Thank you for your interest in studying along with my Introductory Japanese class, which I teach at the University of Georgia (UGA). I'm very excited about having the chance to perform this experiment in open education, and while I'm sure that there will be rough spots along the way, I hope that opening up my class to online participation will be an educational experience for me as much as for you.
Unfortunately, the "virtual" aspects of the course are being run solely by myself, out of personal interest and a desire to help people learn Japanese. I am doing this completely separate from my studies and teaching at UGA, and so am not able to extend any kind of official credit or other form of recognition of your hard work. While I will do my best to answer questions and be involved in discussions on this site, I am also not able to grade any work you do, or promise that I will be able to give you one-on-one assistance with your studies. I do hope, however, that we can reach a critical mass of users on this site, creating an environment where Japanese learners of all levels (and helpful native speakers!) will be able to help us all with our studies.
While I may not be able to get everything online, my goal is to make as much of the course material available through this web site as I possibly can. At a minimum, I will be uploading here
- all non-copyrighted handouts that we use in class
- copies of all of our quizzes and tests (with answer keys)
- our final exam (with answer key)
As mentioned above, I also hope that we can use the forums on this site to maintain ongoing discussions related to Japanese learning.
Most of my lecture material (keyed to the textbook) will be recorded and made available by RSS feed (see the "Genkier" links to the right) or via iTunes. If you are interested in studying along with us, please be sure to download the course syllabus. While much of the information therein is directed towards UGA students officially enrolled in the course, it also contains links to the textbooks we'll be using, links to the course calendar, and other important information. I have also created a list of important resources for JPNS 1001 that you should look at and bookmark.
The JPNS 1001 course will start on Aug 17, 2009. The JPNS 1002 course will begin in early January, 2010. Because much of the material will be posted online you are of course free to work at your own pace, but please keep in mind that most of the active discussion will (hopefully) be related to our "real time" studies. Keeping up with the class would therefore most likely result in the best learning experience for you.
If you are interested in studying along with the class, I highly recommend that you try to find at least one other person who is interested in studying along with you. The mutual support that you give each other would probably make it much more likely that you keep up your studies, and maintain your pace with the class.
Please feel free to use this forum if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions! There's still some time before the course gets started, so I would love any input as to how you would like to see the course run!
Thanks,
--Tony