Course evaluation at eval.ou.edu. The course evaluations should now be available at eval.ou.edu. THANKS in advance for your input! Every semester I make changes to these classes, trying out new things, improving things, etc., and your input is extremely valuable in deciding what changes to make. It is also very important in determining the future of the online course program; there is still a lot of resistance to online courses at OU, and student input is crucial in determining what direction the online course program will take. Plus, you might win an iPad! Every semester I keep hoping that a student in an online course will win an iPad (that seems only right after all) - maybe this will be the semester that it happens!
Storybook Stack. There are still quite a few Storybook assignments in the stack, but I have managed to read and respond to everything turned in by 9PM on Sunday. Storybooks turned in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday are probably still in the stack. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Also, if the points from the Storybook will give you what you need to finish the class, send me an email to let me know, and I'll put your Storybook at the top of the stack. :-)
Storybook Ballots. (repeat announcement) I've tallied up the nominations that people turned in (thanks to everybody who participated in that part of the process!), and you can see the top nominations for each class here: Storybook Ballot Spring 2012. The ballot contains LINKS to all the Storybooks which you can use to refresh your memory or look at any Storybooks you have not seen before - and also to visit the Storybooks in the other class, if you are curious. For each class, you will find the actual ballot for voting in Desire2Learn in Week 14. This is just for fun - not for points or a grade or anything. If you have a few minutes to spare, please vote for your own personal favorites! The ballot will be available until 5PM on Thursday of this week and I'll announce the results Friday.
IMPORTANT Week 15 Schedule Note. (repeat announcement) For those of you who will still be doing classwork during Week 15 (dead week), please be aware that it is on a different schedule: the final deadline for Week 15 assignments is Friday, May 4, at noon. There is no weekend time and there is no Monday morning grace period since that would run into final exams. As a result, your Week 14 Storybook assignment must be turned in by Monday noon, April 30, at the latest - I cannot accept late Storybooks for Week 14 because that would not give me time to get comments back to you for your Week 15 assignment. So, please take note: there can be no late Week 14 Storybook assignments.
Wednesday Events on Campus. Activity and poet Lauren Zuniga will be in the Regents Room of the Union, 7PM-9PM, as part of the Center for Social Justice's Activist-in-Residence Program (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
April 25: Battle of Gallipoli. Today marks the anniversary of the start of the Battle of Gallipoli, one of the most harrowing battles of World War One. It lasted from April 25 of 1915 until January 6 1916, with almost half a million casualties in total (220,000 British and French casualties, 253,000 Turkish casualties). The battle was fought on the peninsula of Gallipoli (Turkish Gelibolu), and the name comes from the Greek Καλλίπολη, "Kallipole," meaning "beautiful city," although there was nothing beautiful about this battle. There is a fine film by the Australian film director, Peter Weir, Gallipoli, that is definitely worth seeing (see movie poster below). April 25 is a day of remembrance, ANZAC Day, in Australia and New Zealand, commemorating those who fought at Gallipoli.
