Astronomy 105 Online
Welcome to the online
version of introductory Astronomy at
You will notice certain advantages
to this format:
1.
You can ask me to back
up and repeat a section again. This
would never happen in a classroom setting.
I never get tired in the Real Video segments. And you will want to take full advantage of
this feature. The controls on Real Video
are just like a standard VCR player. You
may also find the pause button handy while you write notes.
There are also some real
disadvantages to the online format:
1.
You may feel a bit isolated. The live lecture sections will have their lab
instructor or other students in the class to answer the questions they may
have, but you don’t. Here are some
strategies to try to overcome this isolation.
a. Try to form a
study group. I will publish, upon
request, a list of online students and their hometowns. We generally have a cluster from the bigger
cities in the region.
b. Speak up –
sometimes an instruction that may seem perfectly obvious to me is obscure to
you. I won’t know you are having trouble
unless I hear from you. Never worry
about asking a “stupid question.” If you
are having trouble understanding it, chances are you’re not alone.
c. I would like you
to create a Student Homepage for yourself in WebCT
during the first week of class. You will
find this feature under the Study Tools tab on the main page. Your homepage will not only allow me and the
rest of the class to get to know you, but will give you a good introduction
into the WebCT package. There are very simple directions for how to
put material onto your homepage, including a recent photograph. You will know what I look like from the lectures,
but I will only know you by this photo, so please put a photo on the student
homepage.
c. Don’t let
hardware/software problems go for very long without getting help. This course is completely dependent on the
technology. You must have internet
access, a word processor, email, Real Video, and Power Point (or Power Point
Viewer) and understand how to use each.
Occasionally, we may lose the servers (I use three). Please let me know if you have trouble
getting to any part of the course material.
I distribute the course content on CDs because of frequent internet
congestion, so use the disks as your primary source of information, but don’t
forget that the online versions exist in case one of your disks is
damaged. If you are having trouble with
hardware or software, contact me. I have
helped students in their setup using online chat, ICQ, NetMeeting, phone call,
etc. Do a
software check out in the first day or
two of the semester to make sure your computer is set up correctly. I have found that students lose most of their
study time in the first two weeks of the course. (hit the ground
running!)
2.
Read the syllabus
carefully. I answer many questions each
semester that are covered in the syllabus.
3.
Think about how you will turn in the work. The ongoing work of the course is the
lab. Each Monday a new lab is due. Considering the comments I have made on
isolation and motivation, please don’t start the lab on Sunday night. I think it works best to copy the lab into a
word processor, answer the questions, and email me the result. For this reason I have provided the labs in
html as well as WORD format. Often there
will be graphs to turn in. Anytime a lab
asks you to make a graph, it should be turned in as part of the report. Graph submissions, however, require more
thought. If you have the tools and know
how to use them, a spreadsheet, scanner, digital camera, etc. are very
useful. I will also accept work
personally turned into my office or FAXed (although
the quality is sometimes irregular). I
prefer email attachments as the primary method to turn in lab work.
4.
The Real Video format is convenient as a
vehicle for the course content, but it has some drawbacks. It is a highly compressed (30 to one) format
in which some of the video fidelity is lost.
You may wish to have the Power Point slides available while you watch
the lectures. They are all available here.
Start up Issues
£
The course content
comes on three CDs which are bundled with the lab manual. If you are taking the online lecture only
(and a face-to-face lab) please come by the office (Science 322F) or ask me to
mail the CDs if you can’t come by. These
CDs are NOT the same as the CD that comes in your textbook.
£
Each CD has an index
file. This is an html document that
provides links to the videos in the order the course is presented. The index files are named index1.html (CD1),
index2.html (CD2), and index3.html (CD3).
£
Sometimes I need to get
in touch fast. Send me your address
information, including street address, phone number, and preferred email
address as soon as possible.
£
Do buy the textbook
(look for section 502) and the online
lab manual. The lab manual will include
the online lab manual, the course content CDs, any lab supplemental material,
and a video tape of the lab preps.
