To our visitors...

It could be that some folks who are not fellow students in your class may be visiting the ole DMT site from time to time. If so, this post is intended mainly for them.

I hope our guests will feel free to explore and to add their comments to any of the posts here. For now, at least, things are set up so that anyone can add comments without restraint. I trust that all comments, whether from students or guests, will be offered in the same spirit that motivated creating DMT in the first place. That spirit is best-expressed in the words of Rudolph the Rat, who appears in the upper-left of our front page. Getting a little more specific, our goal at DMT is for more and more people to learn the principles of behavior analysis and how to use them to improve our lives. And we're always open to suggestions about how we can do that better. If you'd like to communicate directly with me (PW), you can send an email to williamspsATgmail.com (replace AT with @).

Quizzes require fluency

By now some of you have had your 1st experience with the quizzes in your course. At the beginning of every semester there are often protests about how little time is allowed for quizzes, and requests that more time be allowed. You'll get better at completing the quizzes in the time that's allowed. These quizzes put a premium on fluency, which is the ability to respond not only correctly but quickly. In order to master something you must become fluent, just like when learning a new language. You must be able to speak and understand others not only correctly, but at a high rate of speed.

In your course there should NOT be enough time to look up answers to quiz questions. Instead, if you're studying well, you'll know the answers without looking them up, and in that situation, there's plenty of time to complete the quiz.

Read the comments!

Readers have the option of replying to these posts by clicking on the comments link at the end of each post. This blog is not primarily designed for discussion, but thru its comments capability, it can be used that way. That means that the comments made by other readers might contain useful information for you. So read the comments!

To help you find the comments, look at the Archive on the left side of the page. It's a list of the posts that I've made. If someone has commented on a post and you haven't read that comment yet, the post's title will be highlighted, and clicking on it will take you to that post and all of its comments.

Asynchronicity

This blog is an example of asynchronicity (look it up) in a couple of ways. First, the online course you're taking is an example of asynchronous learning, meaning that the class never has to be assembled, all together, at the same time. You can "go to class" in the middle of the night from your bedroom in your pajamas, and you'll still see and read and participate in all aspects of the class.

Secondly, this blog serves two different classes during this current spring semester of 2007. Some of you are in an undergraduate class called Learning and Behavior at UH-Downtown, and some of you are in a graduate class call Learning Principles at UH-Clear Lake. The subject matter of the two courses is the same, and one of the things you have in common is the textbook, Principles of Behavior. But the UHCL class has a 2nd textbook too, which means that they're moving through PoB faster than the UHD class. My aim is to post chapter-related stuff here so that it appears while the UHCL class is on that chapter. That will make it a little early for the UHD class, but that shouldn't be a problem, and it might even be a help.

If you want to see all of the posts on a particular chapter (or any of the other topics), click on the appropriate link under Topics on the left side of the page.

Class discussions

Please read the syllabus for your course carefully. You'll see that a significant portion of your grade is based on class discussion on the discussion boards for your course. You'll receive a class participation grade each week. The 1st week ends on Saturday at midnight. Though everyone gets a free point toward their 1st week's grade for their 1st post, regardless of what it says, all other posts, in order to receive credit, must meet the criteria for mastery posts as explained in your course's syllabus.