last edited 12/2002
Wendy's Space
	Wendy Rhea Greenstein English Department Long Beach City College 4901 East Carson Street Long Beach, CA 90808 562 - 938 - 4497     This page can best be viewed with Internet Explorer. The hyperlinks may be broken in Netscape Communicator.
Email wrgreens@earthlink.net homepage http://engl.lbcc.cc.ca.us/wendy   To access the Spring 2003 English 1   To access the Spring 2003 English 3   Personal History Wendy Greenstein was born on January 23rd in New York City, the only child of Claire and Eugene Greenstein.She always liked to read, so maybe she was destined to be an English teacher? She attended Hunter College High School and received her B.A. in English at Hunter College.She left her friends in N.Y.C. and went on to attend the graduate program in English at Purdue University where she fell in love with Herman Melville, and taught Mass Media and Developmental Reading.She has been teaching at Long Beach City College since 1971 in the English Department at both campuses. She has taught Women in Literature, Science Fiction, American Literature, Modern Literature, World Literature, and all levels of composition. Backed by Title 3, at the Epiphany Project Institute in Richmond, VA (Summer 1996), Wendy met cyberpal Claudine. She then went on to investigate Computer Assisted Instruction(CAI) and deliver a paper at the 1997 Computers and Writing Conference of The Alliance for Computers and Writing. In 1999 she was an active participant in the College Conference on Composition in Atlanta, as well as the Computers and Writing Conference in South Dakota. She has served as an English anchor for the California Virtual Campus and as a consultant to the @One project. She has taught computer assisted English 1,2, 3, 41 and 42 at LBCC. This August she offered both English 1 and English 3 as online(distance)classes, as well as offering both as computer assisted classes. This is part of her Sabbatical Leave Project for 2002. This is what her English 1 students had to say: Student Interactive Evaluations: English 1 Online Fall 2002 Greenstein "I think that this course was great. I appreciate your ability to work with students, especially me. I think that the course site was easy to access. . . . The revision policy was nice. I feel the comments you made on the essays I wrote were very helpful. I can always use constructive criticism. I am open to molding and improving my writing skills. I have never felt strong about my English skills, so I can use all the input I can get. I have never taken an online course before this semester and I have three. I found that the e-mails with the announcements were helpful. I can't think of what needs to be changed. The assignments were not that bad. I didn't know what to expect for an online English class, but I thought this was great." "I agree with you, I think this was a great class, I enjoyed reading your posts this semester, you say that your English skills aren't great, but I never had trouble reading anything you wrote." "Nevertheless, I enjoyed this course and I believe it was effective towards my english. This course mainly covered forming essay's. However, that is a major subject that I need to work on. For the most part the assignments gave me an understanding of follow directions. That's one thing I have trouble doing the forums were great I loved reading other responses and then commenting on them. . . . Being able to converse with the teacher at any time of the day was also great. If I had a question that couldn't wait I had it answered. The course site was always helpful to me, because if I didn't remember the assignment I could always refer back to the course site. . . .The most about this class that I most enjoyed was the wonderful and understanding teacher that I had. You were so great that I want to take your class again next semester." "I also found the course to be effective towards my skills in English. In my case, the process of writing essays and forming a thesis was made much clearer after participating in this course. I also agree that professor Greenstein's availability during this course was extremely helpful. And although I fell behind in the forums section of this class, keeping up with the readings and essays was not a problem." "Like you, I too needed help on my essay works. I think this class provided me that opportunity and I appreciate that." "I also agree with you that having the teacher there at any time of the day was great. I'm also taking a math class online right now, and that teacher never e-mails me back. When I e-mail him it usually takes him a couple of weeks, which doesn't help me at all if I need a question answered at that moment. professor Greenstein was so awesome; I would write an e-mail to her, and then about 5 minutes or less later I would check my e-mail and there would be a response. This was especially helpful if I needed a response right away." "Overall the course wasn't too bad. The online text was easy to access. The revision policy was helpful. I found the forums to be a little confusing. It took me a while to get used to how the system worked. I fell rather far behind in the forums and I often found them to be time consuming. The comments on the essays were very helpful even if they were sometimes harsh. Navigation of the course site was fairly easy and the resources available were helpful. The teacher emails provided useful information and helped to keep me from falling too far behind in the course.. . . The chapters in the online text always had interesting readings and I have enjoyed taking this online class.. . . " "In my opinion, you pretty much handled everything well. I appreciate the fact that you responded to our e-mails promptly. This is a very important way of keeping us on track and unconfused. The comments that you made on our essays were fair and helpful, and it was awesome of you to allow bettering our grades through revisions. With as many students as you may have, you still found the time to grade our work in a timely manner. You really dedicated yourself to helping us better ourselves. . . . If I was to take another English course, I would reconsider an online course. The midnight deadlines made it very convenient. Although I did not attend any class meetings, I feel I have learned enough to feel comfortable with my grammar and composition. Your direction is great and the fact that you made yourself so available is more than a student could ask for. Keep up the good work, but reconsider the work load for yourself and the students." "I agree with you, I thought the e-mail response time was great. Either I had good timing or Professor Greenstein is always around, because I always received a response on the same day. It sounds like your other professor doesn't pay enough attention to his/her students, that is very unfair, especially since online contact is the only contact we have with our professor." "I agree that the forums were a bit much to keep up with. I fell pretty far behind but I've been going back to the ones I missed and doing the make-up and extra credit. In an overall sense the forums were helpful but they were also time-consuming. I also think the professor's willingness to communicate with the students made the class run well." "I agree with you that It was good how fast professor Greenstein got the corrected essays back to us. I was sometimes amazed that she could even grade all of our essays plus those of her other classes in such a short time. I thought that this very helpful though because it made it easier to revise the essays because you still remembered what you wrote about. I also think that the forums were a tough work load, and I am not taking as many units as you. Just with my other classes, work, and all my other responsibilities it was hard enough. I can't imagine having more classes and being able to do it. . . ." "Overall, I thought this course was a good experience. I learned quite a few things that helped me to refine my writing, and that's the goal, right? --Forums. Since I've posted in a lot of online forums already, this was a positive aspect of the course for me. It was interesting being able to read the different views of the rest of the class, and read the replies to my own. . . . --Teacher interaction, feedback, essay comments, etc. I felt the instructor did a very good job with this class. I got replies to all my emails within 24 hours, and grades always came back in a timely fashion. Comments on essays were constructive and helpful. With other online classes, at times I've felt like the class wasn't really a priority for the instructor, and I've heard similar complaints from people in other classes also, but I didn't get that impression from this class. The instructor came off as very accessible, and seemed intent on helping us all do well. --The revision policy. Though I never actually got around to utilizing this, my impression is that it's a great way to focus on specific areas of one's writing that need improvement, as well as improving one's grade in the class. --Grading policy. I found it clear and easy to follow. I guess I won't know for sure until final grades come out, but as far as I know I've always had a pretty good general idea of what grade I'll be getting. --Website. I thought it was well organized, and made it very clear what was expected. " . . . . I agree too with your opinion on the grading policy, I found it to be very fair, and we always pretty much knew where we were standing in this class." " . . . I thought the forums along with the work posted on the student essay page were helpful in the brainstorming process." "That was amazing. I had not even read your post until after I had already posted my own and you thought the same thing about the subject matter. I'm at least happy someone else agreed with me. I thought that it was a very difficult task to write essays about stuff that I wasn't even interested in. As I said in my post, there were a few essays where I was literally digging through the readings for some kind of a quote that I could use in an essay with a topic that I somewhat enjoyed. . . ." "I found this course to be a very effective learning tool. The forums were a good way for me to start the brainstorming process, the questions made me think about what I wanted to write, and they brought things up in a way that I may not have thought about. I liked the texts; I especially like the online texts. It makes it very easy to do the work, since this is an online class and I am responding to forums, the online book made it easy to go back and forth and site my sources. I wasn't really sure how you were going to make comments on our essays; I was very impressed with how it was. It was nice too, to have the comments in a format where I could save the original with comments, then make revisions in those areas. I found the grading policy to be very fair, and I like the opportunity to receive extra credit, I think too many classes today do not offer extra credit for extra work, I think it is great when an instructor does. The course site was very easy to navigate and I was supplied with a wealth of useful links throughout the semester. I liked the opportunity to revise and hand in my revisions, again this is something that not very many professors offer, but I believe it to be a great advantage to the student. If we don't know what we're doing wrong, we cannot fix it and if we are just handed back a paper with no revision policy, we'll just look at it and throw it to the side. Why revise something that we don't turn back in? I felt very in touch with this class more than a physical class. Even though I don't know what anyone looks like, I got to know everyone in the class by reading their posts. I found myself tending to read the same people's works because I enjoyed what they wrote. I liked that the forums were 25% of our grade and that it was clearly outlined what we needed to do to get the grade we were shooting for. Overall, I would recommend this class to anyone; I found it to be a very positive academic experience." "I am also for grateful for the extra credit/make-up opportunities. I agree that the forums were helpful in starting the brainstorming process for the essays." "That is very true what you said about the revisions. It is definitely a good way to learn what you are doing wrong, and correct it. I also thought that it was helpful in being able to lift my grade, just as the extra credit in the forums was." "Texts: I thought that the texts that we read were interesting and informative. I enjoyed reading the stories on Amore and I didn't think that they were too long or time-consuming at all. However one thing that I struggled with was the fact that they could only be accessed online. There are 6 people at my house and often accessing my computer at home isn't possible and the ones at school are inconvenient. I would have been profitable for me if I had all of the Amore essays printed out in a book or something like that. Assignments: It was difficult for me to complete the assignments. Often I felt like there was no incentive to complete them. I understand that I should have the drive and determination to read everything and to finish all of the assignments, but frankly I didn't. . . . Forums: I thought that the forums were a great way to hear others' views on certain subjects and to interact with the other students. I especially appreciated the forums that I knew were well thought out. However in the beginning of the semester I found the forums to be extremely time-consuming. . . The essays were a huge chunk of our grades. I found most of the topics that we wrote on the be very interesting. I appreciated that we were able to write on any topic within the chapter guidelines of Amore, but found it quite difficult to apply what I wanted to write about to the internet. . . . s for the course site, essay "comments", revision policy, grading policy, and teacher emails, I thought that Professor Greenstein was extremely helpful in al of the areas. The website was great, the revision policy was helpful in case the first draft wasn't that good, and Prof. Greenstein responded to all of my emails very quickly. I really appreciate how she gave me a lot of grace in regards to due dates and other circumstances. . . . I definitely enjoyed such close contact with the teacher and other students, but overall I will probably never take an online class again simply because I enjoy the class setting being with people at specific times. Although this might be the reason TO take an online class for some, it was really hard for me to complete all of the assignments when they were due. For some reason I don't have that problem with other classes." It was difficult for me to complete the assignments. Often I felt like there was no incentive to complete them. I understand that I should have the drive and determination to read everything and to finish all of the assignments, but frankly I didn't. If there was some way to keep track if people were doing them, then I would assume that many more people would do it." "Eh, I don't know about that. My math instructor has a way to see how long you've spent on the site doing these little online quizzes...and I'm still way behind on those. Shame on me. Heh." I agree though, it takes a lot of self-motivation to be able to get through online classes, and it does tend to get progressively more difficult to stick with it as the semester wears on." "I totally agree with you about the Amore Readings being hard to access because they were only online. At the very beginning of this course my computer broke down, so I have been using my boyfriend's computer since then (and still right now :o) ). It was very difficult because I could not always be at his house. I actually wound up printing most of the readings out and reading them at my house. It worked better, but I keep having to buy ink and paper for him which kind of sucks. It would have definitely helped me much more just to have a book that I could have read them out of." "I thought that overall this course was very good. Coming into this class I had assumed that it was an online English course. I had no expectations about it being an online English course about online. Personally, I'm not that interested in the internet. You probably think that I'm crazy saying that while taking an online course, but I mainly took it because it was convenient, I could do class work at whatever time I wanted, didn't have to attend class, and because I like learning on my own. Right from the beginning of the class I sort of wished that I could write about something else, but it seemed that everything that we read or wrote about was the internet or computers in general. Don't get me wrong, because the course was a great learning experience, and I'm sure that others loved the subject, but I thought that the subject was just not for me. If not for this one factor I would have loved every aspect of the class. Although I wasn't thrilled about the subject, I was happy that the texts were well-written, easy to read, and that some even actually got me interested. I especially liked any of the readings online that had to do with personal experiences with the computer, or story-like essays. I was not that thrilled with such topics as hypertext or politics on the net (not that politics anywhere ever really thrilled me much). This is of course just my personal opinion, and I'm sure many others were very happy with most of the readings online. I thought that the handbook was definitely a helpful review of some stuff that I already knew, and a great way to learn stuff that I didn't know. The CD-ROM was really no different than the book, but the one thing that I did really like was that you could get to all of the websites at the click of a mouse. Most of the assignments were interesting, and a lot of them, including the practices, helped me to learn more about the things that we were working on at that time. As for the course site, at first I was kind of confused, but once I figured it out it was a snap to use. I suggest (for the beginning of the course) to maybe put an instructional on the announcement page. When I first looked at the study guide, I noticed that it said to answer the questions from the readings online. At first I had assumed that that meant that I had to do all of the questions for each reading (that's a lot of work). So, you might want to tell the class to do the forums after each reading, but not all of the questions. I think that that might clear up some confusion. Other than that the website was very clear and to the point. The forums were sometimes very fun, and sometimes a headache. Of course me not liking the subject of the reading material made the forums a little less interesting, but I liked putting my personal opinions out, and reading what others had to say about them. I also thought that it was interesting replying to the other students and reading their posts. It's amazing how different opinions can be. And then there was the headache's. These were the weeks when you would give two or three forum questions or a long-response forum question. I never seemed to be able to finish them by the time limit. It also seemed that as the class went by everyone was slowing down on the forums. This meant that it was very difficult to respond to three postings by the deadline when there sometimes weren't even three postings available. I think that it would be a lot easier if you either gave the same amount of forum questions, but added a week to do those (2 weeks), or to always give only one required forum question and still have the week deadline. The essays were probably my hardest task in this course. I'm sure that they probably were for most others too, but it might not have been for the same reasons (or it might have been, you never know). For me the essays were hard because I didn't like the reading material, which meant that I could never find an essay topic. On a couple of my essays I was literally digging through the readings line by line to find something to use in an essay, on a topic that I was at least somewhat interested in. This made it very hard on me. If I was in the class again I think that it would be cool if you gave an option of using the readings, or possibly making a forum at the beginning of the course asking for essay topics that the students would like to write about (staying in the main topic of the class of course). Though the essays were tough to write, I thought that your comments were excellent, and helped me a lot. And, I definitely think that the ten days that we had to revise our essays was very helpful and generous (with time) on your part. As for the grading policy, I thought it was very fair, and was also happy that you gave some extra credit forum questions in order to make up some of the other forums. I've been in many classes where they won't give extra credit. I think this really sucks because it's like saying that no one in the class can have a bad day (or week for that matter), and I thought that your policy was great and helped me out a lot. As for the last item, teacher e-mails, I think that this was probably one of the best things in the class. It was amazing how fast you responded to my questions and concerns, and I was very happy with most of the responses that you gave. I also liked that you sent us the announcements at our e-mails, as well as putting them on the site. This was a good way to make sure that we got the message. Overall, this course was a good learning experience, and I enjoyed having you as the teacher. The only major flaw I found was the subject matter, and that's only my opinion. So, I say just keep up what you're doing and hopefully I'll take another class with you sometime soon." "I would suggest that the class participate more during meetings. The class didn't speak very often, so they may need to be prompted more. Some of us were lost on the first two essays as far a form was concerned. Although MLA format was explained in the hand book, we can use extra help in this area. Some of the essay requirements went over our heads. The site was easy to use, and the announcements page was very helpful in keeping us up to date on our work. The forums were difficult, especially when there was more than one required post per week. Sometimes it was hard to keep up. Comments on the essays were very helpful, and very direct. I always knew what was expected for the revision. The revision policy was accommodating by letting us turn in more that one revision. This helps immensely for improving on our writing. Overall, the course was very good." Student Interactive Evaluations: English 3 Online Fall 2002 Greenstein "This class was the hardest class I have had to take in my four semesters at LBCC. There was an overwhelming amount of work. I never thought of dropping a class, but this one I did. I am glad I hung in there because the semester is almost over. I have to say there were two reasons I did not quit, one was that I needed this class this semester to graduate but also Wendy seemed really understanding. She was always online even on the weekends. She always sent emails saying" if you have any concerns or problems email me." And I did many times and she was very understanding. Text: The test book "White" was a great book. I also liked the handbook. I thought both helped a lot during the course. I felt the reading, forums, essays, and studying was too much to handle. I added up the total # of pages to read and multiplied it by how long it takes me to read. There was not enough time in the day. SO some times I had to just give up on the reading. We had essays and forums on top of that. I thought the site was great. It was organized well. The only thing I hoped it would have was a chart of everything completed and the score over the total possible so we could gage ourselves. . . . . Revisions:This was great I always wanted a teacher to go through my essays and tell me exactly what I got wrong so I would not make the same mistake. I thought that was the most helpful thing in the semester. Grading:I can say is Fair. I am really glad I stuck this class out. Thank You Wendy!" "Sometimes is hard to tell if a teacher is going to be good at lbcc. I just found a site called http://whototake.com. I don't know how accurate it is, but it might be helpful in gaining a student perspective on future courses. I was unsure at the very beginning of this class how it would go. My last English teacher merely wrote a few single word negative critiques on my essays. When I asked him for more insight he said he'd already done his job or simply not respond to me. Professor Greenstein went out of her way to always answer my questions and provide me with learning tools to help make me a better writer. I wonder if she's added up all the hours she spent giving quality comments on her papers? I felt Professor Greenstein asked a lot of us, but she was fair and doing her job to help her students improve in a very valuable tool. I agree that it was a hard class for me too." "I agree with you that the assignments were kind of overwhelming at first, but later into the semester the forums because less and that made it easier to keep up.. . . . Wendy was really nice about understanding when you got behind in the work, and that was nice to have a teacher that wasn't all concerned about deadlines, and nothing else." "This class was not at all what I expected. I didn't think so much work would be involved in an online course. I am also glad I stuck with the class. It was a good experience and I learned a lot from it. I do agree with you that Wendy was very understanding and she did offer a lot of help and suggestions with our essays." "I agree that this class was hard, but I also am glad I stuck it out! I made the mistake of taking Psych 1 and Anthropology 2 along with this class. It was a lot of work, but it was good to stretch myself." "I agree this is a very hard class and it takes a lot of responsibility and good time management to keep up with all the work, esp. the forums" ."I as well felt it was a lot of work but the benefits of learning the different styles of writing and everyone's thoughts out weighted the work." "I liked the way you broke up each category, it makes it easier to follow. This was indeed one of the hardest classes that I had to take. I agree that us being able to revised our essays was a big plus to this course. Normally that isn't allowed but it was so helpful and I believe made me a better writer." "I believe that this class was very effective in many ways. This was my first time ever taking an online class and I was truly impressed in the flexibility this class allows and how much more of a commitment is needed to complete the class. I plan to go down the list and explain the areas that could have been more efficient and effective. I believe the area of textbooks could have been slightly more cost effective. We mainly used the Well Crafted Argument text and the other text was useful for reference more than anything else. Since the class is online maybe one could have been provided online. The assignments were fairly reasonable and helpful. The course site was very accessible and easy to read and follow. It was detailed in each category and had very useful information on each. The forums were interactive and a great way to practice writing. I believe that some of the questions could have asked things that relate to today's world or something that everyone could truly respond to and enjoy. At times they were a bit lengthy but nothing a student could not handle. The essay comments were good and helped me to revise my essay and showed me where I need to improve and what areas need to be touched up. Allowing us to revise our essay was a great tool that is not normally seen in very many composition courses. That was one aspect that I particularly liked. The grading policy seemed to be fair. . . . . I appreciate the constant communication between the instructor and students, being at least 2-3 times per week. Overall, the class was very challenging and I needed a lot to time to effectively complete the essays and forums. It was fun, and I enjoyed it." "I too found the class challenging but effective in its purpose. Sometimes I was really struggling with my writing so I can't say that part of the class was fun. But with every struggle for a good purpose comes good results. So, when I finally finish my final paper I will breathe sigh of relief and have some fun! I have to add too that I liked Professor Greenstein's advice she gave about writing papers. First write your paper, finish it, then take time off afterwards to just do something really fun. This advice helped me as it carried over into dealing with other courses too this semester. Honestly, I do really like to write, so I had a lot of fun interacting with other students online in writing and also when I felt satisfied after working really hard to improve a piece of my writing." "That was a well-written evaluation of the class. I agree on many of the points you brought up and liked the way you explained why you felt the way you did. This was a difficult class that required a lot of dedication and discipline to accomplish the work asked of us. This was my first on-line class and I had quite a bit of trouble getting used to the format. I guess I got more out of the textbooks than you did. Hang on to them though, you may need them when you transfer to a university. Having the opportunity to revise was a blessing. I don't know if we will ever come across that again. You have a nice, flowing writing style, and I believe it will benefit you down the road. It was nice chatting with you class. Take care." "Thank you so much for the compliment. I actually began to doubt my ability to efficiently write what I would like to say. I had a very bad experience with an English instructor who continually ripped apart and minimized the potential I once thought I had. Thanks again, its funny that somehow, we casually say things and at times it really touches the person that we are speaking to." "Hello. I noticed that this is the first online course you've taken and thought I would recommend some that I've really enjoyed. I've taken the last two years online because I wanted to be able to spend time with my family. I've taken Philosophy 3 (Intro to Religion). This class was awesome! The instructor communicated with us a lot and there were weekly online chat rooms. I also enjoyed taking Geography 40 online...this class was a little boring, so not having to be in a classroom made the information a little more easy to swallow. I have also enjoyed Health and Nutrition, Intro to Music and Child Development 47. I am just finishing up Psychology 1 and Anthropology 2 online also. Both instructors are really great as well and the information is a great way to complete some of your requirements if transferring when you are done here at city college! Good luck" "I totally agree with the flexibility of this class. It made things much less stressful and I was better able to focus on the material when I could go at my own pace." "this was my first online class and i have to say that I agree with the way you depicted it. You said it was very flexible, but you still needed a high commitment to finishing it. That statement is so true. It is very easy to fall behind in a computer class, a person has to be very dedicated to it. If anything this class taught me a lot about holding onto my responsibilities as a student because no one else is going to do it for me" " The White/Billings book is excellent. I have something underlined on nearly every page of the book. Some of the essays actually irritated a little me at first because they were opposed to what I believed. Then I realized that each chapter presents many sides to one argument. I think they did a great job exploring all sides of an argument. I really like how the format of the class is set up so that we must include quotes from the book essays in our own essays, since there are many excellent quotes relative to each topic in the book. The other textbook was very helpful, especially in helping me with sources. I referred to the source section of the book so often that the book opens automatically there. I especially liked the format of this book, in that it was organized into many sections and detailed numbers to help make finding things easier. Assignments: I had a little bit of difficulty at the beginning understanding exactly what my assignment was each week. Regarding the discussion forums, I did not think it was clearly communicated that we need to make three responses under each question assigned by the Professor in the forum. However, when I asked Professor Greenstein about this, she was extremely understanding, answered back immediately, and clarified the assignment for me. The essays assignments were well explained, as were the other links included in our weekly assignments. Essay comments: I have never had a teacher spend so much time making suggestions and comments on my essays. Professor Greenstein obviously spends a considerable amount of time grading student essays, for the sole purpose of helping her students become better writers. Through her comments she has absolutely inspired me to want to become a better writer. She is has mastered just the right amount of encouragement and critique when grading. She has also taught me that every piece of writing has room for improvement so that it can better communicate its purpose. Sometimes being concise rather than adding extra words can achieve this. Overall, her grading and comments were very clear, patient, kind, honest, open, and wise. Revision policy: Outstanding. How could a revision policy ever do anything but allow students to improve their writing? The policy in this class if fair and leaves room for students to work eternally on one paper. Teacher emails: Superb. Professor Greenstein responded about as quickly as anyone could expect in email. In fact, it seems she always answered before the next time I checked my email! I know how busy she was this term and that she sometimes was working in pain. Yet she always made sure she responded to my emails and showed in her own emails that she understood my email. Excellent email communication, which is a great example for writing students. Email is getting more and more important each day, and since email involves written communication improving this skill can only be of benefit. Suggestions for improvement? Possibly that a forum could be included simply for students to chat with one another. Also, I think it might be of tremendous help to include a forum where Professor Greenstein answers student questions. This may result in a decrease of repetitive email. Also, some students are better at asking questions than others, so students who not so good at asking questions can learn by reading the forums. I am not saying the Professor was weak in any way in answering questions by email, just giving a possible suggestion to how some time might be saved. Overall, great class! Online classes are really tough to handle as we're all getting used to them still. I can imagine how much work they must be for a teacher, because this class sure was a lot of work for me! If I get carpal tunnel it will be from this class! ;) I would recommend this course to anyone interested in improving their communication skills." "Wow! That was a very extensive review of the class. Your in-depth synopsis of every aspect of this class is outstanding and most importantly, honest. I also enjoyed our textbooks and probably have almost every page highlighted. There was a wealth of information that can be used over and over as we venture onward. I agree that the revision policy was an added bonus. I never expected that, and it helped me greatly with my writing. Wendy is a great teacher. She helped me on numerous occasions when I was struggling with managing al the work asked of us. It was a pleasure chatting with you in class. I am sure you will do great in whatever field of study you embark on. You are thorough and well spoken in your writings. Take care." "I really liked your idea about the forums where students could talk and where questions and answers could be posted. I agree with you also on the revision policy, it is great. As for the assignments I didn't find then hard to understand, just a little time consuming. However, I do think that this class helped me learn time management with all of the reading essays and forums and improved my computer skills too. I also have to say that I really enjoyed reading most of your posts because they were very insightful" "I think including quotes from the book in our own essays ensures that we have read the the material and that we fully understand it. I found it very helpful in synthesizing some of the more complex essays.' "I truly agree with you on the fact that Professor G. put a lot of her time into grading our essays. Her comments were extremely helpful. He revision policy was more than fair. It gave everyone a chance to look at their mistakes and try to improve them for a better grade" "This class, 5713, has been a learning experience for me. I have never taken an on-line course, nor have I ever had this much exposure to the web. In the beginning there was a large learning curve and net-phobia to overcome, but it has been worth the struggle. I enjoyed the format of the class. Every aspect of the class, the syllabus, assignments, forums, and study guides were all laid out in an orderly and easy to understand manner. Once you knew how to navigate around the site, you could always look to see where you were, what was coming up, and where you needed to be. The texts were all great books. I personally found both "The Well Crafted Argument" and "The New Century Handbook" to be invaluable tools to every facet of this class (probably because I haven't taken an English class in over 25 years). I found "The Well Crafted Argument" not only a great source for information on writing style, but also entertaining to read. The viewpoints of the clusters were diverse and thought provoking. The "New Century Handbook" is an well-organized thorough manual on all the mechanics of writing. I used this book for the students in my Environmental Science Supplemental Instruction group when they were writing term papers for the class. I did not take advantage of the accompanying CD-ROM because my computer is too old and took too long to download the audio and visual. Although there was a lot of reading to do, I never found the reading tedious or long-winded. The assignments always helped solidify questions I had concerning current subject matter, and eventually made writing the essays an easier task. I first found the Discussion Forum to be difficult and consist of a lot of "busy work". After I got used to the idea of how it was run, it was easy to manage through (after all, this is a 4-unit class). Having not had any experience with this type of communication (which at first I found cold and anonymous), I realized that this was how the class would relate to each other, and I have been uplifted by the kind comments by my fellow students. The one thing I miss is the connection of a face with the words on the page. But that is the downside of not working face to face. I like the grading format of the essays. I am not a great writer, and I always appreciate the comments made. Even if it doesn't help my current grade, it will benefit me later when I remember to use them. The revision and grading policy are very fair. Actually, the revision policy is great. I probably would have gotten lower grades if I had not been able to "fix" my bonehead mistakes. Ms. Wendy Greenstein is a great instructor. She is very fair in her grading, and easy to talk to. This class could have been very cold and distant feeling if not for her. She always asked for questions or input and is very empathetic of the students in her on-line and hybrid classes. Her approach to utilizing this medium is one of an easygoing mentor. In less capable hands, this class might have isolated people from one another, and pushed them away from wanting to take on-line classes again in the future. We are a testament to her hard work and labor of love for this class. I have found this class to be very challenging and rewarding at the same time. I have repeatedly recommended