Course Requirements

Because this course is Web based and because it is designed to be largely but not solely asynchronous, students must be self-paced and always self-motivated.

What do we mean by synchronous and asynchronous course delivery. In a synchronous environment, we do the same things at the same time. Meeting together in a classroom or in a real-time on-line chat room is synchronous. In the asynchronous environment, students choose within limits when and where they will study and participate.

Because we are a diverse group with schedules and lives competing for our time and because it is impossible for me to anticipate in advance who will and who will not be in the course, it is designed as asynchronous. We will have chat capabilities and we will meet in part or in whole as needed synchronously. That will be scheduled when and as needed.

This course contains large blocks of sometimes easy material and sometimes difficult. When possible, I have assigned on-line, Web based readings and other resources to facilitate the asynchronous freedom such a course offers. We will, for example, use a commercial stand alone service as our threaded discussion forum and for synchronous chat when needed. It requires us all to monitor threaded discussions frequently and to participate in those discussions. The software provides the administrator -- in this case, the professor -- with "visitation and participation" statistics. What does this mean? It means Big Brother knows whether and when you were there, whether you post or not.

Do you have to post? Well, yes. This is expected participation just as coming to class is expected. The course is divided into sections. We will encounter those sections in weekly segments. Postings to the board for the section are to begin no later than the assigned week. They may begin earlier and extend longer. But the board is the only forum we have for class communication.

Deliverables

Exams
There are no examinations or quizzes for this course as such.

Written Work
There are several periodic written assignments. These are described in the end section and dates are posted to the course calendar.
Discussion
Extensive on-line discussion of the current issues of the day are encouraged, promoted, and required. Each page has learning objectives and assignments to guide the discussion.

Texts

Two Required Texts:

Miller, Dick R and Kevin S. Clarke. Putting XML to Work in the Library Tools for Improving Access and Management. Chicago, 2003 ALA ISBN: 0-8389-0863-2

<> Caplan, Priscilla. Metadata Fundamentals for All Librarians. Chicago, ALA, 2003

ISBN: 0-8389-0847-0

Useful but not required:

Amy Tracy Wells, Susan Calcari, and Travis Koplow. The Amazing Internet Challenge. Chicago: American Library Association, 1999
ISBN 0-8389-0766-0
LCC ZA4080.W45

Jane Greenberg, ed. Metadata and Organizing Educational Resources on the Internet. Binghampton, NY: Haworth, 2000 (JIC 3 (1/2) and (3), 2000) ISBN: 0789011794

Alan R. Thomas and James R. Shearer, eds. Internet Searching and Indexing: The Subject Approach. Binghampton, NY: Haworth, 2000 (JIC 2 (3/4), 2000) ISBN: 0789010313

Karen Calhoun and John J. Riemer, eds. Corc : New Tools and Possibilities for Cooperative Electronic Resource Description. Binghampton, NY: Haworth, 2001 (JIC 4 (1/2), 2001)
ISBN: 0789013053

There are also extensive readings assigned for this course. Because of the nature of the course, many of our readings can be found on-line. Others can be found in academic libraries or through Interlibrary Loan. .

Because this course is asynchronous, much of your learning must necessarily be derived from these readings (and any other you may encounter). Do you have to read them all? Of course not. Can you skip over those sections where you are already an expert? That's the advantage of asynchronous Web based delivery. Of course you can and you can pace yourself accordingly.

Some Web based courses more closely follow the correspondence course model than does this one. In a correspondence course, often the start date and end date are open ended. For this course, we will follow the University calendar. The full summer session spans some eight weeks. We will follow the university calendar. So it shall be for us.

Because the course calendar is eight weeks rather than fourteen or fifteen weeks, it will be necessary to do almost twice as much per week.

Learning Objectives

Each block of instruction has a learning objective. The LO is ..........identified by the following symbol:

................... learning objective

There are two types of assignments for this course. The first type are a series of discussions, "class meetings" if you will. There are a number of questions placed throughout the course. These should be addressed by all on the threaded discussion medium. These are leading questions designed to start the discussion.

Be sure to sign on to the discussion software early.

The other assignments are written, to be turned in via email attachment in Word97, html, or pdf format ONLY addressed to the instructor. Each due date is indicated on the course calendar. The assignments are also indicated in the instruction blocks. They are spelled out in detail in the end section.

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|Purpose|Expectations|

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