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Courses with an Online Option
in Business Administration
FAQ
Business Law II
are offered by Professor Wick with an online option so you can take the course from anywhere you can connect to the internet, and during flexible hours. To be successful in this type of course, the student needs to have disciplined study habits and needs to be highly motivated.
What is an Online course?
An Online course is a course which is designed so that it can be taken almost entirely over the internet or the World Wide Web (WWW), using computer technology. It makes it possible so that the students and the teacher do not have to be in the same place and, for the most part, may not even need to be anywhere at the same time. One can thus take the course from anywhere in the world, from any location where one has access to the internet and the WWW. This makes it possible for students to take courses but not spend the semester on campus. It makes it possible to take courses that are otherwise scheduled on a day or time that make it impossible or difficult to take.Who might want to take a course entirely Online?
- A student who is on an internship but wishes to continue taking a course at the same time.
- A student who needs, or wishes, to take a course but there is a schedule conflict or the course is at a very inconvenient time.
- A student who is still learning sign language but who wishes to be able to participate in class discussions.
- A student who, due to illness, pregnancy or other medical reasons, cannot attend Gallaudet for a semester or more but who wishes to continue her/his studies from home until she/he can return.
- A student who has had to take a break for financial reasons, and is working full time to save money to return to Gallaudet, but wishes to continue taking a course at the same time.
- A student who has completed all but 1 or 2 courses required for graduation but cannot justify spending a full time semester on campus to do so.
- A student who left Gallaudet without completing her/his degree and, due to their job or family responsibilities cannot physically return to Gallaudet to complete it.
- A student who wishes to learn how to take an Online course so she/he can be prepared to take future Online courses at the Master's level at one of the hundreds of colleges now offering such a program.
- A student who wishes to improve her/his computer collaboration skills in preparation for a job in which teams use collaborative software tools such as Domino.
How does an Online course differ from a Web Enhanced/Hybrid/Blended course?
An Online course is capable of being taken without any physical presence in a classroom. In a Web Enhanced course (which is also known as a hybrid course or a blended course), classes are held in a physical classroom but they are supplemented with the use of the WWW or assignments are computer based. An Online course can be taught as a Web Enhanced course, for those students who need a more structured environment.Who can take these courses?
These courses are open to any student who would be eligible to take an on campus credit course. Students who take these course must have computer access to the World Wide Web [WWW].How will the classes be conducted?
These courses use a concept in teaching courses sometimes called flexible delivery, computer mediated learning--there will be a virtual (computer) classroom but NO physical classroom for the students taking it. Students may take the course in university computer labs or on their own computers in their dorm room, their home, their workplace or any place they have access to the WWW and an email account, at times during the week to best fit their own schedules, and not on a fixed day and time schedule except for completely online courses which have synchronous chat sessions at a time to be scheduled. There will, however, be assignment deadlines to meet each week and tests will be given on specific days so they are not self paced courses.The courses will be offered via the internet, using
- a WWW browser, for course materials including both lecture materials and tutorials which are in HTML format.
-
a virtual chat classroom for some class meetings and live
(synchronous) discussion groups and pre-arranged one on one discussions
with the professor. You may see the online
Legal Chatter Room
-
conferencing notes software for class related (asynchronous) discussion
Discussion forums are password protected so, unlike the other web pages for the course, they are not available to the public.
-
interactive quizzes and
review. You can see an example of an online
Business Law quiz at http:"./bus447/q09.htm"
- email for private one on one discussion with the professor and between the students (this will be sent via either the browser linked to your Internet Service Provider--Gallaudet computer system if you live on campus--or through regular email using either a Gallaudet email address or an email address of your ISP (such as AOL, MSN or Verizon, etc.)
How will the course be different from the regular classroom courses?
We will cover exactly the same materials, just in a non traditional way!You will have the same text, the same assignments, the same quizzes and the same tests as the regular class does (and, incidentally, the regular class will use the WWW materials developed for the course too.) You will have the same deadlines, such as testing dates.
The first difference is that students in the WWW class need never see each other face to face and some of them will never even meet the professor! (they can see what he looks like anyway because his picture can be seen from a link from his home page. Some students may be on campus and can physically meet with him if they need or wish to, during his regular office hours, but some students may be thousands of miles away and never set foot on the Gallaudet University campus.
The second difference is that, because the material is on the WWW and in a forum to which all students will be expected to post their assignments, there is a lot more flexibility in when studying is done, instead of a fixed classroom schedule. In some classes there may be some scheduled chat sessions in the evenings and everyone must learn how to use the chat feature but, except for some possible specially designated dates, attendance at the chat sessions is optional for those on a schedule which makes it difficult to attend.
What about tests?
The tests are the only thing that will not be done online.Students who live in the Washington area must come to the University on the scheduled dates to take the tests but students who live away from the Washington, D C area may be able to take this course but they will be required to arrange for an acceptable proctor for the tests in either a local university/college that agrees to proctor tests or at work proctored by a supervisor and the tests will be sent to the approved proctor who will then return them to the professor.