Friday, December 12 - Monday, December 15

CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached the end of the class! Your final assignments are due this weekend, and the absolute deadline for turning in the Week 15 Storybook assignment will be Monday at noon.

NO LATE ASSIGNMENTS for the Week 15 Storybook. If you need to get credit for the Week 15 Storybook assignment, please make sure you get that turned in by Monday at noon at the very latest. There will be no partial credit for late assignments this week.

Other Week 15 assignments. You are in for a surprise with the Blog Responding assignment (a nice surprise, I promise!). For the Internet assignment, I've created a simple webpage - Online Course Lady - where you can leave a comment for next semester's students (including anonymous comments. if you prefer). The idea is that you can share some tips and tricks - things you have learned this semester that you wish you had known starting out!

Grading and points. As you can see in the Grading Information page, you need 410 to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! If you have any unanswered questions about this grading system, please contact me as soon as possible!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

(click for larger view)

Thursday, December 11

Today is Thursday of WEEK 15 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 14 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore or World Lit, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Storybook stack. As of the end of the work day on Wednesday, I had read and responded to all the Storybook assignments that had been turned in. If you turned something in on Wednesday evening, I'll be updating the stack again on Thursday morning. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

Week 15: Last week of class. (repeat announcement) Because this is the last week of class, there are a few things that are different about this week. There will be no "Early Bird" extra credit points this week because there are no Week 16 assignments for you to turn in early. Most importantly: you need to get your Week 15 Storybook assignment turned in on time - which means, at the very latest, by Monday at noon. There is no partial credit available for late Week 15 Storybook assignments. So, for those of you who have been in the habit of turning in your Storybook late, keep that in mind this week!

December 11: Llywelyn. Today, December 11, is celebrated as the Remembrance Day of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, "Llywelyn the Last," the last prince of Wales as an independent country before it was conquered by England. Llywelyn was born in 1223 and died on December 11 in 1282. You can read more about his life and deeds in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image, showing a sculpture of Llywelyn in the City Hall of Cardiff in Wales. On the left, crouching down, is the bard who sings the hero's great deeds (although the bard is hard to see from this angle), while there is a dead soldier to his right.

Wednesday, December 10

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 15 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 14 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Storybook stack. I've still got a few Storybook assignments in the stack, which I hope to finish on Wednesday morning. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

Tips for next semester's students. (repeat announcement - and thanks to everybody who already left a comment - I think this will be REALLY helpful next semester!) I've created a simple blog - Online Course Lady - where you can leave a comment at the blog (including anonymous comments. if you prefer). The idea is that you can share some tips and tricks with next semester's students. So, think about what you WISH you had known in starting out the semester, so that the students in Spring can benefit from your experience! I'll share this blog with them at the start of the next semester... and thanks in advance for your input there!

December 10: Human Rights Day. Around the world, December 10 is celebrated each year as Human Rights Day, honoring the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948 - so this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Declaration. You can read more about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image showing Eleanor Roosevelt (one of the contributing authors to the Declaration) holding the Spanish-language version, Declaración Universal de Derechos del Hombre:

Tuesday, December 9

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 15 of the class.... YES: it is the last week of the class! If you have not turned in your Week 14 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Ning upgrade. Since there were not any assignments due on Monday, I'm guessing people may not have noticed that the Ning site was up and down for a software upgrade. Based on the information that Ning has supplied, it sounds like the software upgrade should now be complete. If you have any trouble logging on to the Ning on Tuesday, let me know! (There is a long list of small changes that they have made to the software, but I don't think you'll notice anything in particular that's different from before.)

Week 15: Last week of class! Yes, this is the last week of class and there are a few things that are different about this week because it is the last week of class. There are no "Early Bird" extra credit points this week because there are no Week 16 assignments for you to turn in early. Likewise, you need to get your Week 15 Storybook assignment turned in on time - which means, at the very latest, by Monday at noon. There is no partial credit available for late Week 15 Storybook assignments. So, for those of you who have been in the habit of turning in your Storybook late, keep that in mind this week!

Tips for next semester's students. I've created a simple blog - Online Course Lady - where you can leave a comment at the blog (including anonymous comments. if you prefer). The idea is that you can share some tips and tricks with next semester's students. So, think about what you WISH you had known in starting out the semester, so that the students in Spring can benefit from your experience! I'll share this blog with them at the start of the next semester... and thanks in advance for your input there!

Storybook stack. I've been working through the assignments with a focus on those people whose Storybook assignment points will allow them to finish up the class - so if you find yourself in that situation, let me know and I'll move your assignment(s) up to the top of the stack. If you turned in your assignment on or before Sunday at 10PM, you should have comments back from me; if you turned something in later than 10PM on Sunday or on Monday, your assignment is probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

December 9: Webster's Minerva. Today, December 9, is the anniversary of the founding of the very first daily newspaper in America in the year 1793. The paper was called the American Minerva, and it was edited by Noah Webster... and yes, this is the same Webster who published "Webster's Dictionary" - that is, the American Dictionary of the English Language which was first published in 1828. You can read more about Noah Webster in this Wikipedia article, and below you can see a stamp issued in Noah Webster's honor:

Monday, December 8

Today is Monday. Week 14 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 15 - the last week of the class! - will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started.

Desire2Learn: Monday morning outage. There is another scheduled maintenance outage on Monday morning, from 7AM to 8AM (presumably they are doing some further testing on whatever they were working on when they did the D2L maintenance on Friday). Since you do not have any assignments due on Monday, this should not be a problem - but if you have gotten in the habit of using the Monday morning grace period, you should be aware that Desire2Learn will be unavailable from 7AM to 8AM. Normally, IT is very good about getting the system up and running at the scheduled time, but if there are delays, you can check the alerts.ou.edu website for the latest information.

Grading and points. As you can see in the Grading Information page, you need 410 to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! If you can let me know when you are done with the class, I will record the letter grade for you in the Gradebook so that you can be sure you are finished with everything for the class.

Storybook stack. On Monday morning, I will update the contents of the stack, and I will start working my way through the stack based on the order in which things were turned in. As I explained last week, if these Storybook points might give you the points you need to finish up the class, let me know and I'll move your assignment to the top of the stack. Meanwhile, you can always check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

December 8: Joel Chandler Harris. Today, December 8, marks the birthday in 1848 of Joel Chandler Harris, one of the most important folklorists of the American South, still famous today for his collection of "Uncle Remus" stories. You can read more about Harris in this Wikipedia article, and at this background page for the Myth-Folklore unit based on the stories Harris collected. The image below shows Brer Rabbit and Brer Tarrypin (the turtle) talking with the ladies in an illustration from an 1881 edition of Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings.