Week 7 - FERPA

I have wondered about Blackboard's email capabilities and how students have access to other student's email addresses. I haven't had any problems yet and I do ask them not to spam the class. But I can see where this might be a problem if one student uses the email address to register on a website that doesn't have a privacy policy. Now you have opened yourself up for lots of unwanted email.

In the past, I have asked students to introduce themselves and include either a picture of themselves or something they think signifies something about themselves. This was an optional activity and naturally -- I got nothing! I did like Shelley's idea of sharing a picture of your desktop. It says something about yourself, without sharing a lot of personal information.
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Since I decided to go with the MyMathLab/CourseCompass website for the main content of the course, things seem to have direction again. Before, I was creating pieces of the puzzle (syllabus, getting started, crossword puzzles, videos...) but I didn't have anything to bring them together. Now, it feels like there is a backbone to the course and I can fill in all the policies and details.

I have stewed/ranted/submitted/agitated/re-stewed over the selection of a textbook and software for almost the entire duration of this course. A colleague of mine said, "Do what you think is best and be happy!". That is what I intend to do!

Below is a screen shot of the "Course Documents" area of the course.

The following is a screenshot of a sample homework problem. This is one of the biggest reasons I like this website. It is NOT a multiple choice question, it has a help link that helps the student throught the first step to solving the problem, it has a sample worked out problem that the student can study, and it also includes a link to "Ask the Instructor" which send me an email with the problem along with text where the student can ask a question.