this class and Wendy to countless students I have encountered this semester, and will in the future." "I didn't think that the forums were busy work because they always related to the one of the essay topics we were supposed to be researching. Also, as a shy student I really liked this type of communication because it was easier for me to express my opinion. It is took bad that you couldn't use the CD-ROM because it was kind of a neat learning tool. I also liked the format of the class, I found Wendy to be very well prepared for everything." "There was a lot of work involved in the class. There is a great amount of reading involved if you were taking a heavy load this semester, trust me, I can feel your pain. Speaking for myself, it was hard to keep up with the work. I'm not exactly mister time management yet. However, this class was also great at pointing out the different styles of arguments and the beliefs that people had about science, space and other topics. It was interesting to read the forums and how one week, most people could be in total agreement with each other and other weeks, they seemed to live in different worlds. However, maybe instead of going through every single forum, which is a lot of reading on top of that already assigned, why not assign 3 people to each other and have those three people read each others responses. This way we can respond to three writing styles we can become familiar with to get more into depth with feedback, advice critiques arguments etc. These people can also tell us if were making progress or where we need to cut the slack. Another positive outcome is that it could become a little more involved. Instead of looking at a long list of people we don't know, we can reply to a set of people we can become familiar with. After every model, switch and assign three new people to each student. Pick the people randomly. It's not exactly group work because we all bring our own ideas and work to the table but at least we know who to respond to and by the end of the semester, we have a general knowledge of the entire class. Lecturing is a key component. I understand it's an online class, but I think twenty to thirty minutes of lecture for one class at the beginning of the week would bring a little clarity to a lot of people. Just a short explanation on the argument models. This way we can zero in on what the key points are when reading. I'd have to say it was a very hard class for me. I'm use to demands, deadlines, time frames and lectures so when I took this class, I didn't know if I had enough self-motivation to go through with it. I wont lie I procrastinate and that hurt me a lot in the class. If something I learned it was that I need to take more initiative. For that I am truly grateful. In closing, I must say I have limited complaints though quite a few suggestions. I enjoyed the topics and liked the discussion forums and wish everyone luck with finishing up their assignments. Name: Melisa Viscione 5712 Dear Jose That is an interesting suggestion for the forums. I think it would be great to be put in a group- I know I always benefit from others when they make comments or suggestions on my writing. I do agree with you that it was hard not to be told what to do. I am all about structure in a classroom. But I did learn how to accomplish things on my own- not having anyone else tell me what to do. I think anyone who signs up for an online class needs to be already a dedicated and self- motivated in order to succeed." "I think your idea for assigning people to each other for the discussion forums has its advantages and disadvantages. It would be really helpful for evaluating a person's progress and learning curve. However, that is mostly the teacher's job. Plus, there were many things I read in others' forum entries that I may not have read if I was assigned to certain students. It was nice to get different perspectives and see what everyone thought about certain issues, or if I couldn't think of any comments for an entry, I could just move on to the next one. Your idea might be good to try though, I just don't think students would get as much exposure to other perspectives." "First of all, I will preface my comments by letting you know that I did not mean to sign up for an online course. Unfortunately, in looking for a class that would fit my schedule, I neglected to notice that the class was online. As for my opinions of the class, I was not very satisfied. If I wanted to learn something by reading a book, I can do that on my own in the comfort of my home for only the cost of the book. I pay the extra $13/unit to LBCC to be taught by someone in person. I felt that the idea of assigning reading and having us post to the forums was a bit of a waste of time. Aside from the feedback to the essays, there was no way for us to judge what we had learned, and if we had indeed taken from the reading what was important and relevant. In searching for useful links to the Rogerian Model I came across this site: http://lamission.edu/english/orozco/index.html of a teacher who seems to put an online lesson onto the site as opposed to just assigning reading and writing. It gives the students another way to look at what is being taught and helps them to understand what they are learning. I was also a bit confused about the idea of having class time for an online class. Sitting in a computer lab with the Professor sitting behind me while I type assignments with no real direction seems pointless. It seems to me, from the great number of students who have stopped coming to the classroom on Tuesday and Thursday that I am not the only person who feels this way. I suppose the idea of having someone to whom questions can be posed while we are working is a good idea, but I felt that there should have been some face to face teaching to make the most of the class. On the brighter side, I found both of the texts to be well written and informative. I will probably keep The New Century Handbook, though I see little purpose for a mechanical engineer to have the Well -Crafted Argument. They were both well put together and easy to read, though I did have some problem finding interest in many of the Reading Clusters in The Well-Crafted Argument. I find it much easier to write about topics in which I have interest, and with only one exception, I had very little in any of the essay topics. More choices in what to write about would have been appreciated. The website itself was fairly well set up, but it was quite confusing having different due dates for the essays depending on where I looked. There could have been a bit more organization to avoid conflicting information on the different pages. The emails came a bit too frequently. I liked getting the class news in emails, but the links to useful sites and resources would be better left to the study guides area of the website or one weekly digest as opposed to many small emails. I also found it somewhat annoying to receive email meant for the students in English 1. I apologize for being as critical as I was, however I did not enjoy this class and did not feel it was worth my time. This was my first online class that I have taken, and it will also be my last." "I am going to try to use a little bit of the Rogerian model in my response.We both agree that it's always good to honestly speak our I minds. I also see that you value striving to communicate well in the written word. I think we you communicate well in writing, according to your response above. And, I agree that the textbooks were good.I am sorry to hear you didn't like the class, and on top of that didn't even mean to take English 3 online! Three semesters ago I started taking a course at lbcc, but then my work schedule was changed so I had a problem with attending class at the scheduled time. My wife and I had just moved to Long Beach so I was having a tough time with my schedule. I let my teacher know this, and he spoke to another teacher who taught the same course at a different time. They agreed to let me switch to take the same course at the different time. I have heard of other students doing this too at lbcc. So, my point is, it is possible to change your class to a different section if you signed up for the wrong one by mistake. The majority of the teachers at lbcc are very kind, and will usually go out of the way to help their students if asked. I feel that Professor Greenstein did her job well in warning us in the orientation that this class is for a self starter who is familiar with using a computer to learn things on. I am a person who learns best visually, and thus learn better by receiving written instruction and reading about relative material. I also felt comfortable that if I ever did need individual help with the assignments, Professor Greenstein would provide it and she did. In the future most of us will have to depend on our written communication skills over the internet for part of a job description. Right now a large percentage already must do this. Although my writing needs a lot of improvement, I felt that it helped me prepare for the possibility of using this skill in the workplace. I was forced to do it in this class, even when I didn't like it sometimes. And, I am very thankful I was able to have this opportunity. I am proponent of online courses, but also realize that they are not for everyone. I do think that a separate discussion forum for students to ask questions and simply freely talk with one another would help out in this class. This online course is very new, as most online courses are right now. Those new to teaching online courses right now are up against an incredible amount of work, but are paving the way to improve the quality of education overall by utilizing the net. So I would hope that you might at least consider recommending an online course to another student in the future, or maybe tell them it would help to be a visual learner right now if one is thinking about taking an online course. It is possible that a mechanical engineer might have to rely complete on the the internet to train employees. ;)" "It's too bad that you