The course '(Re)Construction of Public Sphere in the Mass Media' is designed as an online course to be offered via the Internet to a learning communitiy of students from different disciplines and countries. The course will run for 14 weeks. During a typical week, you will complete assigned readings, access other resources on the course web page or Internet or other (print) media, and participate in online discussions. You will also become part of a small research group, working together on the Internet and presenting its results at the end of the course.

All required readings are available either on the Internet through links on the course web page or as hard copies in the library of your institute and should be completed before the semester begins.

The first four weeks of the course in-class meetings take place each Wednesday from 2-4 pm.

During that time you will become acquainted with

• the course web page and its communication tools ( Chat, File Exchange, Discussion Forum),
• the characteristics of distance learning,
• different forms of presenting scientific content and - last but not least -
• the main topics of the course.

Later on we will meet face-to-face only if demanded (e.g. to organize group work or to prepare an expert chat).

The main task of the course will be engaging in online discussions of course readings, issues, assignments, and related matters through the use of the BSCW forum.

Each Wednesday the course lecturers will post up to three questions. Online Discussions will continue during the week as you post responses to that questions as well as to comments by your fellow students.

We expect participation in the BSCW forum at least twice a week and substantial contributions to course unit topics and discussion questions.

So what is "participation and contribution"? Here are some ideas according to the Official UVic Website for Distance Education Services:

• Post an opinion based on your reading and research
• Respond thoughtfully to the topic of discussion
• Provide links and resources related to the topic
• Pose a thought-provoking question related to the topic
• Provide pros and cons
• Thoughtfully rebut another student’s (or our) comments
• Sum up preceding arguments or discussion points

Furthermore, we ask you to observe the UVic guidelines for online interaction:

• Use the subject line to describe the topic
• Each message should be about one basic point. A single focus makes it easier for others to respond
• Keep your message brief. If you need to write more than 100-150 words, consider breaking it into two parts
• Keep your message simple and to the point. Don’t ramble or use complex constructions
• Don’t get hung up on perfect spelling and grammar
• Respond promptly
• Use criticism gently and sparingly

By the way: You can save on connection costs and allow more time for thoughtful writing if you compose an assignment off-line. You can then run a spell check and look the message over before posting it to ensure that the content is clearly presented.

During the semester we will also have the opportunity to engage in online discussions / chats with some of the authors whose work we will be reading.

Some time around the 4th week of the semester, you will become part of a small group (with two or three fellow students) that will focus its inquiry on an specific issue or question or problem that emerges for you from our readings and discussions in the course.

You will store, manage, jointly edit and share documents with your fellow group members through the use of the file exchanging functionality of the BSCW server.

Groups will present the results of their inqiry to the rest of the course participants the last two weeks of the semester.

We strongly suggest that you submit your work as a web page. For those of you who have not done it before, doing a web page really isn't as difficult as you might think. Most current word processing and presentation software programs (Word, PowerPoint) can automatically convert your documents into HTML format). After you have done some preliminary work on the web page, feel free to contact Katy Teubener (katy.teubener@uni-muenster.de) for further suggestions.

The guidelines below are provided by the Union City Board of Education to assist you in the preparation of your multimedia presentation:

Resources

• Use different resources in gathering your information (e.g. Internet, CD-ROMs, books, magazines, newspapers, encyclopedia, interviews, video clips, portions of films or television programs)
• Consult resources that show different perspectives
• Cite all resources used with footnotes and bibliography

Organization

• Organize your ideas in a meaningful and logical way
• Support your ideas with details and explanations
• Prepare a clear answer to your research question or topic
• Balance design aspects with content
• Include an introduction and/or table of contents
• Include a conclusion

Navigation

• Help users find their way easily through your presentation
• Allow users to go back to previous pages
• Provide your presentation with navigation tools (buttons, bars, links), that are conspicuous, labeled when necessary and located in a similar place on each page

Media use

• Use different media to communicate your ideas (e.g. artwork, animations, photographs, video clips, portions of films or television programs, music, sound)
• Remember your objectives and use media appropriately

Appearance

• Only use a few fonts
• Make sure titles and headings are easy to distinguish from other text
• Provide your presentation with a good contrast between text color and background color
• Use graphics that show up well on the Internet
• Split each document into multiple hyperlinked pages
• Check for typos and misspellings

Technical Support:

• Save your Word 2000 Document as a Web Page.
• Save your PowerPoint 2000 Presentation as a Web Page.
• If you don't have PowerPoint on your computer, download the Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer.