Telephone: 856-225-6338

E-mail: revans@camden.rutgers.edu

Office: 210 Science Building, Rutgers-Camden.

Office hours: Because this is an online course, my guess is that you will wish to contact me via email, which I will check many times during the day and up to about 9:30 p.m. each night. You are also encouraged to telephone me, and in that case you should know that I am on campus Monday through Friday from about 8 am. to at least 4:00 pm. Feel free to contact me any time!

Welcome to the Online Version of Biology 105!

Thank you for your interest in The Facts of Life, a 3-credit biology course without laboratory designed to help students who are non-science majors complete their science requirement. The course is offered during the second Summer Session, June 24-July 19, 2002. This summer marks the seventh time I will teach this course using an online (internet) format, and I am delighted you are thinking about venturing into this new method of learning. The following information may help you decide it you wish to register for the course.  If you decide to register, you may do so online via the Rutgers Summer Session homepage:

http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/Academics/summer/titlpage.html

After you register, please let me know of your decision by emailing me at revans@camden.rutgers.edu so that I can put you on my email mailing list.

General information is listed below in the following sections. To see answers to some of the frequently-asked questions, click here.

A. Overview of the course
B. Details of how the course will work.
C. How will my grade be determined?
D. Will extra credit and makeup quizzes/exams be given?
E. What if I find the material confusing?
F. What if I have computer problems?
G. Is the non-lecture course format effective?
H. Suggestions from students who took this course last summer.

A. Overview of the course

1. This course is very intensive.

Each day of class during the Summer Session is equivalent to one week of class during the regular academic year.  Thus, you need to “clear your calendars” for the four weeks this course is offered in order to give yourself adequate time to complete the assignments.

In part H of this outline I have included representative comments from students who took this course in either of the past two summers. Please look through those comments to get pretty good idea of what's involved.

2.  This course requires that you complete daily quizzes and a comprehensive final exam at a time and location convenient to you, such as your home. That is, we will never meet together as a class, either in person or online.

The course material is divided into 13 Units, and there will be a quiz on each Unit that you will take via the internet. The syllabus lists the last possible date by which each Unit must be completed. For example, the Unit 1 quiz must be completed no later than June 25, the Unit 2 quiz by June 26, and so on through July 17. The comprehensive final exam must be completed by Friday, July 19.

If you wish, you may complete any Unit as well as the final exam ahead of time; the dates listed in the syllabus merely indicate the last possible date for completing each unit.

You may take the Unit quizzes at any location where you have internet access, such as your home, your local library, the Jersey shore, the Poconos, or anywhere else.

Furthermore, if you are not satisfied with your score on any Unit quiz, you may take a second quiz on the same material, and I will record only the higher of the two grades.

If you do not take a Unit quiz by the deadline listed in the syllabus, you will receive a zero for that Unit. Under no circumstances will makeup quizzes be given.

The final exam will also be available on the internet, and you can take it from any location at any time before the end of the day on Friday, July 19. Unlike the Unit quizzes, you will have only one opportunity to take the final exam.

3.  The course material on which the quizzes and final exam are based is from a textbook (by Curtis & Barnes) plus a Study Guide (by Evans) that you will purchase at the Rutgers-Camden bookstore.

The name of the textbook and the Study Guide are given at the beginning of the syllabus. 

None of this material is available online.  I have written the Study Guide to focus on the material you need to learn from the textbook.  Once you complete the assignment in the Study Guide you will know exactly what to study for a quiz or the final exam. You can purchase the textbook and Study Guide either in person or online via the bookstore's website: http://www.rutgers561.bkstr.com/

4.  All Rutgers University online courses including The Facts of Life are accessed through an internet system called RutgersOnline, developed and maintained by a company called eCollege.

Visit the homepage http://rutgersonline.net/ to see if online learning is appropriate for you and to test your computer to see if it is sufficient for this course.

5. Check out the course syllabus by clicking on the syllabus link.

1. This course has a unique format that I think you will like.

There will be no lectures in this course. Let me explain why. The purpose of any college course is to help you learn and understand new information. It has often been said that people learn in three different ways: by hearing, by seeing, and by doing. Most college science courses emphasize "hearing" in that they are taught in a lecture format, with the instructor talking and the students listening and taking notes. However, many studies have shown that a listener's average attention span in a lecture is about 12 minutes. After that, the mind of even the most attentive and dedicated student tends to wander--regardless of how fascinating the topic! One way of dealing with this difficulty is to abandon the lecture format completely.

