Welcome!

COURSE INFO. DOCUMENT by: Bob Hassenger
Subject: Welcome!
Click here to view my multimedia welcome message.

Hello. Buongiorno. Bonjour. Guten Tag. Hallo. Geia Sas . My name is Robert Hassenger, and I'll be your instructor this semester as we explore dimensions of social change. Our focus will be the individual in society—although we might have perhaps better termed this the individual in community, for reasons that I hope will become apparent.

If this is your first experience with on-line education, welcome to what I hope will be an interesting, challenging, and rewarding experience. I think you will be surprised how quickly you will become comfortable and confident in this Web environment. The key is to keep at it and to seek help when needed. If you've taken on-line courses before, welcome back.

Throughout the documents found in the "Course Information" section of your course map, you'll find syllabus-like information (Overview, Course Reading and Materials, Course Schedule, etc.). These documents should be read in the order that they appear and you are encouraged to ask any questions you might have along the way by clicking on the "Ask a question" box at the bottom of each document. You may want to print some of the documents if you are more comfortable with hard copies.

After reading through the Course Information documents, you should get a clear picture of my expectations for the course. The fact that we use three texts, and not a textbook, may give you some indication of how I think learning ought to proceed. This is a more difficult way to participate in a course. Notice that I did not say “take” a course. We have to do the course—together. This is the great advantage of Web-based learning, compared to other varieties of distance learning with which some of you may be familiar, and with which I have spent most of my quarter-century in distance learning.

In the Learning Module documents, I post a brief "mini-lecture" prior to your being asked to read a chapter. These notes serve to highlight some especially interesting, important, or difficult material. You will note that I will ask a question or two to start you thinking and to get the "Discussion Area" rolling. The Discussion Area is a very important component of this course. Once we get going, I hope to function as just one among many intelligent people involved in an interesting discussion. We'll all get very bored very quickly if I do all the talking. In addition to our text-based discussions, we'll be exploring some current events, and some of the significant socio-cultural forces at work in shaping—if not causing—these. Your participation in these discussions will be at the heart of the course.

What should you do next? Work through the rest of the Course Information documents, followed by the Class Community sections, and finally move on to the Learning Modules section of the course map. Proceed to the first Learning Module to begin your studies. The Learning Module section of the Course Map is where you attend class on a weekly basis. It is here that I provide “mini-lectures” or suggest additional resources, both print- and Web readings, where discussion topics are introduced, and where the I present assignments and tests. The Course Schedule and/or the Course Calendar state when a Learning Module will open or close, and when activities are due for completion.

Best wishes as you start this course. This is my first tour of duty as a Web instructor, so we shall be learning a lot together.