Once you get to the classroom, what do you do?
Read the messages posted there. In Element K courses, almost all interaction
between the instructor and the students takes place through messages
posted in the classroom--lectures, assignments, question and
answer sessions, homework, group discussions, and so on.
Below are some good, general tips for reading the boards.
Read all the messages. When you're busy, it's tempting to shorten
your sessions by reading only the lectures and assignments from
the instructor, but you'll miss a lot if you do. Many of the best
ideas, the best answers, and the best pointers to new resources
come up in exchanges between students, or between students and
the instructor or training assistant. If you're stuck on part of the course work,
there's a good chance that others are, too, and that they're already
working out the solution in classroom discussions.
You do, though, need to keep track of messages containing lectures
and assignments from your instructor. Beside every message that
your instructor posts is a special instructor icon. Look for it.
There you'll find all the classroom assignments, labs, and
exercises, as well as answers your instructor posts to student
questions.
General tips for posting messages
In a Element K classroom (unlike a regular classroom), you don't have
to wait your turn, raise your hand, or worry about interrupting
someone else. Just speak up!
Below are some rules of thumb to help you post messages effectively.
Found some new source of information that you think other students
in the class could use? Post it. The more you participate, the
more you'll get out of the class.
Please don't e-mail your course questions to the instructor--post them in the classroom. If you have a
question, chances
are that other students have the same question. When your instructor
answers your question in the classroom, it's answered for your
classmates, as well.
Read the existing messages before posting a new message. Someone
else may already have posted--and even answered--your question.
Include a meaningful subject for each message that you post.
Remember that when someone is looking at the message tree in the
left frame, your message subject is all they have to go by.
Do not post messages that have personal attacks, profanity,
flame language or insulting names. Element K has the same standards
of conduct expected in any educational environment. Messages violating
these guidelines will be removed from public view without notice
to the writer. You may wish to review the Element K Terms and Conditions.
General tips for posting homework
Wondering what to do with your homework? The answer varies from
class to class. In HTML-related classes, for example, you may
be posting your homework as pages in your own Web site. In other
classes, you may be posting your homework as messages in the classroom.
In still other classes, you may not need to submit your homework
unless you have a question about it or need some specific help.
Most instructors include information about how and where to post
homework when they make the homework assignments. If you miss
that information or are still unsure what to do, ask the instructor
or training assistant by posting a message in the classroom.
Why you can't use an offline reader at Element K
There are a number of programs--such as Web Whacker--that will
automatically download a Web page and all its graphics, or even
a whole Web site, for you. These programs, which are sometimes
called offline readers but are actually simple Web robots, work
by "walking" through a Web site, following every link
on a page, and downloading every page and graphic they find.
Unfortunately, these robots are not yet very smart, so in a Element K
message board, they'll click on every link they find, including
the buttons next to all of your posted messages. To avoid problems,
we must ask you not to use any of the
current Web robots.
The best way to view Element K lessons or other information offline is either to print them out or to cut and paste material into
a word processing file. If you choose to do this, remember that all Element K material is copyrighted and
may not be distributed.
