If you are seeing a lot of annoying
markings on this web page (empty boxes, or black diamonds containing question
marks), please go to the “view” menu of your browser, select “character/text encoding,”
and then chose “Western (Windows)” and this page miraculously will look nice
and neat. If you do not have “Western
(Windows)” as an option, any other “Western” setting will be much better than
the default “Unicode” (although I recommend switching back to “Unicode” after
leaving this page-- since leaving it at a “Western” setting supposedly weakens
the security of your browser).
If you ever tried to send me
messages to cbryja@ccsf.edu, I am unlikely
to have read them. That address tends to
fill with spam, and it freezes up when it gets overfull. If you have any questions about this course, please e-mail me at claia.bryja@mail.ccsf.edu
instead.
I do not require students to
check in when they register, so please do not send me e-mail unless you have a
specific question that needs answering.
The textbook for the course
will be the 8th edition
of “The Essential Cosmic Perspective” (not
any of the alternative versions that lack the word “essential” in the title,
and not any of the other numbered editions), by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider,
and Voit.
You might find this available in a
cheaper loose leaf binder version as well as regular paperback, and it is cheapest
and most efficient to purchase an electronic copy.
Important Notice #1: This
course requires a mid-term exam and a final exam that must be taken in
person at the CCSF main campus.
(Multiple times for taking these exams will be offered, so personal
scheduling is not likely to be a concern as long as you are in the Bay Area
during the mid-term and finals weeks. I
also am able to offer alternative options in Sacramento to a small number of
students.) Please do not enroll in this course if you cannot attend exams in
mid-March and mid-May.
Please try
your best to attend one of these optional
but highly recommended orientations:
Wednesday, January 15th, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM, in Rosenberg Library Room 414
Saturday, January 18th, from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, in Rosenberg Library Room 205E
Simply joining the class without any orientation is
okay, but a majority of students do experience problems or suffer confusion
(especially regarding the course structure and expectations) that an in-person
orientation would reduce.
Every semester has at least a few students who, as a
consequence of skipping the orientation, miss some very significant part or
aspect of the class. These students
usually drop when finally, months later, they realize their mistake. Most of what I say at the orientation will be
repeated in online text-based announcements, but it’s much more effective to
hear it from me personally.
As soon as
the new semester starts, you may begin the course on your own, regardless of whether you plan to attend one of the
optional orientations. You will be emailed instructions how to
login to CCSF’s Canvas system. If
you have not received these instructions by Tuesday, January 14th,
you most likely are not checking the account that CCSF has on file as your
email address. Unless you have set it up otherwise, the default is the “mail.ccsf.edu”
address assigned to you by the college, so please be sure to check that for
messages. I also often will use your
CCSF email address for sending important announcements to the class, and for
communicating with individual students.
Important Notice #2: This course
is “front loaded” in the sense that students are expected to work hard right
away, but not so much in the last week of the semester (which is the opposite
of most college courses). We will begin
at a fast pace, from which it will be difficult to catch up if you start the
class more than a few days late. Because
of this, and because I often have a very long list of additional students
waiting to get in if space is available, I
may drop you from the course if you do not access the class and begin work
within the first five business days.
If you are waitlisted: NEW SYSTEM STARTING IN 2020
If the class already has
started and you want to add it late: Look
for a “Class Add Request” option on the Web4 registration portal. A request submitted this way will place you
at the end of the “Class Authorization” list. See above for what happens next.
Until 2014, this class
always started off absolutely full and with a very long official wait
list. Then CCSF suffered a significant
drop in enrollments, and adding a few days late became easy. However, high enrollment is back in ASTR-1,
and I am unsure how many openings will appear during the add/drop
period. Given how many no-shows and
drops normally occur right off the bat, I will be surprised if I cannot find
room for everyone who is willing to wait patiently for space to open. My only concern-- and, after two weeks,
this becomes a very big concern-- is that you’d be getting a late start
to fast-paced course.
Again, late adders must wait their turn to
receive an authorization notice and will need to check their email inboxes
regularly. When you receive my
authorization, you will have 48 hours to use the code to register for the
course through Web4. Within hours of
registering, you should be able access the class on Canvas. However, if the class remains full or nearly
full, I may choose to un-enroll any late adding
student who takes more than three days to log in to the course from the day
that they register.
I look forward to meeting everyone-- either on line or
in person-- as this course takes off!
Sincerely,
Claia (rhymes with
"hi ya!") Bryja (pronouncing
the “y” like a long-I the same as the “ai” diphthong
in my first name, and pronouncing the "j" in the usual English way)
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Finally,
here’s my favorite webpage of all: