January 20
Dear PHY 232C students,
The helproom hours for PHY 232/232C specific TAs have changed slightly (no Monday hours).
The Strosacher Learning Center (Physics help room) will be open starting
Tuesday, Jan 20. The Learning Center is in room 1248 BPS.
Starting Tuesday, Jan 20, the help room is generally open Monday through
Thursday from 9AM-9PM and Fridays 9AM-6PM, however TAs assigned specifically to
our course will be in the help room at these times:
Here are the revised 232/232C specific hours:
Tuesdays 9AM - 6PM
Wednesdays 9AM -9PM
Thursdays 9AM - 9PM
Richard Hallstein
January 16 (10:50AM)
Dear Students in PHY 232C,
We are trying to obtain information on the conceptual preparation of our
incoming students for this class. To this end, we have prepared a
pre-introductory physics course diagnostic consisting of multiple-choice
questions, which do not require any numerical calculations. You will get 1%
extra credit counting towards your grade just for participating. To emphasize,
this is a participation bonus and is in no way linked to your performance on
this diagnostic. Please take up to 50 minutes to answer these 33 conceptual
questions, and please, complete the entire test in one sitting without
consulting any reference materials.
This diagnostic will be available for you in Lon-Capa to take between 6PM today
(Friday), January 16 and 11:09PM on Monday, January 19.
Look for a folder called "Pre-course diagnostic" in LON-CAPA inside the PHY 232C
class. You can click on the folder anytime between 1/16 at 6PM and 1/19,
Tuesday 11:09 PM. Before any material appears, you get a message saying that the
clock will start, when you click on the start button. The best way to keep time
is to set a kitchen timer for 50 minutes and place it next to your keyboard.
Please, eliminate all possible distractions, turn off your cell phone and your
tv. Once you click on the start button, the clock will start inside LON-CAPA and
it cannot be stopped, no matter what you do. When the time is up, the contents
of the folder will become hidden for you.
Please take your time and read every question carefully. You are not expected
to be able to answer every question on the diagnostic. You submit your responses
just like you do on the third homework problem entitled "How to submit answers
to bonus" in set one. When you answer a question during the diagnostic,
LON-CAPA will not give you an immediate "Correct" or "Incorrect" message. It
will just simply say "Answer Submitted...". You will not have access to your
score, however next week I will send an email to your Lon-Capa mail confirming
your participation credit. You are allowed to go back and change your answer,
if you think you picked an incorrect answer. You will have 20 tries on each
question. All your submissions will be stored, but only the last submission will
be used for each question.
We value your input and want only serious attempts at completing the diagnostic.
If you don't know the answer to a question, then guessing is allowed. However,
simple submission patterns(like AAA..., or BBB...) or rapidly clicking on any
response throughout the diagnostic will be filtered out from the diagnostic.
Lon-Capa allows me to easily check the time spent on each problem in the
diagnostic. Any students having there submissions filtered out for the reasons
described above will also forfeit the participation bonus.
At the end of the semester, a post course diagnostic will be given for another
1% extra credit. This too, will be a participation bonus and not linked to your
performance on the post course diagnostic. Any results produced by this study
will not contain your name or any other personal information about you.
If the folder containing the diagnostic is not showing up for you in Lon-Capa,
you will need to exit Lon-Capa and re-login. You should close down *all*
browser windows prior to relogging in. The Lon-Capa tech support staff strongly
advise you exit Lon-Capa every time you finish a session. Leaving your computer
logged into to Lon-Capa for an extended period of time can cause errors and an
inability for you to submit responses to questions. In addition, any new
material added after you login will not be available until you log out and re-
login.
Thank you very much for taking the diagnostic!
Richard Hallstein
January 12
Welcome to the spring semester of PHY 232C.
You are receiving this message because you are enrolled in PHY 232C section 730
or section 731. Please read this message carefully; it contains a significant
amount of important information about the course. A copy is posted in the
announcement section of the syllabus.
