Guidelines for Using Computers

WKU Email Account

Western assigns you an email account when you register for courses. This email address is used for all university communication, including this course. Your email address has to be consistent throughout the semester to avoid communication problems. When your instructor sends out and “all-class” message, it will go to your Western inbox. You must use your WKU e-mail address to receive regular course updates. Checking your messages on a daily basis is also vital in this course.

When to Email the Professor?

In this course, email is only used to declare emergencies. If you have questions about the course, assignments, etc., please post them under Blackboard’s (BB’s) DISCUSSION BOARD (DB). The forum called QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? is designated for this purpose. Please do not ask routine questions via email and do not send your professor assignments via email. Please save sending email messages to her in case of an emergency.

How to Send Messages to Your Peers or Professor?

If you need to send a message to your professor or somebody else in class, please follow these guidelines. First, fill in the subject line of your email. Always type “Eng” an the appropriate course number, e.g. “401G” followed by a colon. It will like this: “Eng 401G: ”. After that, specify the topic of your message, e.g. “Sick Today,” “Need Extension,” “Problem with Internet access,” “SOS help,” or “Emergency”, etc. This will help your professor and others not to overlook your message, so they will respond faster. Before sending off your message, please sign your full name; include what course and section you are in. If your professor doesn’t know who the message comes from, she ’ll ignore it. “jabrow2@wku.edu” or “Jane from your English class” does not give her adequate information to respond in an efficient manner. It would be very helpful to create your signature file, which goes out with every message you send out.

Signature Files

A signature file is a text file that appears at the bottom of the computer screen and goes out with every message. My signature file looks like this:

Your signature file will probably include different information. For example, disclosing your phone number and address may not be relevant or desirable for your purposes. On the other hand, including your course and section number and whether you are a graduate or undergraduate student would be important, at least from your professor's point of view. She will certainly appreciate if you could create a signature file, because communication will be less ambiguous and more professional.

The QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? Forum on Blackboard's Discussion Board

If you have questions about the course, about individual assignments or course policies, please log in to BB’s Discussion Board and post your question in the QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? forum. Click on the title of the forum to get to the next screen, and then click “ADD NEW THREAD” to post your question or comment. If you know the answer to anybody’s question, please don’t hesitate to respond. It will give you extra credit. Your professor checks your postings several times a day and responds quickly.

Computer Viruses

To protect ourselves from computer viruses, it is strongly recommended that you buy an antivirus program (Norton or McAfee) for your home PC (and office computer if that’s what you use to upload your homework) and keep your virus definitions up-to-date. Please check your drives/disks/files for viruses frequently (e.g. once a week) and regularly for your own and others’ safety, especially if you use public labs on campus. Although your assignments are due on the Discussion Board and you won’t need to send your professor anything via email, it would be better not to send any ATTACHMENTS with email messages. Viruses often spread through attachments, so let’s avoid using them in this course.

Netiquett

Please follow the usual Netiquette guidelines when you work or communicate online. Our e-mail system serves academic purposes only, and all rules of privacy apply. Additionally, refrain from spamming, flaming, etc. Please be courteous with your peers and professor at all times.

Further Recommendations for Using Computers

It's a good idea to decide on a file management system for your course early on so that you can stay organized throughout the semester. If I were a student in this course, I would have a separate folder for each major essay--and separate files for each draft and revision of those essays--, a separate folder for DB postings, for the reflective journal, etc. If you use computers in the university’s public labs, I suggest that you write your name, course number, phone number, etc. on your pen/flash drives, so that they can be returned easily in case you leave them in the lab. Regardless of where you do your homework, please make several back-up copies of all your assignments (on your home computer’s C:\ drive, Blackboard, pen/flash drive, etc.) all the time. I encourage you to send yourself a copy of important documents via email. You also want to keep hard copies of your work, just in case all electronic copies get damaged. Please plan ahead and play it safe. We don’t want anybody to drop or fail the course because of lost files or failures with the operating system.