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Nuts 'n bolts of taking the course
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Nuts 'n bolts of taking the course
5:44 PM EDT 3/12/09
I want to collect observations and suggestions for the nitty gritty of navigating through the course. I'll start with my first recommendations about the auto-advance and audio.

Auto-advance: this is the default for me. I want total control over when to move on to the next page, so I turn this feature OFF right away. It's a small button at the bottom of the window to the left of the audio button.

Audio: I usually turn the voice off because I generally prefer to read the text. However, in this course, I'm leaving the audio ON. The visuals are too distracting and interfere with my reading of the captioning, which is in a small horizontal band below the image area. I turn the audio off for the test questions or when there's a lot of text and i get impatient waiting for the voice to read it all.

These are just my take on the experience. Please share any comments you have on the technical, functional aspect of the course.
RE: Nuts 'n bolts of taking the course
6:26 PM EDT 3/12/09 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
Hi everyone, As Betha mentioned in our kick-off webinar, here is the link to the Do-Not-Disturb door hanger and tent card that you can download (PDF file, only 20 Kemoticon.

Door Hanger: http://www.webjunction.org/for-learners/articles/content/443770

Tent Card: http://www.webjunction.org/for-learners/articles/content/443999
RE: Nuts 'n bolts of taking the course
6:11 PM EDT 3/12/09 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
Be sure to check out the Resources associated with the course. They show up when you click on a tab at the bottom of the page. There are 2 sets: Skillsbriefs and JobAids.

I really like to use these to recap in one glance what I've learned.
RE: Nuts 'n bolts of taking the course
8:34 AM EDT 3/13/09 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
Betha, Sharon & Jennifer
Thanks for sharing the tips about the courseware interface. I tried to make a joke about the door hanger, but I am sure it sailed by everyone, which is probably just as well.

My contribution this morning is more nutty than nuts and bolts, but I thought I would share. Whether or not you want this visual, here is me playing around at my desk during the meetup.




This chimp mirror started out as a joke, but I have begun to find it very useful
RE: Nuts 'n bolts of taking the course
12:49 PM EDT 3/13/09 as a reply to Sheila Kearns.
Sheila, I love the chimp mirror. I could have used one at my old desk, where there was too much constant action behind my back. Now I have a nice secluded location.

And thanks for sharing pictures. It's another way to add dimension to this online experience.
RE: Nuts 'n bolts of taking the course
1:05 PM EDT 3/13/09 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
More nuts 'n bolts ---a tool for tracking activity in the group. It's feedmyinbox.com. I posted a document about how it works. I set up my feed and got my first digest this morning. It seems to pull in all document and discussion activity. I'm not sure that it records changes to the overview page. I'll keep testing.

Thanks to Peter Bromberg for telling us about this at our kick-off meeting. This is a great example of how the social stuff augments our learning.
RE: Nuts 'n bolts of taking the course
12:17 PM EDT 3/27/09 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
Okay, three weeks in to the course, I am less enamored of FeedMyInbox.

What I like about it:
  • I receive a daily digest of discussion activity in the group.
  • I can read the posts right there in my inbox.


What I don't like:
  • The digest summarizes what happened a full day earlier, which is okay, but for this course, I want to be in more immediate contact.
  • The links in the digest all go the WebJunction home page ---not even to the overview page of the group, much less to the specific discussion. Lame!
  • It doesn't seem to be capturing all activity, though I'm not sure what has fallen through the cracks.


A Better Way:
Sheila K had the great idea to set your MyWebJunction as a secondary home page. Firefox allows you to have more than one home page that loads automatically when you start up the browser.
In MyWebJunction, you'll see all the recent activity of your friends, including the start of new discussion threads that you haven't yet subscribed to. Of course, it means that you have to have friended everyone in the course group.
RE: Nuts 'n bolts: My Webjunction says I've completed the course
9:22 AM EDT 4/9/09 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
But I actually haven't.

At first I thought the course disappeared from "My Courses" but then I found it at the bottom of the page listed as a course that I have completed. Could that be because I took the test for the last unit before I started it?

--a little bit of a jolt as I was rushing in to complete the course before our wrap-up meeting.

emoticon Sheila
RE: Nuts 'n bolts: My Webjunction says I've completed the course
12:15 PM EDT 4/9/09 as a reply to Sheila Kearns.
Sheila, if you completed the tests and "passed" the course before you actually went through the content, the LMS would mark it as complete and move it down to your competed courses section. I guess that means you're so savvy about customer expectations that you didn't need the course!

Just to check the facts: did you take all the tests? If the LMS is marking as complete when you have not taken all the tests (and gotten 70% or better). then there's a bug I need to report.
RE: Nuts 'n bolts: My Webjunction says I've completed the course
1:02 PM EDT 4/9/09 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
--Betha,

Yes, I had taken all the tests even though I had not reviewed the content for the last unit--my habit of taking a pre-test to see how little I know.

If I had been more watchful, I would have seen the course completion in the updates list on My Webjunction and figured this out for myself.

thanks for checking in with me.

Sheila