Instructional Technology Program
University of South Florida College of Education

EDK CGS 6210
Microcomputer Hardware Systems in Education

ANNOUNCEMENTS & FAQS

Welcome to Hardware. Acquire and read the Course Syllabus and all other course materials from http://www.coedu.usf.edu/it/hardware/ . There are NO physical meetings of this class until the final exam. All of your work should be emailed to the instructor at vbmail@coedu.usf.edu.  See the syllabus for more details.  After you have read the syllabus, you should know how to proceed. Get your course text (if you haven't already) and get started on your learning units and assignments. If any questions remain unanswered for you please let me know by email.

I do not intend to implement any portion of this course via the USF Portal with Blackboard.  Those resources are much more than we will need.  Email and the course web site will suffice.  However, please feel free to use the Blackboard course site to communicate among yourselves or to make use of the other resources there.  (Don't hesitate to let me know if I need to enable any features or make any other configuration changes to serve your needs.)  Just don't look for me there. Please send all messages to me at vbmail@coedu.usf.edu

FAQS -- LOGISTICAL

QL1: How do I make real contact with you?

AL1: It is very easy to make an appointment by email to meet with me in my office or to speak with me by phone.  Other methods meet with much less success.

QL2: May I use an email account for the course other than the one provided for me by USF or indicated in Blackboard?

AL2: Sure, just let me know what it is. (Also, any student who doesn't use their account at mail.usf.edu should at least configure it to autoforward.)

QL3: May I submit work early?

AL3: You may work at as rapid a pace as you wish.  I'll do my best to keep up with you.

QL4: How will I know if my work is correct?

AL4: In most cases it should be self-evident, but whatever the case you will always receive a return email from me with feedback in response to your message. If the assignment is OK I will tell you so. If it is not, I will tell you what I think you should do. For the Project I will only acknowledge receipt, but I will evaluate it and incorporate my evaluation into your overall course evaluation.  Assignment #3 submissions come too late to acknowledge, but I will not issue a course grade without inquiring further if I do not receive your Assignment #3.

QL5: How soon will you respond?

AL5: I prioritize. I try to respond to direct questions from distance learners within 24 hours of my receipt the message.  (Note: Friday and weekend messages usually aren't received until Monday.) For assignment submissions and resubmissions about which you don't have questions, I try (and almost always succeed) to respond on a weekly cycle, much as you would experience in an on-campus class, throughout the semester, until exam week begins. During the semester I try to let NO message of any kind go unanswered for longer than a week, except during University holidays. Finally, I wait until after the deadline to send a group response to LU#1, so if you send yours early you might wait more than a week.

QL6: When should I expect to get my final grade?

AL6: Faculty submit grades until early the week following exam week.  Grades are released to students via OASIS shortly after that.

FAQS -- TECHNICAL

QT1: I got carried away with using lots of hi-res images or other dense content in my work and now it is too big to attach to an email message.  How can I submit it?

AT1: If you have activated your USF student email account, then USF has also given you a web site at http://yourid.myweb.usf.edu/, with a default page of instructions for using the site. This site is ideal for posting just about anything to download, so why not post your file there and send me the url?  You can also use your Content Collection space in Blackboard for this purpose.

QT2: Why won't the online SIMP simulator work on some programs?

AT2: If you are having trouble using the online SIMP simulator to check your answers, it may be that your browser is blocking execution of the JavaScript code as a security measure. This is the default setting on many browsers. You can thank the many purveyors on online viruses, etc. for this additional irritation in your life.  As with many websites that have active content, you’ll have to instruct your browser to allow execution of some or all SIMP scripts – often just the ones that use popup dialogue boxes to allow user data input. In many versions of MSIE, for example, an opportunity to do this will appear right after you press the “Execute” button in the SIMP simulator. A pale yellow bar appears right below the toolbar asking if you want to run the script. Click to allow execution and then press “Execute” again.

 

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