Tasks for Week 1: Sunday 28th July to Saturday 3rd August
- A gmail address automatically gives you a Google account. If you have a gmail address, you are all set. If you dont have gmail, then you have one of two options. EITHER you can create a new gmail address for yourself (which will automatically give you a Google Account) OR follow link to get yourself a Google Account Without Gmail. NOTE details of this account (login/password) in some safe place.
- Become a follower of my Wordpress Blog: Islamic WorldView. About 130 participants have accepted the invitations which have been sent to all. Those who have not accepted/received invitations can go to the website http://azprojects.wordpress.com and click on the blue FOLLOW THIS BLOG button on the right hand side middle. They will be asked to provide email and username to setup a Wordpress account. NOTE down your username and password, as you will need it to log into Wordpress on many occasions.
- Become a member of the Google Group: AZ-Research-Group. Again all of you have been invited to become members, and many have accepted, but many invites are pending. You can become a member by following the blue link on the name of the group. This will take you to the group, and there you should see a button which allows you to join the group. Any email sent to the group wil go to ALL 205 course-participants (Plus 200 pre-existing members). So this method should RARELY be used for communications.
- All participants have been assigned to a group of 20/21 members, and each group has two group co-ordinators, or group leaders. List of all participants, and their groups, will be available from (Google Sheet, to be provided). Each group will receive a joint email, which will create an email list for the group, so that they can easily communicate with each other, using Reply-To-All button on their email. Group members can ask questions about any aspect of the course from their Group Leaders. Any question not resolved by group leaders can be asked from me by group leader. This two stage process is needed to prevent my email from becoming flooded with questions from 200+ participants, making it impossible for me to answer them.
Group Tasks:
- Each group should launch a Wordpress Blog -- use the name assigned to the group, or something similar -- to identity the Blog. The purpose of this blog is to keep course notes for students in an organized way. It will also allow for discussion and comments among members of the group (in addition to the email list). The email list is restricted to the group members, but the Blog Posts can be shared with all participants and are open to general public.
- There are TWO readings for the week. The MAIN reading is in FOUR parts (of about 15m each) labeled Real Statistics (1/4), (2/4), (3/4) and (4/4). These readings have shortlinks bit.do/azrs1, bit.do/azrs2, bit.do/azrs3, and bit.do/azrs4. There is a SECONDARY reading in Pedagogical Principles called "Learn Who You Are". Each subgroup should discuss each reading via emails, and come up with some comments and discussion points. These comments/discussions would be put on the main blog by the group leader. Again, this is to prevent 200 plus comments on the Blog, which would create confusion/chaos and be too many for anyone to read or follow. More extensive discussions, with comments by all members, can be put on the GROUP Wordpress Blog which has been created for this purpose also.
REMEMBER - Any questions about what needs to be done, and how to do it, should be asked from your group leaders (two of them). If group leaders cannot resolve the problem, they will ask me, and communicate my reply to the group. This two stage structure will keep communications manageable for all parties.