Good morning everyone,
I'd like to take a minute to welcome everyone to MACO, and introduce myself. I am James Wiseman, and I will be working with Dr. Shimek to administer this course. From time to time you will receive emails from me, and I will also be posting announcements on the MACO webpage and the discussion board. Check them often. This is our second time running this course, so (cross your fingers) hopefully everything will go off without a hitch. I do realize that from time-to-time you may encounter technical difficulties, and I encourage you to email me, or post them to the discussion board.
With that said, we are fast approaching the start date for the course, which is Monday, October 29th. At that time, the course will begin in earnest. How about we review what we need to do before then, and what we need to be ready to do?
1) Lectures. You should have all downloaded and perused the 1st lecture. This requires that you install the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you haven't done either of these yet, please go the the MACO Students Page at:
http://www.reefs.org/maco/course_3/index.html
Familiarize yourself with the page. Click on "Lectures" and you will see that they are arranged by week. Week 0 contains the introductory materials and the schedule. The Document "Intro and Schedule.pdf" is your guide. It will tell you what you are expected to do each week and what reading assignments need to be completed. Please make yourself familiar w/ this document before Monday!!
The Week1 folder contains your first lecture for the course. You would do well to download it and be familiar with it for the first discussion session. We will aim to keep all downloads for MACO to under 1 (one) Megabyte. Because of the excellent pictures and figures, this may mean breaking the lectures into parts, so be advised.
2) Discussions. We will have our first discussion on Wednesday October 31st at 8pm Eastern time. There is a link to the Chat Room on the MACO Students Page at:
http://www.reefs.org/maco/course_3/index.html
Click on the Chat heading and you will be taken to a software program that will connect you to #MACO, our private chatroom. Unfortunately, this program only works with PC based systems. If you are using a Macintosh, you will need to use a different program to access the chatroom. For instructions on connecting to the chatroom using other programs, please see:
www.reefs.org/access/index.html Which will give you specific instructions for whatever system you are using. We have tried to accomodate the majority of people by setting up the chat program on our website, but realize that it won't work for everyone. SO, try it out before Wednesday, and if you are having problems, please email me.
3) Quizzes. You will hear more about these from the Instructor, I guarentee... The quizzes will be archived on the MACO Students Page as well.
4) Labs. You will hear more about these from the Instructor as well.
5) MACO Students Discussion Board. Currently, we have been using the "Questions and Comments" discussion board, which is open to everyone. Once the course enrollment is closed, you will want to use the Private discussion board. More details will be posted the first week of the course. Be aware, it it YOUR responsibility to check the discussion boards for announcements. I will not be "spamming" everyone with email whenever there is a change. You will need to REGISTER for the discussion board in order to read and post. You can register at:
http://www.reefs.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=agree
It will email you your login and you will have a DISCUSSION BOARD password. This is different from the MACO password. So...you will have to remember 2 passwords (write them down!) for the course. One for the discussion board, and one for MACO.
Don't forget...CHECK THE DISCUSSION BOARD OFTEN. There is a link to the discussion board from the Maco Students Page.
6) Passwords (Groan). After this first week of class, you will need a password to gain access to the MACO Students Page, and the MACO Students Discussion Board. I will email it to all enrolled students the first week. If you do NOT receive an email from me and you read this on the MACO page, please EMAIL ME ASAP.
If you are reading this and you are not enrolled in the course, but wish to be, please go to:
http://www.reefs.org/maco/registration1.html
Well folks, that's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure there will be more... I am really looking forward to taking this course with you, and if there is anything that the Instructor or Myself can do to help, please don't hesitate to email us or post on the discussion board. This is going to be a challenging course for you all, so remember, stick to it, and WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT IS WHAT YOU GET OUT OF IT.
Cheers
James Wiseman
Maco Administrator
[ October 26, 2001: Message edited by: jamesw ]</p>
I'd like to take a minute to welcome everyone to MACO, and introduce myself. I am James Wiseman, and I will be working with Dr. Shimek to administer this course. From time to time you will receive emails from me, and I will also be posting announcements on the MACO webpage and the discussion board. Check them often. This is our second time running this course, so (cross your fingers) hopefully everything will go off without a hitch. I do realize that from time-to-time you may encounter technical difficulties, and I encourage you to email me, or post them to the discussion board.
With that said, we are fast approaching the start date for the course, which is Monday, October 29th. At that time, the course will begin in earnest. How about we review what we need to do before then, and what we need to be ready to do?
1) Lectures. You should have all downloaded and perused the 1st lecture. This requires that you install the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you haven't done either of these yet, please go the the MACO Students Page at:
http://www.reefs.org/maco/course_3/index.html
Familiarize yourself with the page. Click on "Lectures" and you will see that they are arranged by week. Week 0 contains the introductory materials and the schedule. The Document "Intro and Schedule.pdf" is your guide. It will tell you what you are expected to do each week and what reading assignments need to be completed. Please make yourself familiar w/ this document before Monday!!
The Week1 folder contains your first lecture for the course. You would do well to download it and be familiar with it for the first discussion session. We will aim to keep all downloads for MACO to under 1 (one) Megabyte. Because of the excellent pictures and figures, this may mean breaking the lectures into parts, so be advised.
2) Discussions. We will have our first discussion on Wednesday October 31st at 8pm Eastern time. There is a link to the Chat Room on the MACO Students Page at:
http://www.reefs.org/maco/course_3/index.html
Click on the Chat heading and you will be taken to a software program that will connect you to #MACO, our private chatroom. Unfortunately, this program only works with PC based systems. If you are using a Macintosh, you will need to use a different program to access the chatroom. For instructions on connecting to the chatroom using other programs, please see:
www.reefs.org/access/index.html Which will give you specific instructions for whatever system you are using. We have tried to accomodate the majority of people by setting up the chat program on our website, but realize that it won't work for everyone. SO, try it out before Wednesday, and if you are having problems, please email me.
3) Quizzes. You will hear more about these from the Instructor, I guarentee...
The quizzes will be archived on the MACO Students Page as well.4) Labs. You will hear more about these from the Instructor as well.
5) MACO Students Discussion Board. Currently, we have been using the "Questions and Comments" discussion board, which is open to everyone. Once the course enrollment is closed, you will want to use the Private discussion board. More details will be posted the first week of the course. Be aware, it it YOUR responsibility to check the discussion boards for announcements. I will not be "spamming" everyone with email whenever there is a change. You will need to REGISTER for the discussion board in order to read and post. You can register at:
http://www.reefs.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=agree
It will email you your login and you will have a DISCUSSION BOARD password. This is different from the MACO password. So...you will have to remember 2 passwords (write them down!) for the course. One for the discussion board, and one for MACO.
Don't forget...CHECK THE DISCUSSION BOARD OFTEN. There is a link to the discussion board from the Maco Students Page.
6) Passwords (Groan). After this first week of class, you will need a password to gain access to the MACO Students Page, and the MACO Students Discussion Board. I will email it to all enrolled students the first week. If you do NOT receive an email from me and you read this on the MACO page, please EMAIL ME ASAP.
If you are reading this and you are not enrolled in the course, but wish to be, please go to:
http://www.reefs.org/maco/registration1.html
Well folks, that's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure there will be more...
I am really looking forward to taking this course with you, and if there is anything that the Instructor or Myself can do to help, please don't hesitate to email us or post on the discussion board. This is going to be a challenging course for you all, so remember, stick to it, and WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT IS WHAT YOU GET OUT OF IT.Cheers
James Wiseman
Maco Administrator
[ October 26, 2001: Message edited by: jamesw ]</p>
