Use of Netscape

Use of the World Wide Web in Clermont’s Biology Courses

While use of the World Wide Web is optional for these courses, this can enhance your participation in the course in which you are enrolled in several ways:

Depending on your instructor, you can submit newsnotes or comments on newsnotes via WWW, gaining points toward your cumulative score for the quarter.
You can use information from other Web sites as references for any papers you may be required to write.
UCLID and/or OhioLink have converted their information to WWW format, so learning how to use the Web can also aid in doing the background, library research for any required papers (check with the folks in the library for details on how this works).
I have converted my lecture notes for the General Biology Sequence to WWW format and made them available on our Web site. Much of this information should also be of use to students in the majors’ courses.

The PCs in the open computer lab (room M-10) and in the library all have Netscape on them. While students are not allowed to use Netscape on these computers for “personal use,” it is not only permissible, but encouraged to use it to do work for a course. The PCs in the Open Lab are set up such that when you get into Netscape, they will start you out at the Clermont College Home Page. Those in the Library start out on the Library Home Page, but our librarian said he has set a bookmark to the Clermont College Home Page.

How to find General Biology 104-5-6 class notes:

Near the top of the screen, there should be a line that says “Location:” or “Go To:” followed by a white space which contains the address (URL) of the Web site being displayed.
Move the mouse cursor until it is somewhere in the white space, and click the left mouse button. This should highlight all the text in the small, white box. If not, hold the left mouse button down while you “drag” the mouse cursor over the text to highlight it.
Press the key or the key to clear any text currently in the white box.
Type in the address, http://biology.clc.uc.edu then press the key. Note that while this is not case-sensitive, punctuation and spacing are important.
Click on the appropriate link to go to the syllabus for your course or to submit a newsnote (or to view any of the other materials that are available).

This should work the same way if you’re dialing in from home. Note that while the general text on these pages is also viewable using Internet Explorer, the JavaScript code contained on many of the pages doesn’t work quite as well in older versions of IE as it does in Netscape or newer versions of IE. Many students have reported problems with the Web browser supplied by AOL not being able to correctly handle JavaScript code. Several students have indicated that they were able to “solve” this problelm by only using the AOL dialer, then after logging in, switching to either Netscape or IE to surf the Web.

While you're at it. . .

How about applying for your FREE UC e-mail account and Web access? All UC students are entitled to a free Bearcat-Online E-Mail account and Internet access. You can correspond with your professors by e-mail, and if you either download the needed software via the Web or purchase it from the Bookstore for the price of the disks it’s on, you can have free access to the Web and your e-mail account from home. You can also check your e-mail from the computer lab at school if you bring your own disk so the software has a place to put your downloaded messages. Also, it seems as though AOL seems to have major problems handling JavaScript, and in fact, many students report having problems with that. Solve the problem by using the FREE access provided by UC!

And in case anyone is interested. . .

Reasons why I do not use Blackboard:

Many of my Web pages have been online since 1995 and 1996, long before UC adopted Blackboard.
Use of my Web pages is not limited to just students enrolled in my courses. Anyone else in the whole world can also view/use these Web pages – for free and without messing with passwords.
I have taken the time to create my own graphics, sound files, etc. to avoid copyright violations. I don’t need to hide “lifted” materials from general view.
Because I know HTML and JavaScript, I write all my own code and thus, have much more control over what things look like and how they act, and much more freedom to do what I want than if I was using someone else’s “canned” Web page-creation routines.
Since I am my own Webmaster, I have much more freedom to configure our server to handle a variety of useful file types, and I can write code to process and store information such as newsnotes or lab data. If I was using Blackboard, I would be limited to using only file types that server was set up to handle, and most likely would not have access to use the sorts of executable scripts that I’m using.
Because my Web pages are on public display, and not hidden away where no one but my students can see them, they are, thus, subject to scrutiny and criticism by other professors teaching similar courses and by other types of professionals and experts. Yes, it’s scary to be vulnerable, but I have gained much constructive criticism via this peer review that has allowed me to correct mistakes and improve my Web pages. In contrast, professors who “hide” course materials in Blackboard can get away with saying whatever they want, right or wrong, because they are not subjecting their work to peer evaluation.
The positive side of peer evaluation is finding out what I’m doing right. Because other people can see what I’m doing, a number of my Web pages have won various awards.