2. The textbook and accompanying "Study Guide" will contain the course material.

You may ask, "If there will be no lectures, how will I learn the material and know what's important for the exams?" In this course, the focus will be on the textbook. Nowadays, introductory biology textbooks generally are quite good. For example, they are written in a clear and interesting manner, they have colorful diagrams and photographs, they have explanatory tables and other pedagogical features, and they have summaries and various self-test items at the end of each chapter. The main drawback of most biology texts is that they tend to be encyclopedic--the authors are afraid of leaving out a professor's favorite topic, and thus they include almost every topic! This leads to the student's most common question: "What material do I need to know for the exam?"

For this course, I have selected what I consider to be one of the best texts for nonscience students, and I have prepared a "Study Guide" to accompany it. This Study Guide  will lead you through the assigned chapters, and point out which sections are important and which are not. In most cases, I have re-written the important points in the form of fill-in-the-blank questions. Thus, not only can you "read with a purpose"--i.e., with the purpose of filling in the blanks--but writing the answer will help you learn the material (you'll be "doing" instead of "listening").

In some cases, where I feel the explanation in the textbook isn't clear, I have given you my own explanation or I've organized the material in a way that hopefully will make it easier to learn. In all cases, however, each completed chapter in the Study Guide will contain the ONLY material you need to know for a quiz. If it's not mentioned in the Study Guide, it won't be on the quiz.

3. Each day you will take a quiz and have the option of retaking it.

Remember that the Summer Session moves quickly, and each day corresponds to one week of work during the academic year.  On the course syllabus, you will see that I have assigned from 1 to 3 chapters for each Unit. Consult the syllabus to find out the Unit’s assignment, and then proceed as follows:

a. Use the Study Guide to help you read through the assigned chapter(s) in the textbook, fill in the accompanying parts in the Guide, and take the time necessary to learn the material in the Study Guide.

b. Sometime before the deadline for that Unit, visit the Rutgersonline website (http://rutgersonline.net/), log in, "Go to class," and take a quiz on the assigned material for that Unit. The bank from which the computer randomly selects quiz questions will be available continuously until the deadline, and thus you can take the quiz at whatever time best fits your schedule.

Each quiz will consist of objective questions (mostly multiple choice, but perhaps some matching and true/false questions as well). The quiz will contain 40 questions, and you will have 50 minutes to complete it. Be sure to watch your time, because the system will not dump you out after the time-limit is reached but instead will automatically record how long it took you to complete the exam. Just as in a classroom exam, you must not exceed the time limit. In order to be fair to everyone, I will penalize students one point from their raw score for each minute they exceed the time limit. (If a student takes a second-chance quiz on the same material, the penalty will be taken from the higher of the two quizzes.)

When you have finished the quiz and submitted it for grading, you will be able to find out your score immediately and can print out a copy of your quiz that contains the correct answers. Be sure to print out a copy of your quiz because it will be helpful in preparing for the final exam.  The questions for the final exam will be taken from the same bank as the quizzes, and thus you may see some of the same quiz questions cropping up again!

Because you can do your work from any location you choose, nothing will prevent you from using your textbook and/or Study Guide while you take the quiz. However, because of the time limit you will need to know the material quite well in order to satisfactorily complete the quiz before time runs out. Thus, you should focus on learning the material well enough to (i) get all that you want out of this course and (ii) get the grade you want on the quizzes as well as the final exam.

c.  If you are satisfied with your score on the quiz, you are finished with that Unit’s material, and you can reward yourself by taking the rest of the day off.

4.   No later than Friday, July 19,  you must take a comprehensive final exam.

The final exam will consist of 50 questions, taken from all the banks of the Unit quizzes for the term. The final exam will have a time limit of 60 minutes. You can take the final exam from home or from any other location at any time before the 2:00 a.m. deadline. You will have only one opportunity to take the final exam.

1.  You have the option to take two quizzes on the same material for each Unit.

For each Unit, you have the choice of taking a second quiz on the same material to improve your understanding and your grade. If you choose to take the second quiz, I will record only the higher of the two grades, and thus you will not be penalized if for some reason you obtain a lower score the second time. During this course there will be quizzes on 13 Units, and thus there will be a total of 13 recorded quiz grades (each will be the higher of the two grades if you decided to take two quizzes per Unit).

2.  Your two lowest recorded quiz grades will be dropped.

At the end of the course, I will drop your two lowest recorded quiz grades, and thus I will base your average on your highest 11 recorded grades.  Consequently, if unforeseen circumstances arise during the course you can miss quizzes on two Units without jeopardizing your recorded-grade average; the quizzes you missed will be used as the drops.  Of course, you will still be responsible for that material on the final exam.

