Essential Personal Characteristics and Considerations you need have and be aware of before becoming a Student in either Bio. 204 or Bio. 205's Online Courses

Pay particular attention to this list below of characteristics

You will need to be:

• *a student who is or is intending to be a major in one of the degree programs in biology or at least another science major.   Please take note of this next statement.   If you are in another major beware for unless you are a student who has a very good GPA's you will not usually do well in this online course as the other majors usually are not sufficiently motivated in the same way as biology majors are to study the important concepts and principles taught in this course about biology using cells or plants as examples.  So if you have another major - you should at least discuss taking this course with the instructor or your advisor as to whether or not you should take it as it has been my experience it will be so difficult to make good grades if you are not a highly motivated student with a GPA of 3.0 or better.
   
•  a student who carries  no more than the recommended 16 credit hours per semester or less while taking this online course.   
   
• carrying no more than 12 -13 credit hours a semester including this course if you are also employed over 15 to 20 hours a week especially if you need to receive an above average grade in the class.
   
• a student who is taking this course for the first time  - do not sign up for this online section if you have previously received an F or a D in another section of this class as this course is no easier because it is online
   
• *forthright and explain upfront about any health, personal problems or family issues that will impact your learning and performance in this online course by emailing the instructor and do so before the end of drop/add in the first week in the course or if they develop during the semester so you can be advised of some strategies to use to help you out.
   
• timely in asking for special extensions or considerations regarding deadlines or due dates on assignments or quizzes or tests and it is important that you do this prior to a quiz or examinations' deadline times and date, rather than after the fact. 
   
• a curious student with a great desire to learn the basic biological principles of living and evolving regardless of the types of organisms used to illustrate those major principles.
   
• interested in learning the many strategies and adaptations employed by most living organisms to survive and to optimally reproduce especially in cells or plants.
   
• interested in applying the basic biological principles learned in this course to other species and other types of organisms to find a commonality amongst strategies used by living organisms to survive and reproduce.
   
• an independent and self motivated learner.
   
• *a punctual person who does not tend to procrastinate as time constraints are built into course modules, laboratory exercises, quizzes, and test schedules and there is also a controlled release of these components so that a student cannot get too far ahead of the other students in the course.
   
• *assertive enough to ask questions or ask for help by emailing Dr. Dunn (dunnc@uncw.edu) on a timely basis when you have any dilemmas with this online course whether they are personal, technical or educational problems. If you encounter personal problems that interfere with your performance in this class - please let Dr. Dunn know immediately through email so adjustments can be made.
   

* absolutely essential to success in this class!!!!!
 

Important Considerations
before signing up for a section of the
Online Bio. 205 lecture and lab

• You should be aware that the online Bio. 204 and 205 courses present as much content to learn as you would encounter if you took these course at UNCW in face to face classroom and lab and this course is designed for majors in the degree programs of department of biological science and anyone else should talk to Dr. Dunn before signing up for the course.
   
•  Online courses may actually require more study time than in a face to face section of these class because you will not have the same kind of opportunities to participate and learn directly as when you sit in a lecture or lab where you could have observe concrete examples or see demonstrations and see images first hand of structures and processes or to hear questions asked by other student and hear their answers discussed.
   
• Online course offers you more flexibility mostly on when and where you study and when you take the quizzes and tests, but there are very definitive deadlines and periods of availability on the lectures and labs, their required assignments for quizzes and  tests.  The schedule for doing the lectures and taking the quizzes and tests are to help keep a student progressing through the components of the course on a timely basis through the semester.
   
•  You will have to glean the content or instructional materials from lecture  and laboratory web pages and other recommended extra web pages at other websites about the topics that we study.  The course can only guide you to the materials to read, to study and that you need to perform such as simulated laboratory activities that you will have to do independently in the lab component of the course, or to observe concepts and principles depicted in short video clips and animations of structures and their functions and of processes that the cells must perform to survive and reproduce. 
   
• You must attend to the terminology in a unit and which is illustrated by digital images, diagrams or through concrete examples you must collect on your own materials to study from the course's lecture, labs and other recommended additional websites suggested on the the units' organizational pages, lecture and lab pages, and in the Chapter Guides for each chapter we study.
   
• Webpages dedicated to online lectures and labs discuss important points concerning cell and plant morphology and as well as anatomical structures of cells or plants, while uploaded PowerPoint presentations, animations, and video clips illustrate and discuss cells or plant functions in their processes of growth and development.