| Fall 2000 - Copyright Law > | Duration: 7 minutes | To begin => [Dial-up | Cable modem or faster] |
Most of you will want to print out a full set of the course materials and for that purpose you will find an "rtf" version of the materials for initial 5 units ready for downloading off the "Readings" page. The balance will be available soon. In addition to or as an alternative to this word-processor file, each case or other assigned reading is available in a browsable HTML version, useful for on-line reference at the very time we are working with it.
Classmates at each participating school who decide they want a full set of printed materials may well want to band together to get copies of the readings produced in quantity at a local copy center rather than have each student proceed individually to print them out. That strategy may not only realize some economy but also permit such features as punched or bound pages and printing on both sides of the page. More on how to work with the readings will be covered under Topic 1.
The course home page provides direct access to the reference works used throughout the course and to an alphabetical index of all assigned cases. The "Readings" page has this same material gathered by topic and alone offers the downloadable "rtf" files.
Each of the topics will begin with one or more presentations by me designed to place it in context. And following the readings will be a set of "probes, problems, and extensions" through which we'll begin our work with the material. Each will be contained or based on a page formatted like this. The audio content is begun by the link in the upper right hand corner of the page appropriate to your Net connection. (If you haven't yet started the audio for this page, do so now.) Once begun these streaming audio presentations can be paused and otherwise controlled by the RealPlayer software. At the top of these pages you will see a stated duration in minutes. That is how long the audio will run, uninterrupted. Often, however, you will want to interrupt it and perhaps even replay portions. Why? To listen again to a point that went by too quickly, to take notes, or to work with an interactive problem at the point it is being discussed rather than later. In other words, the "duration" of a page should not be confused with how much time you will need to spend working with it.
Each topic has a main page that organizes and gives access to all the presentations, readings, problems and discussion questions that comprise its coverage. While the topic main page itself can be accessed without signing in, all of the presentation and problem pages with streaming audio or interactive content beginning with Topic 2 are limited to students registered in this course and therefore require a login. The topic pages present all the constituent material, including the readings, in sequence. The presentation and problem pages all contain links back to the point on the topic page from which they were reached.
Each student registered for the course will be assigned a login name and password. As noted above, signing in will be required in order to access all presentations and problems following Topic 1. In addition you'll need to log in order to participate in class discussions.
All topics and some subtopics will conclude with discussion in the course WebBoard conference area. That conference area, which will be open on August 28, contains its own "how to" material.