Hello, My name is Joe Escobar and I am your instructor for HST203 United States History at Lane Community College. You are receiving this email because you have signed up for the course and you have wisely included your email address in your ExpressLane account information. I've been a history instructor since 1989, and you will find that I enjoy teaching and working with students. I wanted to contact you in advance of our first class meeting on Tuesday (a week from tomorrow) with some information relevant to this particular course. HYBRID HISTORY CLASS First, you may have noticed that my classes are only 3 hours each week, instead of 4, like all of the other HST203 sections. (I hope that is not the main reason you signed up for my sections ;-) Yet, the class is labeled as 4 credits AND it costs you just as much as the other sections. Also, you may not have seen the "h" code that appears in the online Credit Class Schedule in ExpressLane. VERY IMPORTANT... My HST203 courses offered Spring Term are taught in a hybrid format. Contrary to what some students might believe, a hybrid class is NOT a class where an instructor has a website with the syllabus and some handouts and links. In a hybrid class, actual "seat time" is replaced with "other" work. In the case of my classes, that replacement hour is "online" time. In my 4 credit courses, students and instructor meet for 3 hours each week, and that remaining credit hour is spent completing class assignments online. Most know that a 12 credit class load is equivalent to full time. But it is NOT full time just because a student is in the classroom for those 12 hours. Each hour in class requires 2 to 3 hours of homework and studying OUTSIDE of the classroom. THAT is where "full time" comes from. A 12 credit class load will require 36-48 hours of your time, both in and outside of the classroom. A 40 hour work week is considered a full time job. The same goes for a 12 credit college workload. So, theoretically, my 4 credit class will require 12 to 16 hours of your time each week. Subtracting the 3 hours we are in class, and the corresponding 6-9 hours of work you'll need to put in outside of class, that leaves 3 to 4 hours of online work you'll need to complete each week. If you are not willing to complete online work or do not have ready access to an internet-capable computer, then you should strongly consider dropping this class in favor of a traditional, face-to-face HST203 section, where students spend the full 4 hours in the classroom each week. I would much rather you deal with this issue now, then to complain about it at the end of the term when it comes time to evaluate the instructor and the class. Here's what one anonymous student shared in an evaluation of my Winter Term HST202 hybrid class which just ended this past week. "Personally I am not a tech person, I rarely use a computer. I actually missed three quizzes because I don't ever think about going on the computer. This class was a horrible choice for me personally, it doesn't suit my learning style at all. Which set me up for a rough time." Don't let this happen to you. Now that you have the facts, make a decision that is best for you regarding this class. USING MOODLE We will use Lane's Moodle software extensively to accomplish our work for this course. You will be able to login to the site with your L# and first six digits/characters of your ExpressLane PIN at 12:01 am on Monday, the first day of the term. I hope that you do so before we meet on Tuesday. The site URL is: http://moodle.lanecc.edu READ THE COURSE SYLLABUS NOW Since you don't have access to Moodle before the term begins, I've posted the course syllabus online and have made it available for you to read right now (see link below). If you don't like what you read, consider dropping the course. If you think this class might be a good fit for you, I'll see you on Tuesday. https://teach.lanecc.edu/escobarj READ INSTRUCTOR EVALUATIONS Think about this. You are spending approximately $400 in tuition to take this course, and most of you know nothing about this "Instructor Joe Escobar" listed on the schedule of classes. To help you decide if you are spending your money wisely, I have posted all of my evaluations, completed by my former students over the last several years. All comments, good and bad, have been included. Nothing has been censored. I would strongly advise that you take a look and see if you like what you discover about your instructor. That URL is: https://teach.lanecc.edu/escobarj/evaluations I even have a few interesting recent ones on ratemyprofessors.com. What conclusions can you draw from those students who either love or hate an instructor? THE TEXTBOOK Finally, I wanted to let you know about the course textbook options. The LCC Bookstore has the textbook for $44 new and $33 used. I've seen even better used book pricing at Amazon.com or Abebooks.com ($28 including shipping). You have other options too, including buying an electronic version "eBook" for $22, or even individual chapters for $2.99 each. See (long URL, be sure to get it on one line in your browser): http://www.cengagebrain.com/tl1/en/US/storefront/ichapters?cmd=catProductDetail&ISBN=9780495411017 Well, that's all of the news I have for you now. I look forward to meeting you in person on Tuesday and working with you during the term. Until then, Joe Escobar History Instructor Lane Community College