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BRIEF GUIDE CREATING AN ACCOUNT: Once the webmaster has set up teacher accounts, teachers receive an email. They click on the email, fill out the requested information, click submit and then will see their home page. They are "good to go." TAs need to wait until your teacher has inputted your name and email address. Once they submit their registration, you will receive an email. You then fill out the requested information, click submit, and then you too will see your home page. You will then be set as well. Please do not try to register yourself as a student on the home page since, if you do, the webmaster or your teacher will not be able to use that email account to send you an email. Accounts are organized around email addresses; one account per email address. Key
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DASHBOARD: The Dashboard is the set of numbers and bar graphs in the middle of your home page (the page you see when you log on). The Dashboard allows you to track: (1) the number of students who have initiated the registration process,(2) the number of students who have completed the registration process by paying the registration fee, and (3) the progress of students through the 2½ week Action Period. It is important students understand they cannot gain access to the Community Action Website without completing the registration process. NAVIGATION BAR: The Navigation Bar is on the left side of your webpage. It allows you to select important webpages. Home brings you back to the dashboard and the main (or home) page. My Account allows teachers and TAs to check and change specifics about themselves. Students who have not completed a particular week's assignment -- writing a letter or doing the evaluations, for example -- receive an email reminder regarding that assignment and when it is due. Under My Account a teacher can choose to have these emails sent with the teacher's email address on it (to readily attract student attention) or with the website's email address on it. For teachers, My Classes specifies information regarding their class (or classes) participating in the Community Action Website. At the end of project, teachers can print out all the letters in a class with their grades. Since a student's grade is marked as a percent -- 92%, for example -- teachers can decide what percentage range represents an A versus a B versus a C. For TAs, My Classes allows TAs to focus solely on students they are responsibile for rather than having to deal with the class as a whole. They can print out, for the students in their sections, these students' letters with their grades. My Action Period allows teachers and TAs to see the winning letters, which schools they are from, and how many students support them. Finally My Students allows teachers and TAs to call up information on a specfic student – including (1) a student’s email, (2) a special password (called Review Password) that allows a teacher or TA to enter the student’s website and see exactly what the student sees on his or her website, and (3) how a student’s letter was graded on each of the five writing standards. (The grades under My Action Period, because they involve all the students in a class, only list the total grade to simplify what teachers and TAs see and print out.) Teachers also have a special link entitled My Teaching Assistants. It allows teachers to check information listed for each of their TAs. It also includes a special password (called Review Password) that allows teachers to log on to TA's webpage and see exactly what the TA sees. The Action Period (What Happens When) The heart of the Community Action Website Project is the two and one-half week Action Period. The Action Period you are associated with determines the specific dates for what happens when. The dates for Action Periods are set by the webmaster with three occuring during the fall (September-October-November) and three during the spring (February-March-April). Overall, Action Periods work on a Monday-Friday schedule for an assignment with a late period of Saturday-Sunday added for students who fail, for one reason or another, to make the Friday deadline. Prior to the beginning of the Action Period, students in your class (or, if you are a TA, in your sections) should do TWO THINGS: (1) complete the registration process and (2) if they are reading the online book WHY A PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY? they should read it at this time. Once a student has registered, she or he can log in and see the link to the book on the left side of the student's home page. Clicking on the link, the student is brought to the on-line version of WHY A PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY? Students can read it on-line or, if they prefer, print it out. They might also wish to read it online and copy and paste key passages into a Word document rather than going to the expense of printing the book out and then highlighting key passages.
