Welcome to our course: Synchronous Classrooms! We would like to take this opportunity to quickly introduce ourselves and prepare you for the weeks to come. In this course, there will be two instructors: Susan Manning & Kevin Johnson. We are both looking forward to an amazing four weeks of asynchronous and synchronous discussions.

We plan to start the course with a bang. We will be holding a required conference call on Wednesday, June 1 from 7:00 until 8:00 PM (CDT). This session will serve as an Orientation to the course and an overview of expectations. At the time of the meeting, please call toll free: 800 347-8268. Meeting ID: 720531. Meeting Password: 050601.

By this time you should have received an E-mail detailing your enrollment in this course and login information. If not, please let us know as soon as possible by replying to this message.

If you have not already done so, please enter our virtual classroom and start becoming familiar with the environment. The course is divided into two sections.  The top section provides general information including the following sections: Start Here, Course Requirements, Course Communication, and Resources. This information will be referred throughout the entire course and therefore static in nature. Below this section you will find our course Modules. This course has been divided into four modules. However, at this time, only Module 1 is visible. As we complete each module, we will �Open� the next, leaving the previous module(s) open for you to review at anytime.

We expect a high level of participation in this course. Therefore, it is important that we explain a few of the resources available to you to help play a more active role in this course.

LearningTimes / Skype / Elluminate
In this course, you will be required to obtain a free LearningTimes network membership, as well as download both Skype and Elluminate communication software. Instructions for doing all of this can be found in the Course Requirements section of our course.

The Glossary
The Glossary is located in the Resources section of our course. Here you will find several common terms used in our readings and throughout the course. PLEASE add to the glossary as you come across new terms as a way of adding to our collective knowledge. To Add a term, enter the Glossary and click the Add a new entry tab.

Forums
The meat of our learning will come via the interaction in the Forums. These are the discrete bulletin board areas, organized by module, theme, and assignment. In past courses I�ve led, it was not uncommon to have 2000 posts by the end of the term.

My understanding is that you can set preferences to have new posts sent to your external email. You can read the recent posts via email and reply. Those replies will not only go to the author, but will be seen by all in the course, so keep this in mind when you reply.

External E-mail
Speaking of external E-mail (e.g. susan@yahoo.com), We will communicate with you privately regarding grades and other issues by using the E-mail address you gave when registering with MVCR. Please make sure this is accurate and that you check this E-mail frequently. Our account is MVCR-Synch@uillinois.edu (the above yahoo example isn�t real).

Caution: Be selective in posting
Once we get past the orientation period, during which there is a blip of activity because we're all being friendly, we will all need to be selective about what we say. Once we get into the modules and answer discussion questions, your responses will need to be thoughtful, articulate, add to the content, and say a lot more than "Good idea and I agree!". The discussion rubric is very simple, and will help you self-critique how well you're hitting the mark in that area. In addition to answering your assigned question, choose 2 others you want to thoughtfully respond to. For that, look at the assessment rubric. Of course you are free to address more than 2 students throughout the week, but be realistic for yourself and others.

One of the advantages of the asynchronous environment is that everyone should have an equal voice, in theory. We can all contribute to the knowledge base. However, sometimes students with limited access to the course (especially if they can't log in throughout the day), find that there isn't "room" for their ideas if we get TOO hot and post too often. So, in an effort to be proactive, I�ll ask you to pace yourself. If you find that you've posted 10-15 responses in a given module, you're WAY ahead and might want to sit quietly for a couple days and let others get involved in the discussions.

During the orientation period, we will be very quick to respond. We want to make sure each learner knows we�re present and interested, and that he or she feels welcome. We also want new learners to know they've successfully posted. However, once we begin the content modules and you are assigned questions, we generally try to wait for more student-student interaction before we jump in with our voices. We certainly don't want to come off as know-it-alls, and we personally value learning along with you from other's comments and insights.

Log in frequently to manage messages on a near-daily basis.
If you let them pile up for 3-4 days, you might be overwhelmed.

Those are just a few insights. We�re sure you have ideas to add and we look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Susan & Kevin