1)  Asynchronous learner can be harnessed both as a tool to foster autonomous learning or as a tool to create a community of individuals, working together to learn, yet separated by time and space. All students enrolled in the course have a responsibility to help create the "community of learners."

2)  E-mail: 399 students are expected to check e-mail regularly. I will be sending e-mail messages to the whole class to provide information regarding minor changes in the syllabus or to request youto read newspapers/watch television/navigate the "net" for current issues we want to discuss inclass. When you respond to the e-mail messages I send to the whole class make sure you are
responding to me and not the entire class! Use e-mail appropriately and judiciously.

3) No Incompletes.  Work must be completed during the confines of the semester of session in which
you are enrolled in the course.  The department chair will grant incompletes only for documented medical reasons and in accordance with the University policy governing issuing the grade of incomplete.

4) Summer and Interim courses are very short and very densely packed: an unavoidable side effect of squeezing four months worth of material into 3 to 8 weeks. Because we have less slack time to work with, the total amount of reading and writing you'll do this summer is  less than you'd do in a "regular" course . . . but it will probably feel as if you're doing more reading and writing than normal because of the compressed timing.  So be prepared.  DO NOT FALL BEHIND! In a full- length semester, you may be able to "blow off" (is this still a commoly used slang expression?)  a week without it hurting your grade too badly.   In a 3 to 8 session, however, missing that same amount of time will put you incredibly far behind . . . and the pace and timing of the session will make it very difficult for you to catch up again.

5) Here are some emails from former students which dramatize what can happen when one does not take course seriously or does not pay attention to the right things.  "Intelligence is paying attention
o the right things."

Hi Dr. Kasch,

I do understand that I had a slow start to this class and the reason for me taking this was so I could move home and look for jobs. I also realize that this has not helped to facilitate strong virtual communication with my classmates.

On the other hand, I was not under the impression that assignments HAD to be completed on a certain day or by Monday. When I received the email from you, which I did not receive until May 28 because I thought I was done using Bradley's email, I have done my best to make sure I was caught up. I never got word that assignments could not be made up at all if the week were over.

With all due respect, and as much as I know that I did not begin with a good start, I do not think that it is fair to get zero's on assignments when it was never clarified. At this point I would be grateful for even half credit.

Please email me back! Thank you.

Dr. Kasch

"I'm apologizing greatly for my lack of participation in this class, I assure you the circumstances have been rather unusual and greatly disheartening. (Sparing you too many of the gory details they relate to me no longer being employed , and me having to sever ties with SBC, my DSL provider due to continued loss of internet). My connection has still not been corrected, and I am currently contacting you at the BU library, however, this is not often a feasible due to other responsibilities at home. I'd still like to receive a passing grade in this class, however, and would like to know if there was any possibility of doing that at this point. I thank you for your consideration on this matter and hope to hear from you soon. "