During the first week of the Action Period, students write professional-style Op-Ed (or opinion pieces) relating to the topic covered in the project. Specific background information and details regarding how to proceed with the assignment are provided through a link on the student’s webpage. Also included on the student’s webpage is a link to the five writing standards the student should keep in mind when writing his or her Op-Ed as well as examples of high-quality Op-Eds appearing in prominent Canadian and American newspapers. During the second week of the Action Period, students evaluate four Op-Eds from other students without knowing who wrote them or which schools they are from. During this peer review process, students are drawn into reflecting not only on the perspectives presented in other students' letters but on how they, themselves, performed in respect to the grading criteria. The Op-Eds with the highest evaluations are selected as model or winning Op-Eds. During the third, and final three days of the Action Period, students can, if they wish, add their names in support of one or more of the winning Op-Eds. Students are encouraged to submit their Op-Eds to a range of local and national newspapers as well as internet publications. They may add their Op-Ed to their own blog. These Op-Eds will be supported by a $30,000 media campaign highlighting the issue addressed by the students. Some students wait until the last minute to complete their assignments. To handle this problem there are two deadlines. The first, Friday at 11:59 pm (Pacific Coast time), is when students should have their assignments submitted. But, for a variety of reasons, some students fail to meet this deadline. To provide these students with a "second chance" there is second, final deadline of Sunday at 11:59 pm. Assignments that fail to make the first deadline but manage to make the second are marked late. Teachers decide to what degree those who fail to make the Friday deadline should (or should not) suffer some consequence. After the second (or Sunday) deadline, students cannot submit their assignment and are shut out from participating further in the project. Your Responsibilities In small classes, where there is no TA, teachers assume the following five responsibilities. In larger classes, TAs assume these responsibilities. Since TAs are frequently underpaid, the Community Action Website provides each TA with a $65 gift certificate to Amazon.com (or Amazon.ca) in appreciation for assisting with the project. (1) You should encourage students in your class (or sections if you are a TA) to complete the registration process before the Action Period begins. By having students register on the website a week or so before the Action Period starts, problems students encounter can be addressed without taking time (or focus) away from the Action Period itself. Students are strongly encouraged to use their university email addresses during the registration process. The email address students register with is the email address at which they receive the email required to complete the registration process as well as all subsequent emails during the Action Period. Because of recent updates to their email software, Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL now work erratically with the Community Action Website. They cannot be counted on to deliver important messages to students. As a result, Hotmail, Yahoo, and especially AOL should NOT be used. (2) If a student runs into problems with the website there is a three step process you should advise students to follow: (a) first, read the directions for registering on the www.publicanthropology.net home, (b) second, find the suggested solution to their problem under HELP! SOLUTIONS TO SIX COMMON PROBLEMS, and (c) third, if neither of these steps works email the webmaster (at webmaster@publicanthropology.org) with a description of the problem. Please note: Teachers and TAs are under no obligation to help students resolve a problem beyond emphasizing students should follow the above three steps. (3) Handle the financial transactions involved in registering. Students are strongly encouraged to pay the $10 registration fee online with a credit card during the registration process. Simply stated, the more students pay online the less work teachers and TAs have to do. The vast majority of teachers insist students pay the registration fee online. Students who do not have a credit card, usually have a friend or a parent who does. (The friend simply submits his or her credit card data and the student pays the friend $10.00.) For students who are not able to pay the registration fee online with a credit card, there is the option of paying the teacher or TA the $10 registration fee with a check or cash. The check should be made out to Center for a Public Anthropology. (4) Teachers and TAs are able to track how students progress through the project's various assignments: They can see on their dashboards, (a) who has and has not registered, (b) who has and has not written letters, as well as (c) who has and has not completed their evaluations. To what degree teachers and TAs encourage students to complete their assignments -- through personal communications and emails -- is a decision they and only they can make. Please note, however, once the Action Period begins, students receive an email reminder each day until the required assignment for that week is completed (or the Sunday deadline has passed). Teachers, if they wish, can write personal reminders to a category of students -- for example, those still needing to complete their Op-Eds -- by clicking on the category on their home page and then copying and pasting these students' emails into an email letter they create. (5) Teachers and TAs are encouraged to discuss the topic and issues related to it either in their classes or sections. A link to the topic and relevant background information is provided well before the Action Period begins so teachers and TAs can think through how they wish to present the topic. In summary, a teacher's or TA's responsibilities are: (1) try to have students register before the beginning of the Action Period, (2) insure students know the three steps to follow in solving technical problems they encounter with the website, (3) have as many students as possible pay the registration payment on line with a credit card, (4) decide to what degree the teacher or TA wishes to supplement the project's daily reminders with their own reminders and (5) discuss the topic with students as they deem appropriate. |