Frequently Asked Questions Course home | Weekly schedule | Announcements | Instructor Info | Desire2Learn | Honor Code | FAQs | HELP!

Before you email the instructor with a question, please look to see if we have already answered it below. Also, it is worth checking the excellent College of Arts and Sciences Online Learning Resource Center site.

Questions about the course
Questions about Desire2Learn

Questions about the course

Q: Will I have to come on campus to take this course?
A: No, this course is entirely online. There will be no face-to-face lectures or exams. Depending on who your instructor is, it may or may not be possible to arrange a face-to-face meeting. For contact info, visit the About the Instructors page.

Q: How will my course grade be determined?
A: See the page on Grading Policies.

Q: Will this course have exams?
A: No, just weekly reading quizzes and writing assignments. For more information, see the page on Grading Policies.

Q: What types of assignments will we do in this class?
A: See the page dedicated to the Types of Assignments.

Q: Will this course be a lot of work?
A: At times it may seem like this online course is more work than a conventional "face to face" class. But you should consider that the national university “standard” workload is about 3 hours per week for each credit hour, whether the class is online or in-person. A lot of students in lecture classes do not spend that time each week, or they spend it all at once right before each exam. In this class, you will have to put in the time each week to complete the assignments.

Q: Is this course totally self-paced?
A: No. You can work up to two weeks ahead, but you can’t postpone all the work until the end of the semester, nor can you finish it all in the first week. The fact that you can work ahead means that you can control your own schedule. You can't do all the course work at once because this course relies extensively on your comments on your peers' work, so you have to stay more or less on the same pace. Also, as instructors, we think it is a really good habit for you to work at a steady pace all semester long (and not just for this class either).

Q: What is the policy on late work?
A. No late work will be accepted, except in case of documented medical emergency. Email your instructor as soon as possible.

Q: What is the Honor Code?
A: See the page dedicated to the Honor Code.

Q: Why are we using two different sites to complete our assignments?
A: There is no single website or course management system that does everything well. Therefore, we use different sites that each have different strengths. The sites are:

• Course Homepage: This is where you are right now! This allows us to post information and details about assignments in an environment that we can completely control.
• Desire2Learn (http://learn.ou.edu): You will take all your reading/declaration quizzes here, and I will occasionally post additional materials you'll need to complete your assignments. You will post ALL your Starting Assumptions, Digging Deeper, Freelance Writer, and Adopt-a-Species assignments here, and also respond to other students' assignments. There is also a link to this course website on Desire2Learn.

Questions about Desire2Learn

Q: How do I log in to Desire2Learn?
A: Go to OU's Desire2Learn page, then enter your OUNet ID (your 4+4) as the Desire2Learn ID and your "regular" OU password.

Q: How do I get a word count in my discussion board posts in Desire2Learn?
A: The course page at Desire2Learn has a link along the top navigation bar to a little application called spellcheck.net. You can just paste in your text, and the program will not only do a spell check, but it will also give you the word count.

Q: How do I add special fonts, colors, bold-facing, italics, and other fancy features to my discussion board posts in Desire2Learn?
A: Desire2Learn comes with a built in html editor, and you don't have to know a speck of html to use it. When you start a message or reply to someone else's, you'll see two tabs in the upper left corner of the box. One says "basic" and one says "advanced." There are some basic text editing functions (bold, italic, underline, etc.) under the "basic" tab, but to view the entire compliment of text editing options (including text colors, superscripts, strikethrough, etc.) you will need to click on the "advanced" tab. When you're done entering your text, you click "post," and you're in business.

Q: How do I get help with Desire2Learn?
A: Visit this site's HELP! page for help with Desire2Learn.

Contemporary Issues in Biology -- BIOL 1003 Marielle H. Hoefnagels, Ph.D. © 2004-2009. biology1003 at OU dot edu (at = @, dot =.) Last Updated July 23, 2009 9:30 PM