A110 Associate Instructor Toolkit
01/08/06
Table of Contents
CSCI A110 1
Introduction to CSCI A110 4
The College of Arts and Sciences 5
CSCI A110 Structure 7
CSCI A110 Demographics 8
Roles and Responsibilities 10
Context 11
Responsibility 12
Associate Instructor Responsibilities 13
Lecturer Responsibilities 17
Weekly Checklist 18
Week 1 19
Week 2 21
Week 3 23
Week 4 25
Week 5 26
Week 6 27
Week 7 28
Week 8 29
Week 9 31
Week 10 34
Week 11 35
Week 12 36
Week 13 37
Week 14 38
Week 15 39
Week 16 40
Before the First Day of Class 41
Instructor Manuals and Resources 42
Obtaining a Projector Code 43
Suggestions for the First Day of Lab 44
Introduction 45
Attendance and Participation 46
Student Issues 47
Presentation Slides 48
The First Week: Search, Mercury, File Management, and WebDav 49
Presentation Slides 50
Search 51
Mercury 52
File Management 54
WebDav 57
Completing the First Assignment 62
The Second and Remaining Assignments 63
The Service Learning Project 64
What is Service Learning Project? 65
What is the Schedule of Service Learning Project? 66
Who are the Agencies? 67
Appendix I Course Management 68
Setting up Assignments 69
Updating the Oncourse Roster 70
Administering Lab Practicals 71
Using Myitlab 73
Appendix II Course Curriculum 76
Rationale 77
Methodology 78
Assessment 79
Appendix III Frequently Asked Questions 80
About Teaching 81
About Student 82
IU LOGO HERE / Introduction to CSCI A110A110 Instructor Toolkit
08/24/04
Welcome to CSCI A110, Introduction to Computers and Computing. The intention of this document is to provide a brief overview of the course, and to supply information about your participation as an instructor.
The following topics are included in this document:
Contents
q The College of Arts and Sciences (COAS)
q CSCI A110 Structure
q CSCI A110 Demographics
The College of Arts and Sciences
Note: Most of this material comes from the COAS website. For further information about COAS, please visit http://www.indiana.edu/~college/
The College provides the means for undergraduates to acquire a liberal arts education: an education that broadens the student's knowledge and awareness in the major areas of human knowledge, significantly deepens that awareness in one or two fields, and prepares the foundation for a lifetime of continual learning.
At Indiana University, the liberal arts curriculum of the College of Arts and Sciences directs its students to achieve eleven major goals:
1. Our students must achieve the genuine literacy required to read and listen effectively, and to speak and write clearly and persuasively.
2. The liberal arts teach students to think critically and creatively. As perceptive analysts of what they read, see, and hear, students must learn to reason carefully and correctly and to recognize the legitimacy of intuition when reason and evidence prove insufficient.
3. By gaining intellectual flexibility and breadth of mind, liberal arts students remain open to new ideas and information, willing to grow and learn, and sensitive to others' views and feelings.
4. The curriculum of the College of Arts and Sciences helps students discover ethical perspectives, so that they can formulate and understand their own values, become aware of others' values, and discern the ethical dimensions underlying many of the decisions they must make.
5. A quality liberal arts education includes an appreciation of literature and the arts and the cultivation of the aesthetic judgment that makes possible the enjoyment and comprehension of works of the creative imagination.
6. Liberal arts students must understand and practice scientific methods; this approach to knowledge forms the basis of scientific research; guides the formation, testing, and validation of theories; and distinguishes conclusions that rest on unverified assertion from those developed through the application of scientific reasoning.
7. Mathematical and statistical studies teach arts and sciences students to reason quantitatively, a skill essential in an increasingly technological society.
8. A liberal education must develop historical consciousness, so that students can view the present within the context of the past, appreciate tradition, and understand the critical historical forces that have influenced the way we think, feel, and act.
9. The College of Arts and Sciences emphasizes the study of the international community and encourages students to become involved in the contemporary world. By understanding the range of physical, geographic, economic, political, religious, and cultural realities influencing world events, students cultivate an informed sensitivity to global and environmental issues.
10. Students in the liberal arts develop basic communication skills in at least one foreign language, providing the fundamental skills for communicating with people from other cultures and offering insights into other patterns of thought and modes of expression.
11. The breadth of knowledge characteristic of a liberal arts education requires an in-depth knowledge of at least one subject to be complete. Students in the College of Arts and Sciences must learn to acquire and manage a coherent, sophisticated understanding of a major body of knowledge with all its complexities, power, and limitations.
Natural and Math Sciences
Courses in this area provide an appreciation of the physical and biological environment, introduce students to systematic investigation of that environment, show the value of experimental methods for understanding natural laws, and explore the role and methods of the mathematical sciences.
CSCI A110 is a course that falls under the Natural and Math Sciences.
CSCI A110 Structure
With regard to the A110 Instructor Toolkit, for most of you this will be your first experience teaching. A110 offers a level of autonomy uncommon to the rest of the University. You will have an excellent opportunity to develop your skills as a teacher, an organizer, and a skilled communicator.
CSCI A110 Background
A110 was developed to have students feel at home in front of a computer; to be comfortable using it and its applications. It is the CS Department’s most basic course, and was designed to help students learn basic computing skills, operating system features and common office application packages. A110 is a course for non-CS majors.
CSCI A110 Today
A110 has two components: a lecture component and a lab component. The lecture has three sections which meet at three different times (two sections per time slot). Each section can have upwards of 150 students in it for a total of 300 or more per lecture, but sometimes less. Lecture is taught by the A110 Course Coordinator. The purpose of lecture is to teach computing, computation, computer components, and the role of computers in society.
