The End Is Near!

With a little more than a month left in the semester, I think it is time for a reality check. The structure of this course is meant to accommodate a graduate student's need for flexibility and self-directed learning. Heaven knows we all (self included) have weeks when there is hardly any time to get anything done. But I must say I have recently noticed a troubling decrease in participation in many of your cases, and obviously it is my job to give you a little nudge. So I thought I would remind everyone of your obligations, as specified in the syllabus.

By the end of the semester, those of you taking the course for 3 credits are supposed to have:

• At least 4 individual analysis of readings (originally 5, but I let one pass). The format, if you remember, was to take one of the items from the ccte feed and discuss it in terms of the books you are reading. Later, we agreed that if you want to merely focus on the books, that would be fine too. I am looking for substance, not length.

• At least 4 IE project updates. I am looking for updates that both inform us of your progress as well as reflect your own thinking in applying what you are learning in this course. I *don't* expect you to show that the issue you selected has been neatly resolved, as that would be unrealistic and I am hoping your issue will become a long-term project extending beyond the life of this course.

• Collectively, you are supposed to complete the Design Patterns wiki. Obviously, a wiki is never 'complete,' but I would like to see something that we are proud to invite other people to see, and that they find useful.

Additionally, I expect you to continue to conduct distributed research (post items to the ccte feed) and comment on each other's blog posts (either directly on their blog or in your own blog).

I will also ask you to do a final evaluation of the course, just so you know.

The good news is that you have about 4 weeks to make sure all the work is done ;-) I think you are all doing very interesting work, so let's proceed full speed ahead for this last stretch!

Any questions, let me know.