didn't enjoy this class. There are a lot of great online courses out there like this one that can really free up your schedule, especially if you have access to a computer at home instead of having to be in the lab. I have taken online courses for the last two years so that I can keep my schedule free for my family and all the little emergency that come up in life! I'll be able to transfer next year to state because of the classes I've taken online. Online courses aren't for everyone. It great for you that you have the time to sit in a classroom. If you ever find yourself in a position where your schedule has more demands that you can meet, maybe you'll try this again." "I know you were not being critical to be mean. Though I would have to say that this was a good class. I have never really relied on much of what the teacher has said in class but rather the feed back in my performance. I also think to look as this class as a waste because it was not face to face, is a bit uncalled for. I have had classes that have been face to face that have been worse then this one. often what teachers do is read out of the book. with this class you were obligated to think for yourself and search for the things you didn't know and ask about it. It was not spoon fed to you as it often is in a face to face classroom." "I feel the total opposite but some people like yourself enjoy being in a classroom and Internet course are not for them. Too bad you didnt have a better time" "This was my very first experience with an on-line class, and I have to say that it was a successful one. I enjoyed using my computer more, and I learned that it really does save a lot of time to type a rough draft then to write one out. I always used to write out my papers, even when this class first started I would write out my rough drafts, but not anymore! However, this class did teach me a lot more then just that. I would definitely stress at the start of this class that it really is only for really dedicated students. I used to consider myself a dedicated student, and yet with this class there was a period there where I really had trouble forcing myself to do all the posts every week. I think that it is a really good idea to only have one post a week, and to have a deadline to post by because that would have made me stick to the posting of my forums a lot better. I would also have some of the quizzes be worth points because I know that I didn't always take all of them especially in the beginning when the reading was a lot to get used to. As for the essays I really liked that we were given a choice between two different topics each time, and I really liked being able to come up with my own thesis, because it made writing the paper seem more like something I was interested in, not just something I had to do. Using the different type of writing models was difficult for me because I really like to just write in my own style and it is hard for me to conform to someone else's style, but I know that it is important to learn. I also liked how the topics were up to date and not issues that didn't apply so much to the times we are living in now. I really liked how on some of the study guides you had chances to earn extra credit. Even though I never sent in the e-mails to get any extra credit, I thought it was a neat way of making sure students really were reading the study guides. I know that as an English teacher it is hard to read, grade, and respond to all the e-mails, posts, and essays, and over all I really liked how quick you always responded to my e-mails, especially when I had a question. However, I would have really liked to get my essays back before the next one was due because it helps me to know what not to do on the next essay. I liked the grading policy, and the way that you put the comments on our essays. It helps me when I can read the comment you had right after the sentence you had it. The assignments were pretty good, but some of the weeks it seemed like there was just so much to respond to and others there was nothing but make-up forums. That was kind of hard to get used to, but I did appreciate the chance for make-up work. Overall I really liked this English class and am very glad that I decided to try the on-line experience as opposed to the normal English class. Name: Christy Vandever 5712 Dear Lindsay I agree that the quickness with which Wendy responded to all of the information we threw at her was amazing! This class was a great experience and I feel better prepare to argue with anyone now! Just kidding. My kids had better watch out though...." "This online class was the first internet course I had ever taken and it was quite an experience. It was not at all what I had expected but I did learn a lot from it. I didn't realize how time consuming this class was. I just figured I could go online and type my essays; but that wasn't the case. I enjoyed the online forum discussions. It was interesting to read comments and suggestions from other people. I do feel the forum requirements were a little too much. I felt so rushed to finish the forums because we had 3 required questions to answer plus responding back to other students. I feel forum questions should be limited to one or two entries a week; one especially if it is to be answered in essay form. The study guides and practices were really helpful. I also liked the web resources link. This helped me on every essay I had to write for this class. That brings me to the next subject: essays. I have mixed feelings about the essays we need to write for this class. I am a person who needs structure and I found it difficult at times to come up with an essay topic or theme. The deadline dates with the essays were confusing to me too. I know many times the dates were changed and I spent many days emailing Wendy. But she responded quickly and helped cleared things up. I love the fact she spends so much time reviewing our essays and giving suggestions on improvement. I have never received so much feedback from an instructor before. The revision policy is helpful too. I don't think I have had an English class at LBCC that has given me a chance to improve a paper. The texts we used for this class were very informative. The Well-Crafted Argument was detailed but simple to read and understand. I used this book the most out of the others. Overall, this class was a good experience for me. It definitely taught me to be more organized and more passionate about my writing. I have also learned to do things on my own- not rely on someone else to tell me what to write. This class is more of a self-taught class, the instructor is just there to guide you along." "This class was actually really easy to follow (thank you!). I found that the site and the information were very organized and easy to follow, as well as easy to understand. In general, this was a great way to take this class and I would highly recommend it to anyone. The only downfall is that I did not understand going in how time consuming this class would be. It has been a good experience though because I feel better equipped to throw together a good paper when necessary. My writing skills overall have improved from when the class started. The text was very easy to understand and easy to follow. The information is explained just enough that I could understand, but not so much that I got tired of it! I appreciated that it didn't waste my time. I found some of the assignments a little tedious and felt like my time would have been better spent with an actual quiz or something similar. My favorite experience has been the forums. I had a lot of fun getting to know people through their opinions. We had a very diverse group in this class and that was very apparent through people's postings and comments. It was nice to be able to say what I felt without fear. The overall communication from you (Wendy) has been wonderful! I really appreciated you posting announcements and also trying to email them to us as much as possible. Good communication from an instructor in this type of class is so important! The grading policy has been very fair. I also appreciated the chance to revise if necessary. The comments on papers were useful in preparing the next essay. I tried as much as possible not to make the same mistakes. I have very much enjoyed this class! Thank you" "This was definitely a challenging course. There was a lot of work to do but the fact that you could work at your own pace was definitely a huge plus. I found the text " The Well Crafted Argument" very useful and full of examples and models to follow. I also thought "The New Century Handbook" was very useful and I found myself often looking through it finding the answer to many of my questions. I highly recommend Mrs. Greenstein to use these texts next semester. I thought the assignments were fair. We were basically responsible for the weekly forums, which were a lot of writing but fair. The essay's were a bit challenging for me, but we had many resources to find help in. The comments on them when graded were very helpful and the fact that we could revise them was great and very nice of the instructor to allow us to do this. Not many instructors are as understanding. The teacher emails were helpful. It was nice to know that she was there at all times and responded rapidly to any questions asked. The only thing I believe needs improvement is the forum grades. It would be nice to know at what grade you were on a weekly basis to see were you stood in the class. I do not know how that could be fixed but it would be nice to have some percentage or something to compare yourself to. Besides this I found the whole online course experience very useful and convenient. My biggest fear was that what if my computer would freeze or something would happen to my work while sending it. But fortunately nothing like that happened. My experience was very good and I would definitely recommend this course to anyone!: "In comparison to my English 2 class, I liked this class much better. The essays, I believe would have been easier and more thought out if we had been able to choose our topics. While