For many students in my online courses, this is the first opportunity they have had for an online learning experience beyond the "walled garden" of a course management system like Web CT, the application we use at SUNY-Cortland. Of course, nearly all students have had other social experiences online from Facebook to YouTube to various online gaming adventures. It might seem difficult to translate the knowledge gained in those social interactions to a learning environment, but it really doesn't have to be that hard. On Facebook and other places you started out by creating a basic profile and perhaps following a brief tutorial. Then you just started clicking around, right? You checked out what other people were doing and tried doing those things. And so on.

In this class the experience is very similar. 

Step One: Read the Course Documents

1. Just like any class. Make sure you've read and understood the Course Syllabus and the Course Schedule. Then read this page, the page on How This Course Will Work (aka ENG 529 Course Workflow), and ENG529 Guidelines.

Step Two: Create a Profile Page on PB Wiki

1. On the sidebar on the right, at the top, you'll see a link that says "Create a Page." Click it.
2. Give your page a title. You can use your name or a pseudonym if you prefer. Remember that this wiki is public.
3. You can choose a template if you like, but you don't have to. Experiment if you feel like it.
4. Include as much or as little information as you want. You can upload photos. Using the "Insert Plugin" option, you can do a variety of things, including embedding YouTube videos.
5. Save your page and look at it. You can make edits if you want.
6. When viewing your page, you'll see in the sidebar the option to add your page to a folder. Add your page to the folder titled "Member Pages."
7. Go back to the Cyberpunk Literature page and add a link to your page in the list of Course Members.

Step Three: Modify your Ning Profile Page

1. Your profile page was automatically created when you established your account, but you can modify it extensively.
2. When you are on our Ning site, select "My Page" from the NavBar to visit your profile page.
3. Under your photo in the left hand sidebar, you are given the option to change your photo or the theme. By selecting theme, you are taken to a page where you can alter the overall appearance of your page (colors, backgrounds, etc.)
4. There are a number of things you can edit on your page. You can also include various widgets and such. None of that is "required." You can choose to populate your page as you see fit.
5. Finally you have a blog here. I'm going to ask you to blog at least 3 times a week. You can set your blog posts so that they are totally private (only you can read them). So that only those identified as your friends in Ning can read them. Or so that everyone can read them. You can friend me and set your posts so that only you and I can see them (unless you choose to friend others in the class as well). You don't have to friend others in the class. Basically though your blog will be a place where you should feel free to express yourself openly about the course.
6. Again experiment and see what others are doing. Ask questions.

Step Four: Get Involved in the Community

1. Read your classmates' profile pages.
2. Get started in the Cyberpunk Literature Group Discussion Forum in Ning. I'm going to start up two discussions (you'll actually see several posts I've put up there over the past couple weeks, but these two will be the most recent ones). One will deal with the practical matters of taking an online course. I'll offer some more advice and ask you to talk about your own experiences. We'll discuss the ethics of online course participation and troubleshoot initial problems of getting starting from technical matters to questions about the syllabus. The other discussion will be literary and serve as an introduction into questions of science fiction and cyberpunk.

   Are you still here? Get in there and get involved!