3.   You will have only one chance to take the final exam.

4.   At the end of the course I will determine your grade as follows:

Average of 11 highest recorded Unit grades = 80%.

Comprehensive final exam grade = 20% 

I will then use the following grading scale to determine your course grade:

.

90-100% = A	75-79% = C+
85-89% = B+	70-74% = C
80-84%   = B	60-69% = D
	<60%    = F

D.Will extra credit and makeup quizzes be given?

1. No extra credit will be given.
Because you are able to drop your two lowest recorded Unit quiz grades, no opportunity for extra credit will be given.

2. No makeup quizzes will be given.
Because you are able to drop your two lowest recorded Unit quiz grades, no makeups will be given under any circumstances. Should unforeseen circumstances cause you to miss a Unit quiz, you will need to use that quiz as one of the two you can drop.

3. There will be no makeup for the final exam.

If extraordinary circumstances, such as a documented medical emergency, arise at the time of the final exam please contact me as soon as possible.

E.What if I find the material confusing?

As you read through the assignment and complete the Study Guide, you may occasionally find that questions arise. If you have questions or if you are confused by a topic, contact me immediately and let's talk about it! You can reach me in one of three ways:

1. Send me e-mail. This will the most efficient way to reach me because you can send me e-mail at any hour of the day or night, any day of the week, and I will get back to you as soon as I can. 

Although you will be able to email me via a link from the RutgersOnline course page for The Facts of Life, you can also email me directly at revans@camden.rutgers.edu.

2. Call me at my office (856-225-6338) between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. 

RutgersOnline staffs a HelpDesk 24 hours a day.  If you experience computer problems when taking a quiz, please telephone them immediately toll-free at 1-877-7RUTGERS (1-877-778-8437). You can also email them via the RutgersOnline homepage, but it will take longer to get a response.

In the past, most students' greatest difficulty is getting "bumped" from a quiz while in the process of taking it. Should this happen to you, immediately telephone the helpdesk and explain your situation to them.

Two helpful hints to keep in mind:

1. As you take your quiz, be sure to save your work frequently. That way, if you get bumped, the HelpDesk most likely will be able to get you back into the quiz where you left off. Students who forgot to save their stuff had to start the quiz all over again. Make sure you contact them IMMEDIATELY because the clock continues to tick even though you were disconnected.

2. Many students make the mistake of waiting until the very last minute to take their quiz. Unfortunately, this means that when problems arise, there is not much time to fix them. For example, if a student begins to take a quiz at 1 a.m. and then gets bumped out at 1:30, there are only 30 minutes to a) contact the HelpDesk (hopefully their lines won't be busy), b) explain the problem to them, c) wait while they fix it, and d) complete the quiz -- all before the 2 a.m. deadline. The best advice: don't wait until the last minute.

This is the eighth time this course has been taught using the non-lecture format. A comparison of the non-lecture format with the same course taught using the traditional lecture format has shown that the non-lecture format was significantly more successful in terms of students’ exam grades, class averages, and overall student satisfaction. For example, the class average for the course taught using the non-lecture format has consistently been about 10 percentage points higher than when it was taught using the lecture format, and approximately 25-40% of the class in the non-lecture course received a grade of A compared to 9% of the class in the lecture course.

In their course evaluations, students in the non-lecture course commented that this format (1) helped them make more efficient use of their time, (2) encouraged them to assume responsibility for their learning, and (3) gave them confidence that they have the ability to learn on their own.  Approximately 84% of the students said they liked the non-lecture format, but approximately 3% said they didn’t like it and 13%  were uncertain. 

This is the third time The Facts of Life has been taught during the Summer Session.  When I teach this course during the regular academic year, the first quiz is given on Tuesday and the option for re-taking of the quiz is given on Thursday of each week.  At the beginning of the academic year course, students frequently had difficulty getting used to the non-lecture format--primarily the idea of working through the Study Guide on their own and budgeting their time to study for two exams per week--but after a few weeks most students had made the adjustment and were into the rhythm of the course. Please note that you, as a Summer Session student, do not have the luxury of having a few weeks to make the adjustment. Because Summer Session courses are so intensive and proceed at such a rapid pace, you must adjust within the first few days of the course.  For this reason, I have slowed the pace for the first few days, and I will be available additional hours in order to help you make the transition to the course format.