I did enjoy doing the essays we were assigned, I did often feel that I could do better if it were on a subject I felt more passionate about. Though the essays were a minor problem if a problem at all. While I do think that some of the discussion forums were necessary, there could have been fewer. I found that I often was overwhelmed by the amount of discussions we had due per week. I think that the time would have been better spent on our essays. The grading scale was great. Though I don't think the scale changes much from class to class. What I did appreciate was your consideration for our essays. When I read over my revised essays I really felt you thought about what we wrote. In my previous English class I felt the teacher was too wrapped up in something else to thoroughly critique my essays. Though when I read what you wrote on my essay I found it helpful and encouraging. You did a great job of letting us know when we did well and when we needed to improve something. I also appreciate the fact that you let us rewrite our essays and try to achieve a better grade. Most teachers have not let me return previously graded work. You have also been very generous and understanding with the due dates. You have also been very considerate when it came to turning revisions and allowing us to compare the one you have returned to the one we are going to turn in. You are a very good teacher. The site you chose for our course was not very good. I think Web CT would have been a better forum for our class. It is better organized and user friendly. I often found that with our current forum I was not sure what I was doing. At the beginning it was hard to tell between original postings and responses to the posting. The site could have been easier to read. I also found that replying to other students and their postings was a bit tedious. Though in some cases it was informative. One such is example was the website responses. Though I often didn't have much to say I did find that going over the websites gave me more resources. Overall it was a rather enjoyable course. You have been a very supportive teacher and have offered a great source of constructive criticism. I have learned very much from this class. We have done more than just write about nothing. I honestly think that this class has helped me to argue my points better. Whether I use the different models such as the Rogerian for writing or just to prove my point at work." I agree that your comments were thorough and helpful. It can be tiresome to spend hours on a paper that a professor hardly reads. I really appreciated the comments I was given, and they helped shape my future essays. Also, when I emailed questions about certain topics, you were quick to reply with additional sources, links, and encouragement. Thanks." "I think I learned a lot in this class. While I have taken an argumentation class before, it did not focus on logical fallacies, or cover different approaches to writing and arguing. I think these are essential components to this class that were extremely beneficial to the development of my writing and arguing abilities. The White text incorporated these ideas nicely. I do think, however, that the Rogerian model is the most important concept that I learned this semester, and I wish it had been incorporated in the class earlier. The Rogerian method is important when discussing arguing and writing etiquette, logical fallacies, critical thinking. The other methods are important, and the classical method provides a firm foundation, but the Rogerian style is relevant to real life, where empathy and compromise are essential skills. I also think it would be more helpful to have the discussion forums graded week by week, instead of mostly at the end. The essay comments and the revision policy were both helpful for feedback and developing my writing skills. The practices on the website were helpful at first, but after the first few weeks, there were empty spaces in most of them. It was unclear whether the practices consisted of just reading assignments, or if I was missing the "What to Do" part. There was also some information repeated on the website in different sections. Since this class is so complex, and there was only one class meeting, there has to be a lot of available information on the web page. However, this mass of information sometimes made it hard to find assignments. It might be more helpful to have all of the weekly assignments written down in one place, with the study guide and practice exercises included. The online chat was another source of frustration for me. I found it hard to navigate, and I was somehow automatically signed up for English 1, so when I tried to use the chatroom to meet with the professor, I could not access it. Contacting the company was not helpful because they did not email be back promptly, and when they did, they told me to email my teacher. I called the technical services phone number twice and they never returned my phone call. It was quite frustrating when I was unsure of the assignments and could not have a flowing discussion with my teacher. If it had not been for her prompt and thorough replies, I may never have been able to communicate my problems. Overall, I think this class was very useful. I was impressed with the quantity of communication I had with my teacher. Often, in a regular class, it can be hard to email a teacher questions. However, since that was essentially the only mode of communication available, it made it less worrisome to email the teacher with questions, comments, and concerns. I think my experience was more positive than I expected and I would definitely take another online class if given the opportunity." "The course overall was very fun, interesting, and informative. The textbook contained some very interesting essays. I especially liked the sections with student written essays. The new century handbook was on eof the best I have seen throughout my past two English courses. It was very easy to read and the CD-ROM made it very convenient. I used it a lot when writing my works cited pages. The assignments were okay. The page was kid of difficult to follow. It seemed like I would read it one day and then a few days later things would change. Some of the assignments were hard to figure out if they were just reading or actual tasks that we needed to complete. The course site was set up ok. The part I found to be very confusing and frustrating was the announcement page, which seemed to change an awful lot. For example one day I would read a post from you then the next couple of days it would be changed or gone. The forums were my favorite part of this course. I gave me a chance to have a voice in the classroom, which I usually would never have in a classroom based course9being that I am extremely shy). The forum questions were very interesting and stirred up a lot of great ideas for essays. My only problem with the forum was that you should have grades them by weekly or weekly. This would make I a lot easier on you and it would have made me more disciplined in completing them in order and on time. I think by you leaving the grading till the end of the course a lot of people got behind and are at a rush to complete everything at the end. The essay comments were wonderful. I can really tell you take your time in reading our work (thank you). They helped to improve my writing n awful lot. The revision policy and grading policy were all very fair. I had no problems with any of those aspects of the course. The course like I said in the beginning was very fun. I hope to take another online course with you soon. Thank you for always emailing e with your responses so promptly. And thank you for a great learning experience." "The course has been a struggle for me due to the events occurring the last couple of months. I enjoyed the class, but it was more intense than a previous online class I taken. In my opinion, the New Century text was not helpful in clarifying the Classical, Toulmin and Rogerian models. The Well Craft text gave clarity as well as example, which assisted me a lot with the essays. The essays were not a problem, as far as time management but the forums became overwhelming. I was behind in my forum postings, which, led to an enormous task to finish at one time. I like the Internet class because it gave me the opportunity to do work in the middle of the night. I hope the extension of other courses be available online eventually. The forums and study guides in combination were intense. The numerous hyperlinks was a bit too much because some of the information was located in the text. I enjoyed the articles that were required for the essays. I like going to the library, so researching books for my essay topic was not a problem. The teacher emails were timely, in which I appreciate. The last Internet class, the teacher would take approximately 2 days to respond. I did not have a problem with the revision policy. I appreciate the flexibility that was given as far as turning in forums and essay, due to personal circumstances. The assignments pertaining to searching for URLs were difficult because it was hard searching for legitimate websites. The URLs were repetitive in the information shown, especially for the Toulmin and Rogerian Internet assignment. The course could be more effective by reducing the number of hyperlinks. The forums should remain a weekly assignment, but some assignments were more intense than others. I think one assignment per week for each forum. The gap between essay 1 and 2 should be reduced because it pushes essay 3, 4, and 5 to the end of the semester. I personally was not timely with my forum assignments, which, a due date for the forum assignment would decrease the possibility of procrastination. The practice and study guide should be combined in order to grasp a better understanding. Personally, the class was helpful for me preparing for the CBEST this semester, due to not taking an English course in over 5 years." "I agree with you saying that the class was easy to get behind, but that's what made it cool. I felt that the class