£
The main entry page for
the course is WebCT located here. The login is the same as you use for Campus
Pipeline. The ID is your last name (up
to 12 characters) followed by your first name (up to 5 characters). So Johannes Kepler
would have logged in as keplerjohan. If you have a common name, a numeral may be
attached. Check with me or OIT
(468-1919) for your login in those cases.
The password is your registration PIN number. Once logged into WebCT,
find the correct semester and AST 105.
Clicking on that link takes you to the welcome page. You may want to bookmark the welcome page in
your browser once you get there. Spend
some time investigating the site to find out where things are located.
Ø
WebCT is a dynamic environment so you will want to set up your
browser to take advantage. Specific
instructions for your browser are given in the Orientation for Online Courses
@SFA located here. The instructions will tell you how to set up
you browser for caching, java, and more.
Ø
Periodically, we will
have online chats using the chat tool on WebCT. The chat tool is a javascript
and experience shows that you must allow the script to load fully before
entering the chatroom. To enter chat you should click on
Communications Tools/Chat. It is at this
point that you should wait until the progress strip at the bottom of the screen
reports “Applet started.” Then you may
click on the room labeled “Meet with Markworth.”
§
If you are on a modem
connection, check the properties of the connection for the idle disconnect
time. This is the time that the
modem/processor detects that there is no activity on the connection and
automatically disconnects.
Unfortunately, the javascript of the chatroom fools the processor into thinking that the line is
idle. The Microsoft default is 20 minutes. So if you find yourself getting disconnected
after 20 minutes in chat, check this out.
£
Most of the site is
password protected. This password is
different from the WebCT login. I will provide the login information in an
email. You may wish to save the login
information on your computer
£
If you do not have some
of the software that I have been mentioning, check out this link. The special software required for the course
is available as free downloads.
£
You will want to make
sure you can find the links for the study guides, home projects, and lab
syllabus. The lab prep videos are
available online in the lab syllabus, but are also on the course CD3 as well as
the video tape in the lab manual package.
Here is the flow of the course, which is also on this link.
|
Where We Have Been |
Of Light and Stars |
Stellar Evolution |
Our Neighborhood |
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Test I |
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Test II |
Test IV |
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Test III |
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Some specific comments about the lab are in order.
Below I have copied the lab syllabus table to show you how it works. This
may be found on the lab
syllabus page
a. The name of each lab is a
hyperlink. Clicking on it brings up the html version of the lab
exercise. Please use the online version if any differences occur between
it and the printed lab exercise.
b. The next column gives the page
number in the printed lab manual for this exercise.
c. The next column provides a link to
a Real Video Lab Prep. You will want to view this prep before completing
the exercise. I go into the purpose of the lab and some of the mechanics
of doing the exercise.
d. In the presentation I may use some
power point slides. The conversion to the Real format always results in
loss of video fidelity, so I have provided the power point slides in the next
column.
e. I have had some students who
cannot read the html version of the lab exercise. Usually, this is the
result of the browser wars. I use MS WORD to produce the labs and its
conversion to html puts loads of nonstandard code into the document that
Netscape has had trouble reading. If you have trouble with the html, let
me know and I'll try to fix it. But the WORD document is identical to the
html document. Either one can be used.
f.
Finally, I have text notes on each of the labs that provide helpful
hints on procedures.
I prefer that you copy
and paste the exercise into a word processor, complete the exercise, and email
me the result as an attachment. Please strip the introductory sections
and just send the exercise itself. You may also FAX the lab or hand deliver it. I will be making suggestions on how
to handle graphs and pictures.
ASTRONOMY
105 LABORATORY
Online Lab Schedule
|
Lab |
Due
Date |
Lab
Exercise |
Page |
Lab Prep Video |
Power
Point |
WORD
Document |
Notes |
|
1 |
Jan 27 |
1 |
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|
2 |
Feb 03 |
11 |
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|
3 |
Feb 10 |
17 |
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|
4 |
Feb 17 |
21 |
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|
5 |
Feb 24 |
27 |
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|
6 |
Mar 03 |
35 |
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|
7 |
Mar 24 |
41 |
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|
8 |
Mar 31 |
49 |
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|
9 |
Apr 07 |
57 |
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|
10 |
Apr 14 |
71 |