American Government and Politics
I realize this is stating the obvious, but you must have an email account and access World Wide Web. In particular, I want to emphasize the importance of updating your email information with Cuesta. If it is not current, you may miss out on important information. Also, be sure to notify me if your contact information should change during the semester. There is a very useful page of information about distance education at Cuesta. You can find it here . In particular, you will want to view the FAQ page which provides some assistance with the technical side of distance ed (for ex. suggested minimum system requirements, how to get technical assistance, etc).
In addition to the information provided online, there are two textbooks required for the course. They are: American Government: Brief Version, Ninth Edition by James Q. Wilson and Walter Stone's Republic at Risk. These are available at both the San Luis campus bookstore and the North County Campus (Paso) bookstore.
This course is really a hybrid version of distance education as there are seven required in person meetings for this course. If you cannot attend these meetings do not sign up for this class. Please check you schedules ahead of time to make sure there are no conflicts. The first meeting will be on Thursday, January 21st at 5:30pm in room 6307 on the SLO campus. This will be the orientation meeting for this class. It is crucially important that you attend this orientation and anyone not in attendance that day will be dropped. The other in person meetings will be for the purpose of taking the quizzes and exams for the course. They will be all be on Thursdays at 5:30pm in room 6307, though the time of the final exam is always a little different and can be found in the finals schedule. The dates are 2/18, 3/4, 3/18, 4/15, 5/6, and 5/20.
As mentioned above, this is a hybrid course and is not 100% on-line. Other than those few meetings, however, this will be a full-fledged distance education class. Virtually all communication will be by electronic means. That being said, the syllabus will contain information so that you can contact me electronically and in person if you have the opportunity or desire to do so.
The pacing of the course will closely match that of my traditional, face-to-face classes. The lectures will become available to you on a regular basis, one section at a time. Depending on the particular section of the course, you will be able to access between one to three week's worth of new information at a time. Previously covered material, of course, will always be available to you. But for your benefit, as well as mine, I want to keep things moving at a manageable pace and keep everyone in the class at approximately the point. So, within each section of material you will be able to set your own pace to a great extent but the timing of moving from section to section will be set by me. In particular, those boundaries set by me are simply set by the hard dates for the quizzes and exams listed above. You will need to complete all necessary material by those dates in order to perform adequately in the course.
Please be aware that you will not be able to log in to the course until the first day of the semester. Once the semester begins you will be able to log in using the following instructions:
1. Go to the Blackboard site: http://blackboard.cuesta.edu (this link can always be found in the bottom right hand corner of Cuesta's homepage.)
2. Click on Log In.
3. Type in your Username. Your username will be the same as your myCuesta login id. For most of you, that will be your first name, an underscore, and your last name. For George Bush is would be: george_bush.
4. Type in your Password (To begin with, your password is STUDENT. You can change your password at any time to something meaningful to you that is more secure.)
If you are having trouble signing in or this course isn't showing up, contact: support@my.cuesta.edu Include a brief description of the problem, your name, login ID (not your password) and the course CRN#.
If you are having any troubles with Blackboard itself, there is 24/7 support that can be found at http://supportcenteronline.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4186
or by calling 1-866-847-3251. There is also a browser check link on the Blackboard login page that might be helpful to you.
Victor Krulikowski
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