hello welcome to language science and
CSD I just like to take this opportunity
to introduce myself and to explain a
little bit about what it is that you'll
be doing in this course I'm dr. Steve
Surrency and i've been teaching this
course a few times throughout my 15
years here at USF i started teaching the
course again last year after a few years
of not teaching the course. When I taught
the course last year the students really
struggled with the book that we were
using with the lecture format of the
course while I got pretty good
evaluations on the course they weren't
to my satisfaction and I really felt
like we could do something better so I
decided this year to improve the course
and to make some some big changes in the
way the course is administered first of
all we're using a new book in the course
Language Files 12 this course i think is
a little bit better than the older book
that we used for undergrads because the
book is specifically designed for
undergrads who are learning analytics
for the first time so I think in that
respect that you're gonna like using
language files
the course is also organized as a
flipped course which means that you're
going to do most of the learning at home
and most of the practice in class so
rather than you come to class and me
have a PowerPoint with lectures will
happen most of the time is before you
come to class we're going to do your
reading your book and you're going to
start doing some of the practice
questions that you have online then when
you come to class we're just going to
work on practice questions
we're going to work on the questions in
the book going to work on some of the
other practice questions you have in
your homework
we're gonna work on practice questions
throughout the class and and it'll be
like taking an exam with me helping you
through the exam every class and that's
gonna be the majority of classes will be
a few powerpoints not give a lecture
here and there before the most part
you're going to learning at home now
when you go into a module in each class
meeting has a module you'll see online
you'll notice that the module have
a list of objectives those objectives
are met to steer you to the most
important concepts in the book notice it
also says you need to know the words in
bold and need to be able to do the
practice questions that are in the back
of each each file if you can if you know
the words in bold and I don't just mean
you can memorize what the book says but
you understand the books definition of
all those bolded words and you can do
all the practice questions in the back
really fine on the online practice
questions you're going to do fine on
your midterm and the final your final
now if you read the chapter and they
come to a concept don't understand well
there you'll find also within the module
some extra help some of that extra help
might be me giving online lectures and
they could be other people getting
online lectures that could be videos or
other sorts of pictures different files
that help you understand the concepts in
the book but be clear those are meant to
be supplemental they're meant to help
you understand the concepts presented in
the book don't feel like they're
additional ok so what I want you to do
is I want you to go into each module and
you're gonna look and you'll see a list
of objectives from those objectives will
read the objectives and you'll be able
to identify the most important concept
in that module then you go to your book
you read your book looking for those
most important concepts then maybe
you'll go ahead and start taking the
practice questions you'll do the online
practice questions at home one time
maybe you get I don't know 14 out of 20
which is a 70-percent right 14 questions
right on the practice questions online
maybe you're not happy that when you go
back and you say oh I i got some
questions wrong related too prescriptive
ism well you then go back and you might
look at the book and see if you can
clarify and go back and look at some of
the supplemental information the
lectures i have lectures i have linked
to other people do that then go back to
practice questions again maybe this time
you take the practice questions you'll
get some slightly different questions it
won't be all exactly the same
you get some questions you take it again
maybe this time you get nine out of ten
and maybe you say you know what I'm
satisfied with that or maybe you're not
gonna take it again with those online
practice questions your highest grade is
going to be capped so you can take them
20 x 30 times before class after class
whatever you want to do you will want to
do some reading before class and i would
suggest you take the practice questions
i'm at least once before class because
that's gonna really help you make the
most out of class time because in class
going to be going over the practice
questions the ones that are in our book
the ones that you have a line all sorts
of practice questions will be going over
that way we get your midterm which
consists by the way of the same practice
questions you'll be ready now
the more you do the practice questions
at home the more likely it is you're
going to see the questions that are on
the midterm there are lots of practice
questions that i have you're going to
get 20 your friends gonna get 20 your
other friends going to get 20 different
ones chances are you're not going to see
all the practice questions just by doing
the practice sets one time but if you do
the practice sets three or four times
each you can see lots of different
questions when it comes time for that
midterm there's not going to be
surprised you're gonna get the midterm
and the questions that show up we're
going to be all the same questions
you've done
provided that you've taken the practice
questions quite a few times so remember
when you're approaching this course look
at the objectives as a way of organizing
your your brain organizing what is the
most important topic then read the
chapter that's the way the bulk of the
information is going to be then go try
to practice questions then come back and
see if you need some of the additional
resources to help you out
that's my suggestion that will get you
ready for class ready to ask questions
ready to suggest questions for me to go
over ready to participate in the class
with your clicker and then ultimately
that's going to be ready for the midterm
and the final i look forward to having
you in this class i think it's going to
be a really good class for you and I
think you're gonna find it really
rewarding because you're in control if
you want to pass this class it's doable
put the time in if you find it difficult
gonna have to put a lot of time and if
you find it easy going to put a little
bit
time it