Interested students can obtain a copy of a journal article that gives a detailed comparison of the two formats for
this course.  The citation for a request through interlibrary loan is as follows:

Alternatively, an online version is available on the internet at the journal’s webpage: www.lib.muohio.edu/ject/

H.Suggestions from students who took the course in previous summers.

At the end of the course during the past two summers, I asked the students to respond to the following question:

What study skills have you learned that you wish you would have known at the beginning of the course? That is, what suggestions do you have for next summer's students to help them learn the material and do well in this course?

Here are some representative responses I received:

1. My experiences with this course were positive ones. My advice to anyone taking this course is to get the book and Study Guide as soon as you receive the syllabus. Start working on the assignments right away. This will get you ahead and you will not be shuffling to do so much at one time.

2. I would recommend this class to my friends. Internet learning worked well for me, but there is a lot of study time involved. The Study Guide is the key to doing well in this class. If you do not fill in the Study Guide while you are studying, you will never pass this class.

3. One thing I would like to point out to those considering an online course is don't think because it's online it's going to be really easy. Every time I told someone I was taking an online course for the summer, the response was always the same - Boy, that must be a breeze! Everyone laughed every time I said I had to go study. They couldn't understand why I had to study when I could just look in the book for the answers. I tried to explain that it wasn't as simple as that. You couldn't just look in the book for answers while you took your test. For one thing, there's a time limit and if you didn't study you'll be wasting all your time looking through the book and you'll never be able to finish the exam. For another thing, the questions are asked in a way that you really need to know the material in order to answer them. So, be prepared to study! In fact, I probably spent more time studying for this course than I have for my regular courses! So please keep this in mind if you're considering an online course.

4. Have a designated time every day or night that you devote to completing the Study Guide and taking the quiz. For example, every day at the same time (when my 2 year-old naps) was quiz time. After I put her to bed at night it would be study time. Time management is the key.

5. I had a lot of problems getting booted off of my ISP. So my advise to those who may have similar problems is to make sure you save your answers frequently and when you do get booted, to be patient and don't over-react. There is usually plenty of time during a quiz to get back in it and finish. Also, I would recommend taking the second quiz everytime if your life alots time for it. Although my life did not, taking the second quiz gives you a chance to improve your score(99% likely of improving) and gives you a better bank of questions to have available to study for the Final Exam.

6. My advice for studying would be as follows: Read each chapter quickly to get the main point of each section. Follow that up by completing the accompanying Study Guide chapters, focusing more closely on the areas pointed out in the Study Guide. If your quiz grade does not meet your standards and/or expectations, do not fear. You have a second chance to improve your grade. Print out the first quiz and study the questions you had problems with. I guarantee better results the second time around.

7. Every Sunday I would fill in the upcoming chapters for the week. This gave me more time to read the new chapter everyday, study the Study Guide, and then take the quiz.

8. STUDY GUIDE. Those two words are more important that anything else. If you use the study guide the information will be laid at your feet. I would use the book to fill in the information in the guide, look at the pictures and diagrams, and glance over the rest of the information in the chapter. But when it came time to prepare for the quiz, I dropped the book and read over the study guide--underlining important parts, writing notes in the margin and making sure that I understood what I was reading. Not putting the quiz off till the last minute is important also. Most times I would fill in the chapters and look over the study guide for about 2-3 hours, then if I felt I was comfortable with the information, I would go right to the computer. Usually I took the quizes around 6 or 7pm since I slept in the mornings and then studied from 2-4 then 5-6: filling in the study guide from 2-4 then studying from 5-6. This is what worked for me but I'm sure others have different schedules and different studying patterns. I set personal goals--the lowest grade I wanted on the quiz and pushed myself to do better. I studied for the quiz as if I had only one chance to take it and that way I wasn't tempted all the time to do a poor job on the first quiz to make it up on the second try. After taking the quiz, I made sure that I understood the mistakes I had made so that when the final came I wouldn't make the same mistake twice. But the most important thing was that I treated the class as a regular class, trying to complete the work at the same time everyday, trying to take the quiz at the same time, etc. so that I wouldn't end up with a grade lower that my goal. Oh, yeah, STUDY GUIDE!

