Web.Edu Fall 2005

Technical Issues

See also web page "Managing Your Computer" and Class Notes for October 29 (Class #7) and November 12 (Class #8)

1. Email problems
2. Files not compatible with Instructor
3. Downloading, Uploading and Sending files

1. Email problems
At WSU, you can have two problems with your email, and email can be especially important if you are taking an online course. The two problems, and their solutions, are:

1. Bad email forwarding. WSU expects to be able to send you messages to your WSU email address. If you are not going to use this email, it is important to forward it to an email address that you will use. (Taking an online course without an email address that you read regularly? Don't do it!) Forwarding is simple - see the directions below. But you will have to type in the email address to forward to, and it is not uncommon to mistype the address. So, when someone sends an email to your WSU address, WSU will attempt to send a copy to your forwarding address, but since you mistyped it, that copy will be undeliverable. Now, your WSU email will get a message that the copy was undeliverable, but you are not reading your WSU email, right? So you don't know there is an error.
   
   Another way that a bad forwarding address can happen is if you change email services, without updating the forwarding of your WSU email. Your old email address will become undeliverable, with the same results as if you had mistyped it.
   
   How to guard against this? The first - a mistyped forwarding address - is the easiest. As soon as you set up forwarding, send an email to your WSU email address, and see that it shows up at the forwarding address. The second - changing your other email without changing your forwarding - is more difficult, because presumably you have forgotten about forwarding your WSU email. One way to guard against this is either (a) check your WSU email once a month or so, or (b) send an email to your WSU address once a month or so. Or, carry out these checks at the start of each semester.
   
2. Email box full. If an email inbox is full. it will not accept any more messages, until messages are deleted. The email system cannot send a warning, because it is full. If it is the Instructor's email box that is full, and you cannot turn in an assignment, you need to inform the Instructor in person or by telephone. If it is your WSU email box, and that is being forwarded, the forwarding will not work because your WSU email will refuse the message originally. If your primary email box is full, hope that some lets you know, or check it regularly.

Forwarding your WSU email. Using a web browser, go to webmail.wayne.edu, and log in using your AccessID and Password. The, on the left-hand side, click on "Options." When the Options screen appears, on the top row of links, click on "Forwarding." When the Forwarding screen appears, type in the address you want to forward to, make your choice about "Keep a copy of each forwarded message" and click "Start." About keeping a copy of each forwarded message: if you do keep copies, you will have to visit the mailbox regularly to delete old messages before the box fill sup and stops forwarding. On the other hand, some people like this option because it does provide backup.

2. Files not compatible with Instructor. The Instructor needs to be able to read your files, obviously, but often the Instructor will grade your files on the screen and send the file back to you, and in this case you need to be able to read the Instructor's files also. Of course, the Instructor's files can have other information, such as a Syllabus or description of Essay topics. There are two types of incompatibility problems. The first is where your word processors (or spreadsheet programs, or other computer applications) are basically compatible, but the versions are different enough to cause trouble. The major word processors (MS Word, WordPerfect, WordStar, etc.) all have "filters" to read the other's file formats, so incompatibility problems are basically a question of the one with the newest version saving in the older version. Use the "File" menu item, then "Save As...." and then pick the "Save as type..." down at the bottom to match. Some word processors are totally incompatible however. The times this has happened to me, the other word processor was Lotus "Notes," a processing system used on some business offices. The two solutions are (a) try to save in plain text format, and (b) get a compatible word processor. For (a), saving in plain text format, you will lose all formatting except upper case/lower case, line breaks and tabs, but plain text files are readable by all word processors that I am aware of. For (b), buying a compatible word processor, check the prices available through the University.

3. Downloading, Uploading and Sending files. Five years ago, this terrified many people, but now sending files and graphics is much more common. The prerequisite is understanding folders and file names, since this is how to organize and find files. An alternative is to keep all of your files on (labeled) floppy diskettes. Once you have this prerequisite under control, uploading is usually a two-step process: (a) navigate to the file you want, and putting its path (folders with file name) into an upload text box, and then clicking on a button to actually do the upload.