The students are also grouped into labs for hands-on experience at the personal computers. Labs range from 13-50 students in size, and there are typically 50 labs that meet per semester. Students learn MS Windows, MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Access, World Wide Web usage, HTML, CSS, Mac OS/X and various Mac applications. In addition students will gain a familiarity with the Indiana University Bloomington computing environment. Altogether, 24-30 Associate and Undergraduate Instructors teach the lab component.
CSCI A110 Demographics
CSCI A110 is the CS Department’s largest course with enrollments ranging from 500 to 600 per semester.
The following demographics relate to a typical A110 student population:
q The majority of students come from SPEA (School of Public and Environmental Affairs), the Kelly School of Business, SCS (School of Continuing Studies), and University Division (usually undeclared majors).
q 33% of your students will be Freshmen
q 40% of your students will be Sophomores
q 15% of your students will be Juniors
q 9% of your students will be Seniors
q 5% of your students will be frightened by computers
q 5% of your students will be power user
© Computer Science Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN Page 2
IU LOGO HERE / Roles and ResponsibilitiesA110 Instructor Toolkit
08/24/04
To maintain the integrity of the course, it is critical to manage the particles of CSCI A110 with accountability. Holding yourself accountable for the responsibilities listed within the Instructor Toolkit is part of the conditions of satisfaction for accomplishing the outcomes designed for CSCI A110.
The following topics are included in this document:
Contents
q Context
q Responsibility
q Coordinator Responsibilities
q Associate Instructors Responsibilities
q Lecturer Responsibilities
Context
You are perhaps responsible for many things, but we are not talking about the things or people you are perhaps responsible for. The A110 Instructor Toolkit is a possible context for our discussion on responsibility; it is the background for the discussion, and so it is appropriate to think of responsibility within the context of the Toolkit.
So, in the context of the toolkit, consider that the degree to which you are responsible for your participation as an instructor of A110 is the degree to which you hold yourself accountable for delivering the course.
Accountability
Are you someone people will listen to? If so, what makes you that? And if not, what makes you that? Consider how people will at times follow directions of others they don’t particularly like. This demonstrates what I am pointing to.
What are you accountable for? Applied to A110, you are accountable as a lab instructor for the lab component of the course. Your students will listen to you as someone who is delivering the course, because you have accountability as it relates to A110. It is one thing to stand in front of the room as someone who is accountable for grading the performance of the students in the lab, and quite another to hold yourself as someone who is accountable for delivering the course. If you were accountable for delivering the course, what impact would that have on your responsibility in the matter of the course?
Allowing accountability to serve as the backdrop for responsibility gives new meaning to your relationship to responsibility as it regards A110.
Responsibility
With regard to the A110 Instructor Toolkit, if the Instructor Toolkit is the context for the discussion about accountability, then the discussion about accountability is the context for the discussion of responsibility. In other words, the responsibility we will be addressing here has nothing to do with fault or blame, like it might out in the world. The responsibility we will be addressing here is the kind of responsibility that shows up against a background of accountability that we discussed earlier.
You Cause Your Results
When we think of responsibility we often think of where to cast blame or find fault when something goes wrong. Or responsibility is taking credit for something that went well. But this is not the kind of responsibility we are talking about here.
The kind of responsibility we are talking about is the kind where you are the author of what happens. You are not at the effect of circumstances, but the author of what you are causing; and then come the circumstances, and then you are causing in the face of the circumstances.
Concerning A110, you are a lab instructor causing the results of your lab. If your lab is producing great results, then you are the cause of that. If your lab is producing poor results, then you are the cause of that. Not like there’s something wrong or something to blame, but rather like a place in which you are standing and from which you operate. If the outcome of the lab resides with you, given your accountability, then causing the results is your responsibility. And whatever the results are, you caused them. Consider that the performance of your students is some function of the degree to which you are responsible for your accountability as a lab instructor.
If this were true, what would you do differently?
Associate Instructor Responsibilities
The following responsibilities are yours to cause. You are either causing them or you are causing some other result. In every case you are causing something.
Some of these items are agreements, which we will manage over the course of the semester. Keeping your agreements maintains the workability of the course.
Time
The following responsibilities relate to your assignments in time:
q You are being paid for a certain number of hours per week and you are responsible for managing your time accordingly.
q You are responsible for meeting with students who are making up tests or who require one-on-one discussions. You may use LH201I as office space to meet with students as available.
q You may volunteer to proctor DSS tests throughout the semester. These arrangements will be made early in the semester and you will be responsible for managing the test environment according to the accommodations specified and for tracking your time spent proctoring.
q You agree not to oversleep.
q You agree not to forget to show up.
q You agree to attend all A110 Lab Instructor meetings. The only exceptions to this agreement are those that have been granted exceptions by the Course Coordinator prior to the scheduled meeting.
q You agree to follow the time requirements for delivering the particles of the course. This includes grading of assignments within the established timeframes that students can expect to review their grades, and regarding final grading, before letter grades are due.
Performance
The following responsibilities relate to your assignments in practice:
q You agree not to sign any official IU documents brought to you by students. Signing these documents is the responsibility of the Instructor of Record.
q You agree not to make up answers. “I don’t know, but I will get the answer” is an acceptable answer. You are responsible for locating the answer to the student’s question and then communicating it to them within an appropriate timeframe.
q You agree to uphold the policies and procedures in the Syllabus. If you take exception with the Syllabus, you agree to discuss the exception with me before talking with the student about the exception. You further agree to uphold the outcome of our discussion and to communicate that to the student.
q You agree to maintain the integrity of the course by rigorously maintaining the paper and electronic grades for your lab.
q You agree to cause the outcomes of the course by providing the students with useful written feedback and suggestions on tests and assignments.