Hello Everyone:
Just a quick note to cover some of the mechanics of the class, as I work out some of the details. I might have to send a couple of messages through the next days, as I work things out.
- The main links that you need to use are:
- sakai.luc.edu In case this is new to you, Sakai is the course management system that Loyola will be using from this semester forward. Some courses are still on Blackboard, but many will be shifting to Sakai over this year. This is where you will contribute to forums, submit papers, check grades, send emails, etc. You can access the Syllabus and Course Units through the Sakai site as well.
- dbdhist336.blogspot.com If you want to go directly to the content, you can just go to this site. Remember, though: after listening and studying each section, you will need to go back into Sakai to enter your Forum contributions (by Wednesdays at 5 pm), etc.
- I am still working out precisely how the grading system works on Sakai, but your online contributions will be included in the grade, so you should start making them today (for Unit 02). Today's will be "free," but they will start counting next week.
- Tomorrow we will talk more about the mechanics of the course, then discuss your forum entries and some of the the main themes in Unit 2-Background, Lecture A. At the end, we'll listen to some of Unit 2-Background, Lecture B to round out the 18th and 19th Century background to the course. You will need to finish that for next week.
- I will be uploading the next sets of lectures as quickly as possible. Materials for 03-Wilhelmine Germany should be ready today or tomorrow.
- Remember, starting with this Unit, you are responsible for both listening to the lectures, following the listening guides, AND reading the required readings: so you should start reading Heinrich Mann, The Subject along with the background readings for next Thursday.
- I will indicate the lecture references in the PDF, but you are responsible for reading the whole thing. .
- Take a look at the course schedule links.
- The one on Sakai just shows the dates of the course and assignment deadlines.
- The one on the blog includes assignments, etc.
- There, I have indicated that you will do "Independent Study" from Friday through Wednesdays, most weeks. Form entries (or other forms of online participation) are due Wednesdays at 5.
- You will be able to ask questions and consult with me electronically, and during office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Class meetings for discussion will be on Thursdays.
- There are a just couple of exceptions that I will point out here:
- There will be no class meeting on Thursday, Jan. 31, because I will be giving a paper at the main U.S. conference on the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner's birth (in Columbia, SC, of all places)
- There will be a class meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 12, because I seem to have lost the recording of my lecture on All Quiet on the Western Front, so we'll do it in class unless I can recover and post it.
- There will be no class meeting on Thursday, Mar. 7, because you will be on Spring Break--on the beach, listening to lectures about Mein Kampf. (!)
All best, Dr. Dennis
