interested in (following steps 1 and 2 under "To Post a Response" above.
2. On the left-hand side of your screen you will see a little folder with a + sign next to it. (If there are no postings in the forum, there will not be a + sign.)
3. Click on the + sign and you'll see a list of the first level postings. If someone has responded to a first level posting, there were be a + sign indicating that that posting has a second level posting.
4. Click on the + sign to see any second level postings.
5. Click on the subject of the posting to read it.

1. Follow the steps above under "Reading Responses" to read the person's response you will be responding to.  In order to respond to a posting you must first click on the subject of that posting!!
2. Below the person's posting you will be responding to, you will see a purple bar that says " Reply to this Message." Under that is the subject line, which contains the same subject of the posting you are responding to. You will also see a place for you to type your message.
3. Type your message and click "Send."

It is strongly suggested that you type your response in a word processor and save it before posting it to Oncourse. After typing your response into a word processor, you can copy and paste the response into Oncourse or add it to a posting as an attachment. This will help you avoid a lot frustration if you experience problems posting to Oncourse, or you lose your connection to the Internet while trying to post.