Well then, worry number two might arise . . . But these are the less serious students in the class. At the beginning of the semester, linguistics professor Schick shows students how to access her course pages, posts where they can find computers, and emphasizes that the Web will add to their understanding of the course. She also makes it clear to her students that the lecture notes she provides are for their convenience, but they should not assume that they are comprehensive. I believe this encourages and increases class participation.
Students can post queries and comments that can be read by the entire class.
They could stick a note in my mailbox, but I bet they'd be afraid that I'd recognize their handwriting. Zemka gets the impression among her English students that some may be a bit resentful of the inconvenience of having to log in, as opposed to just having hard copies handed to them. But for Schick, the reaction is different. If she's late putting up review questions or notes, her students definitely let her know. Chris Taylor, a sophomore pre-journalism major, finds online course material helpful, as he doesn't know any students who are actually able to keep track of their paper syllabi for the whole semester.