let me go at my own pace, learn more so from the information than the teacher. I mean when you think about it, we were learning from the material that english teachers learn from. We became teachers as well as students this semester" "Over all I would say that the class was very well organized, and I give it a satisfactory evaluation, but there were some things that could have been done to make the class more effective for me. I liked both the texts in the class. The Well-Crafted Argument was very informative and easy to understand, and most of the essays in the reading clusters were interesting. The New Century Handbook was also informative, but it wasn't as easy to lookup information in as the reference book I had in English 1. In English 1 I used the book A Writer's Reference, which had tabs on all the sections for quick referencing. I also found that it did a better job explaining MLA formatting. The course website is laid out very well making it easy to use and understand. Some of the most helpful links included web resources and the announcement page. The web resources page contained many helpful sites on essay writing and research information. I also liked the announcement page because it reminded me of up coming due dates and events in class. The forums were an effective way of getting the whole class to communicate and participate, but sometimes I felt that there were to many questions, and a lot of the time it was hard to get motivated to do all of the questions every week. The extra credit questions were good to makeup work, because sometimes students have more time to do work than others. I thought the revision policy was fare, because if you turn an essay in and its not that great, you should be able to revise it with the help of the teachers comments. Seeing where you make mistakes and fixing them is what learning is all about. I've never taken a class like this before, but for the most part it was an effective learning experience for me. My biggest problem was that all the work for the class was online so I felt like I didn't have to attend the class all the time, and in turn I got behind." "This was my first Internet course and I would have to say I enjoyed it very much. Not only did it help teach me how to manage my time wisely but it also helped me see others' points of views. In a normal class setting you tend to only hear a few individuals points of views because everyone else including myself are too shy to speak but with this type of class setting everyone has to express themselves and their views. I would have to say that this class helped open my eyes as to what others feel and how much we are so alike yet so different. I think this class could have been more effective for others and myself if we were able to read each others essay. I think it would have been good to get some input on my essays. It also would have been helpful to see how others write and how I could expand my own writing. I think it would also help to maybe have students introduce a topic to be written about. Maybe assign each student a week where they create a forum question along with your own? I think we tend to learn more when it is our peers asking the questions. Overall this class has been wonderful and I cannot think of a better way for it to be taught. I was weary about taking an Internet course because I thought I wouldn't learn anything but in your class I have learned a lot. I have a few friends who are taking classes on the Internet and dislike it very much because the teach doesn't really care about the class. You are a wonderful teach who actually care about her students getting the most out of the course. Name: Ethan Kuhn 5713 The class was very productive. It provided me with literature to read and expand my mind. It showed me different models of argument, how to structure a paper based on each, and how to tell them apart when reading other people's writings. The class also improved some of my computer skills. Before this semester I do not think I have even emailed someone before, now I know how to do that plus much more. I can download information off the Internet, as well as understand that not all the information I got from it may be a hundred percent factual. I learned in this classroom about MLA style documentation, and the fact that you cannot expect to write a works cited page in a few minutes if you have no idea how the structure goes. The argumentative papers I wrote, and still have to write, improved my skills as a write and as a voice within the crowd. I used to think that I knew how to defend my ideas, but now it seems that I had no clue. An argument has structure, some outline that captures your view, the opposing view, and the reason you believe your view is stronger. There was something missing from the classroom though, something that I believe is rather important. A little bit more of a hands on approach could of been used. I only mention this because I think that the computer is such a cold instrument, it can't tell me how I'm doing in the class, what is the matter with my works cited page, etc. I kindof need that acknowledgement otherwise I feel like I'm failing the class. But in all fairness though you, the instructor, did answer all my emails. I can only imagine how hard that must of been with all the classes being taught and all the students with all their questions. In all the class was fun and very challenging. I do not think I have ever written so much in one class before, but all the topics I did write about were interesting. I love to challenge myself and that is exactly what this class did, challenged my intellect. Hopefully I passed" "English has always been a subject that I could do well in independently. I think that the reading assignments were consistent with the course objectives. I did not have any problems with relating the reading material to the assignments. I really think that the reading assignments were somewhat boring at times so that did not really promote me doing my forum assignments and essays. The forums were difficult at first. I did not realize that we had more than one post each week. For the first five weeks, I was only responding to the first post that I saw. Then I realized that I had a whole lot of F grades on the forums and I had to go back and do all of the other forums. I was also under the impression that we only had to respond to three other people each week. I did not know that we had to respond to at least three people per post. After learning this I had to go back again and respond to everybody. The forum assignments were very helpful is my writing. There were plenty of examples for me to follow when comparing writing styles of different authors. I actually enjoyed viewing the different writing styles and analyzing each authors strengths and weaknesses. The same goes for viewing other students writing styles. Many of the other students responses and essays were very interesting. Even when I disagreed, I found value in other opinions. Responding to other students helped me form different thoughts by viewing different subjects through other peoples views. Throughout the semester, I found myself responding to many of the same people. I found particular students that I favored and shared similar thoughts as I did. I also found myself exploring the ideas of students that I hardly agreed with. This was also helpful when writing an argumentative essay because I was able to think of some of those students who usually disagreed with my opinion and I found that my writing would reflect on some of the thoughts that they expressed. Throughout the semester, I never went back to see if anybody responded to my forums. I'm sure that there were some people who responded but it probably would have helped if there was an assignment to go back and respond to our responses. I think that this would have increased class participation and given students an idea of the quality of their work from a source besides the instructor. Lastly, I must commend Wendy for responding to students emails so swiftly and accurately. I have had three telephone conversations with her to clarify some of the assignments and to discuss some personal issues as well. I really appreciated her understanding to students personal lives and circumstances that may occur that can prevent the student from always turning in work on time. Wendy has always offered an alternative that was consistent to the situation. I liked the fact that if a student had a question or inquiry, she would answer the student and then email all of the other students with the same information." Wendy Likes to Travel This Christmas she is headed to Vietnam and Cambodia. While on sabbatical in 2002 she visited Malta and Sicily. In 2002 she went to Australia , New Zealand, and Fiji. She was in New Zealand on 9/11 where all the people were kind and empathetic. In 2000 she Christmas in Cuzco, Peru. Here she saw the Incan ruins of Saqsaywaman and Korikancha.In the sacred valley( Urubamba) she saw Ollantaytambo (the remains of an Incan city). In Lima she saw the of the Pre Inca Moche Culture Lord of Sipan, Machu Picchu, Colonial art at the Poli Museum . In Ica she flew over the Nazca Lines, visited the Anthopology Museum and sailed to the Ballestas Islands where she saw the unexplained Caandelabro Lines, as well as penquins, sea lions and Bobbies. She has also traveled in Turkey, Jordan and Egypt.. In Turkey she visited the the ancient cities of Hattusas, Perge, Aphroditas,Hieliapolis, Capaddocia, Ephesus, and Troy saw ruins of theaters, bathes, city centers and the art which adorned these cities. In Egypt she visited the valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, and the Valley of the Nobles. She also visited the temple of Hathor and the giant monument to Ramses the Great at Abu Simbel. And of course, the tomb of the boy King Tutankamun in The Valley of the Kings. She has also been to Kenya, Tanzania, Greece, France, Italy, Germany. Hungary, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Britain, Columbia,Costa Rica, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein.