Stats and Positive Comments
Responses to Specific Questions, Suggestions, and Criticisms
More Sample Test Questions

Stats and Positive Comments
Stats:

In general, Psy 202 students use and like the web resources.

A Concern: A Full 25% did not use the web resources before the first exam. We assume that some students did not feel that they needed the web resources to master the content of the course, and some of you just did not have time (If that is your problem, check out this page). If you do not own a computer, you can use any of the computer labs to access the web. There are student monitors in the labs to help you. If you are a novice and not sure how to navigate the web resources, check with Dr. Slem, Dr. Schultz, or Dr. Laver for a demonstration.

Positive Comments

Let's start on a high note:

"We Liked your Use of Humor, Web Wizard"

Yes, Weblings, there was an attempt at humor in the Web Resources. Several astute students actually picked up on the Web Wizard's keenly refined adolescent perspective. The Web Wizard was designed to have a point of view which is not unlike some Cal Poly college students we know. Your Web Wizard "feels your pain" and approaches some of the more difficult and obscure concepts from the student perspective.

To the Legions of you who did not recognize any humor at all, here are some examples:

	Chapter 1 Preview of Coming Attractions
	Chapter 7 Memory (not active for demo)
	Culture and Attraction
	If you thought there was any humor in these examples, there is more to come.

"Web Wizard, This is the greatest thing since hair gel, why don't all courses have this?"

Thank-you. Many courses do have some web resources but to my knowledge we are still the only one at Cal Poly (and the Milky Way Galaxy) that has attempted to integrate the lecture and text resources. The main problem for the average faculty person is that it takes time and resources to develop new resources for a class. The faculty have the same problem Cal Poly students have -- not enough time and not enough money to do the things we would like to do. You would be amazed at how difficult it is for a college professor to pick up a new skill like writing html for web pages. Professors are so bad that if we take more than an hour for lunch we have to be retrained in Psychology.

In the future, textbook publishers will develop the kind of resource package we are experimenting with. In fact, this class was, in part, designed to be a demonstration of the usefulness of having web resources which are directly tied to a text book. We wanted to encourage publishers to create materials like ours. In a few years, most of your classes will have textbook publisher provided web resources.

The "Bad" News: Questions, Comments and Criticisms of the Web Resources

"I can't find the correct answers on the sample textbook test questions."

That seems to be a problem with the kind of browser you are using. When we started this project in 1996, approximately 90% of our students used Netscape. Netscape supports blinking text. (The "blinking text" should be blinking as we speak). So if you have Netscape, the right answers should be blinking at you. However, newer browsers like Microsoft's internet explorer do not recognize the blink command and just sit there. Understandably this makes it a smidge more difficult to figure out what the right answer is. If you find yourself not being able to see the right answer, switch to the condensed version of the test. The answers are printed out at the bottom. Someday, just about when you are ready to graduate, we will put the text questions into the same format as the lecture questions.

"Some of Your Answers are Wrong on the sample Test Questions."

What, how dare you accuse a certified adult over 25 years of age that they could possibly wrong? I have a Ph.D. in "acuracy" ---- Just kidding. Putting those test questions into "html code" does lend itself to silly mistakes. Please let me know where the error is and I will replace it with another error. In fact, please let the web wizard know whenever you spot a typographical error.

(Here is another version of why there were different answers. Every quarter we actually use the same questions --- we just change the answers each quarter and that keeps the grade distribution the way we want it!)


"Some of the Sample Questions are Not Exactly the Ones that were on the Test."

"Another Variation to That Question: Some of the sample text questions were not based on the study questions."

You are right. One of the stipulations that the publisher made was that we had to sample the chapter just like their study guide. So be advised that some questions are not based on the study questions that you were given.


"More Sample Test Questions, Please."
We don't have time for that, but here is a link and password [User id login: weiten-student0298 andpassword: obvious] to the test questions for the Brief Edition of Weiten (used at community colleges). There should be some more practice questions in that.

Out of Date/Update Issues

"Please Update the page, You are still using resources from Spring Quarter Web Wizard!"

Oh, oh...you have the wrong address which you got from your roommate who took the class last spring. We have a new address. However, since you are likely to be viewing Spring Quarter's stuff rather than this page you won't know that there is a Fall97 version of it. I put a warning on the schedule for last quarter's pages, but who knows.

"Why aren't the web outlines exactly the same as the instructor's outline in the lecture?"

The lecturers are suppose to let the Web Wizard know if they are changing their lecture outline from the last time they presented it. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. It might be that they get an inspiration at 10:45 and change their 11:00 lecture -- not enough time to make the change. So what you see (and this is true of the sample lecture questions also) is based on what they did the last time they presented the lecture.

"How do I size the Browser to Maximize Printing?"

Sometimes clicking the box in the upper right hand corner will resize to the page, but I don't know if that helps with printing. If the page doesn't seem to fit on the printed page, I will go up to "page set-up" in the file menu on Netscape and have the page printed at 90%. As you can tell, the Web Wizard is not "TechnoWizard." Dr. Laver or Dr. Schultz probably know the official way to make things work right.

."
"I am a Novice and I don't Know What I am Doing

Go Talk to Dr. Schultz, Dr. Laver, or Dr. Slem. They will be happy to do a demo for you in their office. Here is a link to tutorials on the web.


Here are a couple of Mind Bogglers:

There is probably an answer to this question, but not on this space-time continuum. The development and use of web resources is in its infancy and we haven't quite figured out how to accommodate everyone's preference. According to some web gurus (who we consulted with during early development) web pages are not intended to be printed but just read. We are finding that students use these resources differently than those web gurus thought. A printed copy of an exam is more convenient and portable than relying on the computer.


And another tough pair to resolve:

In surveys conducted last year, most students preferred pages that loaded quickly with lean graphics. We are, however, planning on using more multimedia (e.g. QuickTime Movies, interactive exercises, etc) in the future. We are waiting until the majority of students will be able to use the new technology.



"We shouldn't be paying any extra money for this service!"

You aren't! Although only one person wrote this comment on the test, it punched the old Web Wizard's button. Unless you know something I don't, there are no additional resources for this project this quarter. Its early development was part of a Cal Poly Plan project (last year) that supported the development of web resources for three courses. The funding ended. After some deliberation, we decided to continue to use and develop the web resources for the class even though the university is not supporting the effort. This has slowed down the development, however. For example, the interactive tutorials for the obedience studies and classical/operant conditioning are not in place in part because we are developing these on our own time.

At this point Dr. Slem is doing this upkeep on the web resources for gratis even though he is on Sabbatical Leave (and should be on a South Pacific Island conducting participant research in the sexual practices of the Fahean sex goddesses). All wishful thinking aside, we would love to have students come forward and donate their time to help us on this project. We welcome new ideas and free labor. Contact Dr. Slem at cslem@calpoly.edu.


"It would be nice to Have a Glossary of Terms for Each Chapter, Web Wizard!"

Are you in luck. There are individual chapter glossaries for each chapter. They are identified with the "key term" logo on each of the text pages.

Click on this for an example.

"Some of the Links Don't Work Right!"

We are finding that about 10% of the links become obsolete each quarter. We periodically check and update, but those things happen. Let me know which link is dead and I will see if I can find a replacement. In some instances where the link is for a resource that Cal Poly has a license to use, using AOL or some outside source creates a roadblock. if you are using your campus account to access the web, the link will work fine because the site recognizes that you are authorized to use the resource. Sometimes people have problems because the Cal Poly network is not operating correctly. On days when your pages are loading at 52 bytes/sec, the system is not feeling well and sometimes will lie to you so that it doesn't have work so hard. Occasionally, your browser gets a headache and starts telling you that every link does not have an "DNS" something or other. Time to reboot.

Fortunately, the links that are most likely to go obsolete are the ones that you are least likely to use. Some of you felt that pursuing some of the world wide web links were entertaining but not directly related to doing well on the examination.

Other Questions I didn't get around to Answer:

If I did not answer your question or comment, let me know. If you have a question or comment for the Web Wizard, please send me an email and I will try to answer you promptly.

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