The following is a list of tasks and assignments that you must complete before the beginning of the third week of classes, on Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Before 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 17:

• Read your classmates’ questions about the course and syllabus and my responses in the “Syllabus and course site questions” forum. Add any additional questions you might have.
• Complete the readings listed on the schedule for Jan. 13-17 and
• post your response to the prompt for Week 2 on the “Week 2″ topic in the “Weekly Discussion” forum. (I will usually refer to this particular forum as the “discussion forum.”).

Before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 21:

• Create an account at WordPress.com for your personal website (you do not need to install your own version of WordPress; see my comment here) then
  • add your first blog post and
  • share the link to the site on the “Personal Website” forum.
• If you do not already have one, create a Google Drive account and
  • create a folder (I will often refer to these folders as your course folders) for your 303 course work,
  • title the folder using the format ENGL303-SP14-Lastname (for example, a student named Zaphod Beeblebrox would have folder titled ENGL303-SP14-Beeblebrox), and
  • share that folder (not individual documents, the entire folder) with jmj5805 [at] gmail [dot] com. Information about sharing on Google Drive can be found here. The folder’s “visibility settings” should be set to “private,” and, when you share it with me, my “access level” should be “editor.”
  • Once you have successfully created the folder and shared it with me, you can turn in documents by
    1. uploading them to Google Drive then
    2. adding them to your course folder.
• If you do not already have one, create a Google+ account and add me to one of your circles.
• Look for my email with the schedule for forum discussion leaders (DLs); the scheduled DL should add his or her initial topic post, titled “Week 3,” to the “Weekly Discussion” forum. (Update, 1/9: if you would like to request to be a DL for a particular week, post your request to this thread on the forum.)

The following is a list of tasks that you must complete before the beginning of the second week of classes, on Monday, Jan. 13.

Before 9 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 13:

• Register for an account on this site so you can access the forums. I will have to give you permission to post to the course forums, so when you register, be sure to use your real name somewhere in your profile so I know it is you, and be sure to register early so you will have time to add your first post to the forum.
  • After you have read through the course syllabus—the course description and requirements, policies, assignments, and schedule—post at least one question that you have about the syllabus or the course itself as a topic to the “Syllabus and course site questions” forum.
  • You may ask as many questions as you like, but please do not duplicate questions. If someone has already asked the question you have, ask a different one.
• Purchase all the required course texts. (If you will not be able to meet this requirement before this deadline, please contact me prior to this deadline to discuss this issue. You should only buy Blown to Bits if you want to own a physical copy. The book is available as a free download here.)
• Scan the other course requirements. If you will not be able to meet any of them, please contact me prior to this deadline to discuss the issue.
• Complete the readings listed on the schedule for Jan. 8-10.