9. This course is difficult, but very do-able. My suggestions are as follows.

a) Departmentalize your life. Knowing that you have a very busy schedule, time management is of the utmost importance.

b) Be completely committed and focused. You have to want to do this more than anything else.

c) Set an exact time each day so you fall into a routine and nothing else is slated for that time. If possible, do not answer the phone. Read and study for 3-4 hours a day, and take the test while the info is still fresh in your mind. Return calls and go to bed. Start over with the same routine next day.

d) Memorize these words: "I can't, I have to study. I'll be free in 4 weeks."

e) During the quizzes, put message on phone or even a note on the door that explains that you are taking a timed test and will not be available to speak until after a certain hour.

f) Take your books everyplace you go -- doctor, dentist, beach. Every minute counts.

g) You will never be abandoned. Dr. Evans is quite accessible. He is as committed as we are, or even more.

10. The best way to study is to pace yourself. I trried to make sure to do the assigned readings early every day. That way, if you don't understand the information you have all day to figure it out, either through Dr. Evans or by re-reading it. Then I would take the quiz and review it as soon as I was done. This way, if your don't understand a concept as well as you thought you had, you have the opportunity to go back over it and improve your grade.

11. Take advantage of the course orientation period. It will help with some of the "online bugs." Maintain self-discipline, self-motivation, and decent time-management. Allot 1.5 - 3 hours of reading each day.

12. To prepare for the tests I would have my husband quiz me from the Study Guide, and I would also write out the main points (because I retain info when I write as opposed to just reading).

13. Make sure your family/roomates/pets, etc. know that you need peace and quiet when working on the quizzes. Because you're at the computer, they might not realize you're actually taking a quiz and distract you. If you tend to get the most out of a course from the interaction with students and the professor, this is not the course for you. If you suspect that the material is going to be tough for you, you might really benefit from the traditional lectures and might want to wait until fall.

14. In taking this course I really understand the necessity to read all the material and pay attention to the captions in the text. It is also highly important to take time out of each day to read the material and understand it. One might think that since you can have your book right in front of you for the quizzes that things will be easy and you will get 100s on everything -- think again. The course is intense and the material is not elementary biology. You will have to think about most of the material and be able to differentiate between ideas in the text. In taking this course you will see where your study habits fail and you will have to reteach yourself to study and learn the material.

15. I took many of the quizzes from the RU computer lab. The only draw-back to that (no, I was never disconnected) was the noise level during peak hours. To solve that problem, I tried to go first thing in the morning when the lab wasn't as crowded.

16. You have to go into this absolutely prepared to spend a couple hours every day, Monday through Friday, on the assigned work. When you are prepared to set apart the time to do the work you have to do, the rest is a breeze. All you have to do is follow the step by step instructions that the professor provides. The first is the Study Guide assignment. Do not read the chapters in the textbook, there is far more information than you need. Follow along with the Study Guide and read only what is required. Usually this can be done within an hour or so. Second, when you take the quiz you have two chances. Fly through the first quiz, guess on the ones you don't know, and print out a copy after you submit it. It will have the correct answers marked. The second quiz will have questions quite similar to the questions on the first quiz, if not exactly the same. Carefully read the questions, since sometimes the answer to one question will be in the question of another. The thing is, if you actually do the work the way it is designed for you to do (and you really don't have a choice), you learn an amazing amount of material in a short time.

17. Make sure you understand a topic before you move to another. Most of what we learned is based on previous material that we covered so don't think you can forget about it once you've finished a section.

18. Follow the Study Guide, but read each section first to let it sink in before going back to the Study Guide to fill in the blanks. This way you get a good review of the material. Also, read the material the day before the quiz, and take the quiz early in the morning with a good cup of coffee, while you are still fresh (unless you are not a morning person!) Most importantly, I would tell them to take interest in what they are reading--it may save their lives one day!

19. I suggest reading the summary to the chapter first. Then do the work in the Study Guide as you read the rest of the textbook assignment. Also read through the Study Guide again just prior to taking the quiz. When I started doing these steps my grade improved and I completed the quizzes in a much shorter period of time.

20. I would try to impress upon my friends how carefully one must go through the prescribed material. One may be falsely inclined to believe that the Study Guide is everything that one needs to be sucessful on quizzes and the final exam. This, of course, is not the case at all. I would tell my friends to make sure that they go through the reading material CAREFULLY, and not just skim through it looking for the fill-in-the-blanks for the Study Guide. I would also advise my friends to keep a notebook. While the Study Guide provides a good overview of things, it is sometimes easier to remember and/or understand things when you have to write it out for yourself. It's a good study method anyway. You'd be surprised how much silly stuff sticks in your brain when you do this.

21. Do not take another class along with The Facts of Life, especially a hard math course.

22. The first thing I would suggest is don't work two jobs and try to take a vacation at the same time.

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