The required text book is Rex & Wolfson: Essential College Physics, Volume 2.
It is sold at the MSU bookstore, at SBS on Grand River and at many online
retailers. This class will use LON-CAPA. LON-CAPA is a computerized homework
and exam management system developed right here at MSU. We will NOT use Angel
or d2L whatsoever in this course. Since this is an online class, you are not
required to purchase an i-clicker.
Please visit www.loncapa.msu.edu and log in using your MSU Net ID and password.
Select the "PHY 232C, Spring2015" class. The first item on the top is the
syllabus. You can also review the syllabus without logging in to Lon-Capa
here: http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2015spring/PHY232C/ Read *all* sections
of it carefully. This is the official syllabus of the class and contains
information like important dates (exams & homework), bonus point opportunities,
homework information, exam inforamtion, etc.
The next item is a folder containing the lectures for the course. The online
lectures and the associated homework sets will become available in Lon-Capa two
weeks prior to the due date for the homework assignments. The Online Lectures
folder contains the lectures specifically designed for this online course; they
are in the form of narrated PowerPoint presentations with example problems and
videos of demonstrations. Embedded within the online lectures are bonus
homework questions. These questions are optional and can only help your score
in the course. Most of these questions, relate at least in part to the
assigned reading and/or the online lecture immediately preceding the
question. These questions are programmed in exam mode (multiple choice) with
correct/incorrect feedback disabled; the correct answer will be available after
the due date. The discussion board on these bonus questions is disabled.
A reliable high speed internet connection is required, as is a computer with
the ability to view flash video. The computer will need a current, supported
operating system and a browser running HTML5 to use all the options available
in the online lectures. There is an inconvenient bug that you would only
encounter if you happen to have a Windows computer with (1) a touch screen AND
(2) a physical keyboard and/or mouse (including a track pad); in this case the
videos will not play in Chrome or Firefox, so you would need to use Internet
Explorer. Tech Smith's Camtasia software is used to make these videos. Tech
Smith is aware of this bug and hope to have it patched in the future.
The next folder will contain the homework for the course. There are weekly
homework sets that are due on Thursdays at 11:59PM. The first homework set is
due Thursday, January 22 at 11:59PM. Only the first homework sets is currently
available, other homework sets will become available two weeks prior to the due
date. You should not wait until the last minute to do the assigned homework --
extensions on homework will not be granted.
If you are living or traveling far from the MSU campus at the time of an exam,
beyond a reasonable commuting distance, or if you are traveling with an MSU-
sponsored program, you may be able to arrange a proctored off-campus exam.
Arrangements must be made well in advance of the exam – requests made after the
deadline will not be accommodated and you will have to take the exam at MSU.
For arrangement details and arrangement deadlines, see the link in the exam
section of the syllabus.
You are encouraged to come to the Strosacker help room with your questions.
Our Teaching Assistants will be more than happy to assist you in finding your
way to the answers to our homework questions however they are instructed not to
simply solve these problems for you. The Strosacker help room is in 1248 BPS
and is usually open from 9:00AM to 9:00PM Monday through Thursday and
9:00AM-6:00PM on Fridays. You are welcome to go to the help room during any of
its open hours, but there will be appointed times when TAs specifically for
PHY232/232C will be available. Starting Tuesday, January 20, the help room
will be open. Once I have the exact hours for the help room in general and our
TAs specifically, I will post them in the syllabus and notify you by email.
You are also encouraged to use the discussion board inside LON-CAPA. If you
don't understand a problem or you need help, just click on the "Post
discussion" link and post your question. If you are seeking electronic help on
a homework problem, use the post discussion option. Do not use email for help
on the homework questions. More likely than not, others will have the same
question and unlike email, everyone can then benefit from your question and the
subsequent response(s). If you know the answer to somebody else's question,
just post your answer. Don't forget: The best way to learn is to teach.
(Doscendo discimus).
Richard Hallstein
(BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509, hallstein@pa.msu.edu)
Last updated: December 13, 2014