July 7, 2021

Setting Up for Fall

I’ve begun working on this web site again in preparation for the fall. I began using D2L last year to try to help students, but I’ve found that it helped little to mitigate the confusion and complaining. So, I’ll wave buh-bye to D2L once again and keep my syllabi here. I’ll probably use D2L for some quizzes and forum posts because it’s convenient. I’ll see.

I’m seriously thinking about getting LitWiki up and running on a university server. Wikipedia intimidates students, so LitWiki could teach them how to use a wiki in say, freshmen and sophomore classes, and allow them to graduate to Wikipedia for more advanced courses. LitWiki will also allow for more flexibility in what we post.

For example, it could allow for the student expansion of my CompFAQ—a thing I wrote nearly twenty year ago for a Title III project. I think it’s a good idea. I’d also like to revive the dictionary of literary terms. Regardless, I’ll work on the CompFAQ on this site as I get the time.

I’ve nearly finished my syllabus for ENGL 1102. I’m torn on requirements, but I should decide those in the next few days. ENGL 2111 will be easy—pretty much a copy/paste job. I’ll need to spend some time on ENGL 2122, but that doesn’t begin until second session, so I have a bit of time. Still, I’d like to have them all ready to go by August 11. (I swear we begin earlier every year.)

Also, Chip told me my office is ready to move into, so I’ll probably be doing that next week when Henry goes back to school.