This course will use the "Internet Classroom Assistant" (ICA) network
to hold online discussions, share ideas, extend classroom conversations,
and interact with one another about important issues. This website will
be, in a sense, our virtual communal space. ICA is not hard to use, but
it will take a little time to familiarize yourself with its operation.
I'll try to walk you through logging into the system and tell you a
little bit about its features. This site will help you....
If you want to print out a copy of
these instructions, click to print from the toolbar above or
go to the end of this document and click the button "Print These
Instructions." Here's how to get started with the "Internet Classroom
Assistant":
| How to Log In to ICA for the First Time |
- So far you've gotten to the "Introducing Religious Studies" site,
clicked on "Forum" in the left frame, and clicked "Instructions"
right beneath that. The Internet Classroom Assistant should have appeared
over the course website, with these "Instructions" on how to use it in the
upper left of your screen.
In the top middle of the Internet Classroom Assistant window, click on
"Join a Class." It will be right
under the heading "New ICA Users:" This will take you to a page where you
will need to enter a course key to sign
yourself up for the "Introducing Religious Studies" Forum.
-
The class key for the 10:00 class is TZ5Z054ZZ00--type exactly as shown (the three
"0's" are zeros, not letters).
The class key for the 11:00 class is TZ5Z055Z7Z--type exactly as shown (the "0" is
a zero, and not a letter).
- You must enter the class key exactly as shown above in
green. After you enter the Class Key, press "Join the Class --->."
You should now see a frame
that says "Join 10:00 Intro. RLST" or "Join 11:00 Intro. RLST,"
depending on which key you entered.
Fill in a
username and a password. Keep in mind that there are over 20,000 users
on this system and so your username has to be something fairly unique
(something with letters and numbers, like the Saint Mary's login, should
work fine). Also, be sure to enter your e-mail address along with
your first and last names. Even though these latter boxes are listed
as "optional," it's really important that you identify yourself so
that we all know who's making which comment. Then press "Join the Class!"
- You should now get a screen welcoming you to ICA. It will also
display your new username and password. A copy of these things will be
sent to you at the e-mail address you entered to verify your registration.
This e-mail will again provide your username,
password, class name, and today's date. Keep this
e-mail for future reference in case you ever forget your username or
password. You'll also see a
statement saying that "You may now login to ICA at ...." Click on that
address. You also have the option of clicking on the button reading
"Finish Registration." It doesn't really matter which of these you
select, as both of them will take you to a screen where you enter your
username and
password and then select "Log In to the ICA."
You should see your name in the upper left
corner of the screen. In the middle of the frame, under "Home - Religion Intro.
(10:00 or 11:00 Intro.),"
you'll see a summary of the activity since you've logged in last. On the
left side of the frame, you'll see some of the things you can do with
this software. We'll explore those in a minute, but for now, there's an
to
attend to:
In the green-ish rectangle to the left of the ICA page, click
on "Edit User Profile." You'll then be taken to a screen where
you can
change your password, e-mail address, etc. Look at the very last item on
that page ("Send a copy of Personal Messages via Email"). Set it to
"Yes." Then click the button "Edit User Info." This will allow you
to receive in your home e-mail mailbox any messages that your classmates
send you through ICA.
You are now signed up and ready to go. Note: Anytime
after
this that you log into ICA, you can just use the link labelled "Forum"
in the left frame of the "Introducing Religious Studies" site. More on
this in the next section.
| Logging In and Out Once You Have a Username and
Password |
Look at the upper center of the page where it addresses "Current ICA
Users." Enter your username and password and press "Log In to the ICA."
You'll be taken to the class section that you previously signed up for.
Make sure it's the right one. As just said above, you should see your
name in the upper left
corner of the frame. In the middle of the frame, under "Home -
Religion Intro. (10:00 or 11:00),"
you'll see a summary of the activity since you've logged in last. On the
left side of the frame, you'll see some of the things you can do with
this software. To learn more about these things see the next section of
these instructions.
To log out of ICA, just click "Log Out," which is the very
bottom entry in the green-ish rectangle.
| How do I Post Messages and Contact
Classmates? |
In the green-ish rectangle that appears on the left side of the ICA
frame after you've logged in, you'll see 5 items under the class name
and section time and before a horizontal black line. These are
- Conferencing
- Link Sharing
- Documents
- Class Schedule
- Class Members
Of these 5, we'll use just the first and last; and so you can forget
about Link Sharing, Documents, and Class Schedule. The "Conferencing"
feature will allow you to post messages to the online class discussions
we'll be having. "Class Members" will give you a list of students and
allow you to contact them. We'll take up each one in turn.
Post Messages to the Online Class Forum
Most of what we'll use the Internet Classroom Assistant for will be
found under Conferencing. When you select "Conferencing," you'll
see a window labelled "Conferencing Topics" and a list below that of all
topics for which students
have already left messages. There's a default selected for "View All
Topics." This just means that when you come to this page, you'll see
every topic that's been created for the class. But you can also set this
to show only the topics that someone's created or contributed to since
you're last login. Just scroll down and click "Go."
Your 3 required postings will each be due on the days stipulated
on the syllabus by 6:30 PM. What I'll have done a few
days ahead of time is to post the topic or question to which I'd like
you to respond. You're also free to post your own topics or issues
whenever you want, and those will count as extra credit in this portion
of tyour grade. Now,
some specific instructions about the conferencing features:
- To create a new topic of your own: Select "Add New Topic" right
under the
"Conferencing Topics" label. You'll then be taken to a screen which will
ask you to specify a "Topic Name." Once you do that, click "Add Topic."
You'll then be taken to a screen which will ask you to post the first
message to the new topic you've just created. After entering a subject
and a message text, click "Post New Message." If you now click on
"Conferencing," you'll see your new topic with one message posted to it
(yours!). You can always go back to the list of topics by clicking on
"Conferencing."
- To add on to a previously created topic--either one that I have
posted or one posted by a classmate: When you see the
list of all topics (which, by the way, are always arranged so that the
most recent ones are on top), select one that interests you by
double-clicking on the topic. You'll then see all of the messages that
have been posted on that topic. You can then do one of two things:
- To contribute your thoughts to this
particular topic and join the discussion, click on "Post Message to (Name
of Topic)." This will be right at the top under "Conferencing Topic."
You'll then have to specify a subject and enter a message text. Click
"Post New Message," and you'll see that your message has been added to
the conference.
- You can also reply more specifically to one person's comments. That
is, suppose someone has already contributed to a particular topic and you
really want to follow up that person's comments with a question or
comment of you own directed very specifically to the previous comment
made by the other person. You can then click on "Reply," which is right
above the person's comments. You'll then be able to enter a subject
and message text. While you're doing this, you can see the text of the
"Original Message" (= the one you're replying to) at the bottom of the
page. After you enter your message, click "Post New Message." You'll
then see that you've posted a reply to the original message. If you've
selected "Show Replies," you'll see the actual text of the message. If
you've selected "Hide Replies," you'll just see that one additional reply
has been posted. Be sure when
replying to someone that you select "Reply" and NOT "Send a
personal message to (Name)." Sending a personal message just means that
what you wrote goes only to that person's e-mail and won't show up in the
online conference to be read by everyone else. "Reply" means that what
you write will be posted on the website.
- Finally, ICA gives you a number of options about how to view the
conference:
- Next to "Message Layout" at the top of the page, you can choose "View
Summaries Only" or "View Entire Message." 'Summaries' just gives you the
subject name and the number of replies posted to it. 'View Entire' gives
you the full text of the message. "Print View" puts all the messages on
their own page to make it easier for printing out.
- Next to "Sort Order" at the top, you have a choice of
"Newest on Bottom" or "Newest on Top." On the bottom means that the most
recent messages appear at the bottom of the page. This is probably the
more intuitive way to go since you have the sense of adding comments at
the end of a previous exchange. 'Newest on top' means just the opposite.
"Class Conferencing" also accepts HTML, the computer code used to
construct web pages. If you know HTML, you can insert links into your
comments. If you ever want a quick lesson, I'm available for that as
well.
Contact Your Classmates
Use Class Members to e-mail individual classmates. (You can
also do this by clicking on the camera in the left frame of the
"Introducing Religious Studies" home
page and clicking on a name, but generally only if you're
not on a networked lab computer at Saint Mary's.
If you wish to e-mail more than one person at once and (especially if you wish to
e-mail
the whole class), go to the section labelled "Personal Messages" in the
green-ish rectangle and click "Send." You'll now be able to check off
as many of your classmates as you wish and send them a group mailing.
Just click "Send to All" if you want to e-mail everyone. Fill in a
subject, write your message, and click "Send Message." This will now go
to everyone's personal e-mail accounts (that's why we messed with
"Options/Tools" above).
| The Benefits of Online Class
Discussions |
I tried
spell out on
the syllabus what I think the benefits are of online discussions.
How do I sign up with the Internet Classroom
Assistant?
See "How to Log in to ICA for the
First Time"
How do I log in or out subsequently?
See "Logging In and Out Once you
have Username and Password"
How do I print out messages from the online forum?"
At the top of the screen, you'll see "Message layout" in bold print.
Look to the right of this and select "Print View." Another window will
come up, and you just need to select "Print" at this point.
How do I e-mail my classmates?
See the section "Contact Your
Classmates"
When I try to e-mail over Netscape, I get this message:
"Your e-mail address has not been specified. Before sending mail or
discussion messages, you must specify a return address in Mail & Group
Preferences." What does this mean and how can I correct it?
Netscape is trying to ask you who you are so that it
can put a return address on your e-mail. When Netscape is running in a
lab with many users, it doesn't know who's sending the mail. To specify
your return address, go to the "Edit" menu. Select "Preferences." Now
click on or expand (=click on the triangle so that it points down and
more things come up) "Mail & Groups." Now highlight "Identity" and fill
in your name and e-mail address.
If you set your identity for
Netscape in a lab machine (vs. one in your room or on a machine that only
you use), you should remove these
preferences for the next user. If you don't do this, that person's
e-mail will then be sent out with your name on it! This can cause no end
of trouble for everyone concerned.
I can connect to ICA, but when I go to the online conference, I
get the following message:
"Sorry, either your session has timed out or you do not have
access to the
page you attempted to load. If you are logging in from an IP address that
requires cookies you must allow the cookie to be set to use the ICA."
This is easily fixable, but will take some fiddling on your part.
Go to the "Edit" menu in Netscape. Select "Preferences." A box will come
up divided into two columns. In the skinny column on the left, click on
"Advanced." You'll then see something come up in the right frame of this
box with a subheading that says "Cookies." There will be 3 options there:
"Accept all cookies," "Accept only cookies that get sent back to the
originating server," and "Do not accept cookies." What you want to select
is the first one: "Accept all cookies" (it's probably the case that "Do
not accept cookies" is currently selected, and that's what's
causing this access problem). Click "OK," close up the "Preferences" box,
and you should be all ready to go. Here's just a little additional
trickiness: If you're on a PC, once you set the preference to accept
cookies, then it will stay that way until someone else comes along and
resets the preference to accept no cookies (unlikely). If, on the other
hand, you're on a Mac, then every time that Mac is turned off and on
again, the preference will reset to accepting no cookies. So if you use a
Mac in one of the labs, you may have to reset this preference again.
I wrote out a message or question to post, but then
went back to the previous screen. When I tried to return to my
message, it was lost.
Best thing to do to fix this problem is just write out your message or
question on a word processed document. Then just copy and paste into ICA.
This will take you 30 seconds longer, but the insurance is probably worth
it; because for reasons unknown, one does occasionally lose messages that
one is trying to post. Putting what you plan on saying on a word
processed document will always give you a back-up copy.
How do I make sure my message was posted?
Immediately after you pressed the button to post your message, you should
be able to return to the forum and see what you wrote. If it's not there,
you haven't done it correctly. A common error is that you may have
pressed "Send a personal message to [Name]." That just sends it to the
e-mail account of whoever posted the original message. No one else
would be able to read it. Instead, what you want to
press is "Post (New) Message to [Name of Topic]" since that posts the
message for all to see.
I'm having a problem connecting to ICA. I got in
before. What's wrong?
ICA exists on a server in Illinois, which feeds it to
the Saint Mary's network. At times, the remote server may be down,
off, or otherwise unavailable. When this happens to you, it can be
frustrating. But, if you try back only 5 minutes later, it almost always
connects for you. If you find this to be a persistent problem, e-mail me.
I can never connect to ICA.
Contact me as
soon as possible. We'll sit down in front of a computer screen and
get you connected.