ernest morgan . com

American Government
Syllabus | Assignments | Discussion Forum | Announcements
Lecture Notes | Links | Instructor Page | Email Addresses

Welcome Message

Hi All,

Welcome to American Government! Here are a few thoughts, hints and concerns, I want to share with you at the beginning of the semester. Please read them carefully.

Thanks,

Ernest
 

Explore the Site!

It is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with all pages connected to the site. You especially need to read and understand everything in the syllabus. The syllabus is a contract between you and me. You can be sure I will not unilaterally alter any policies, but you can also be sure that I will copiously enforce all such policies. 
 

Submitting Messages to the Discussion Forum

Here is how to get yourself set up for the discussion forum. I should let you know that the discussion forum service is provided by a private firm, so before you log on to the class discussion forum, you will have to register with Network54. Here are the directions to do this:

  1. Go to http://network54.com.
  2. Click on the Create Account link -- you will see it under the Getting Started heading -- upper left of your screen.
  3. Enter a Login name, Password and Email Address, and click on the Create Account button. Please use a unique login name and password; do not use the username/password combination I have given you to access the Lecture Notes and Email Addresses sections of the course site.
  4. Enter your First and Last Name, your Email Address; actually the email address should already be entered, but do check the box just to the right of External Email, and then click on the Continue button.
  5. Now go back to the course site and click on the Discussion Forum link.
  6. Most likely you will already be logged on, but if not, click on the login link and then enter your Login name and your Password, and if all works, you're set!
After this initial registration process, all you'll need to do for future visits to the Discussion Forum will be the following:
  1. Click on the Discussion Forum link.
  2. Click on the login link.
  3. Enter your Login name and Password, and click on the Login Now button.
  4. Click on the title of any message to open it.
  5. When you wish to respond to a message, click on the Respond to this message link, found at the bottom right of the box. 
  6. To return to the of message index, click on the Return to Index link, found at the top right of the box.
  7. When responding to a message, please also enter the title of the message to which you are responding into the field for Message Title. For example, if you are responding to a message titled Welcome to POL 120!, then enter Re: Welcome to POL 120! in the field for the Message Title. For some browser programs, the Network54 software will automatically enter this information for you. Do a little experimenting to see if you will need to enter the Message Title manually or if your browser program will do it for you automatically.
  8. Once you have entered the Message Title (remember it is the same as the title as the message to which you are responding), and your Message Text, click on the Respond! button at the bottom of the box.
  9. Please do remember this rule: Never click on the Instructor Posting link seen at the top right of the box when the index listing of message titles is displayed. This is only for me to post our initial questions for discussion. To ensure the correct positioning of your message, you must always, click only on the Respond to this message link for the exact message to which you wish to respond.
I will post the topic questions for our weekly discussions by 8am Friday mornings. All responses received by midnight the evening of the following Friday (7 days later), will be counted toward participation for that discussion. To be counted as present, a student must respond to at least one of my topic questions and at least one of the responses of a fellow student. This means you will have to log into the discussion more than once a week! You are of course encouraged to respond more than twice. Your participation grade will depend on both the quantity and the quality of your postings. Do note that I value your responses to fellow students twice as much as your responses to my initial questions. The idea of the discussion forum is to discuss, not simply to regurgitate information, and I will reward those who carry the discussion. Also, responses such as, 'good point,' don't count; unless you spend time detailing why you believe it was a 'good point.' To receive full participation credit, students should plan on responding to at least two questions posted by the instructor and three responses posted by other students. Please do not wait till the last Friday of our discussion to make your initial response. Students waiting till the last Friday of the discussion to make their initial response will be counted as present for participation grade purposes, but will receive no additional participation credit.
 

Announcements Page

While I will often send major announcements via email, I will always post announcements on the Announcements page. It is your responsibility to check the Announcements page every couple of days. 
 

Keeping in Touch

Don't disappear! This is not a correspondence course! Your active and consistent participation is a necessity. If you are experiencing a problem let me know. Ideally you should do this via email (ernest@ernestmorgan.com), but if you are experiencing problems with your email, you may leave a voice mail for me at 608-835-1958.
 

Downloading and Sending Assignments

I suggest you have your browser and word-processing programs opened simultaneously. This will allow you to easily move material up to and down from the Web. To download an assignment, simply highlight the material and then hit Control-c (this will copy the material highlighted). Now move to your word-processing program and hit Control-v (this will paste the material that has been highlighted). ***One note, Control-c means that you hold down the control key and hit the c button.***

To send an assignment, simply reverse the procedure. One very important note, however, once you have completed an assignment, SAVE YOUR WORK! Nothing is more frustrating than rewriting an assignment you have already completed. So to send an assignment do the following:

  1. Save your work!
  2. Highlight your text. 
  3. Hit Control-c. 
  4. Move to your email program. 
  5. Make sure you are in the text section of your message.
  6. Hit Control-v. 
Please do not send material via attachments. I do not accept attachments due to my fear of computer viruses. 

Unfortunately you will not be able to send an image or a graph via regular email. To counteract this problem, you may include a reference to an image, table, or graph in the text of your assignment. Just find a graph or an image in the text that relates to the information you wish to convey, and insert a reference (page number, figure number, table number, etc.) along with your explanation of the graph, image or table.

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