A vital part of this online course is the Learning Journal.

Some people call them weblogs or blogs. It's where you can post a message and others can reply to it.

It may be the instructor posting a question for the entire class, or an announcement about an upcoming deadline.

It may be students posting questions or making comments about some of the things they've learned throughout the class.

It is very important that you understand how to read and post messages on your learning journal. We're going to show you how.

Since this is a distance education class, the learning journals take the place of classroom discussion. To encourage your participation, a significant portion of your final grade will be based on your Learning Journal. The grade will be based on:

• Did the student complete the web assignments? (10 pts)

• Did the student demonstrate that he/she is really learning? Or did the student just copy-paste from various websites? (5 pts)
  
• Has the student contributed to the class by pointing them to interesting websites or making insightful comments? (5 pts)