A "Caucus" conference is an online forum, a virtual room you can set up for holding discussions. We have a conference set up for WebCore 3. To get a sense of how Caucus works, go to http://phantom.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~caucus/caucus.html to sign in, then choose "View a list of all conferences." Click on the one named simply "WebCore" (with Paisley Currah designated as the organizer).
If you choose to incorporate a Caucus conference in your class, you need to do the following.
1. Create the Conference
When you're ready to create your own conference, email Bill Goodridge at bill@its.brooklyn.cuny.edu to give him the pertinent details:
i. your name
ii. your Caucus user id. If you don't have a Caucus user id, go to the Caucus Center to self-register at: http://phantom.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~caucus/caucus.html
iii. your email address
iv. a suggested conference name--your conference name may have up to 20 characters in it, with no spaces, although `_' is OK.
v. the course (or purpose if it's a committee or something like that)
vi. some means that Bill can use to verify that you are a Brooklyn College instructors, (such as your presence in the college directory, or the number of the department you're teaching in at present)vii. Ask Bill to let you know when the conference is available.
2. Join the Conference
i. Direct your web browser to the Caucus Center at
http://phantom.brooklyn.cuny.edu/caucus/
ii. Login using your Caucus user id and password.iii. Choose to see all Caucus conferences, then select your conference.
iv. Choose to become a member and add it to your personal conference list.
3. Customize the Conference
When you select your conference, Caucus will indicate that you are its organizer and may customize it. Choose to customize your conference. Note that you may always go back and change your customizations.
3.1. Set Users:
You decide who can participate in your conference, and how. When you are done editing the user section, be sure to submit the changes.
3.1.1. List Users:
A text entry area on the right is used to list who may or may not access your conference, and to what degree.
The first thing you type here is a label indicating a usage category. This label must appear on a line by itself. The possible labels are:
- :include
These are the members of your conference. They may read all postings to the conference, and post their own responses.
- :readonly
These are outsiders who can look in on what's going on in your conference. They may read all postings to the conference, but may not post their own responses.
- :exclude
These are outsiders who are denied all access to your conference.
- :organizer
These are members of your conference who can customize the conference, and edit and delete items and responses. You should see your user id listed under this category.
The label is followed by a list of user ids for users in that usage category. Put each user id on a separate line.
You may use the wildcard character `*' to indicate groups of users. `*' represents any sequence of 0 or more characters.
- *
This represents any combination of characters, i.e. all users.
- cis_*
This represents all users ids that begin with the four characters cis_.
3.1.2. Determine Privileges
On the left side of the screen is a group of checked boxes. Check all the privileges that you wish to grant. You may choose to:
- Make the conference visible to non-members. If this is not checked, only members will see this conference listed when they choose to list all conferences. (Note that the default is that the conference is not visible to others. This default allows the organizer to set up and check out the conference first, but it must be changed befor your students will be able to join.)
- Allow members to edit their own responses. You should probably check this one: it allows students to refine their ideas over time. (The default position is that members can edit their own responses.)
- Allow members to introduce new items of discussion. Do not check this if you want to control the discussion items. (The default is that members can introduce new items of discussion.)
- Allow members to freeze/delete/rename their own discussion items. This essentially puts them in charge of moderating their own discussions. (The default is that members can freeze/delete/rename their own discussion items.)
- Allow members to embed HTML text in items. If this is checked, postings may includes images, links to other URLs, and anything else represented by an HTML tag. (The default is that members can embed HTML in their items.)
3.2 Write an Introduction
The purpose of the introduction is to describe the conference to prospective participants. It is displayed the first time a participant joins the conference.
- Write, paste, (or edit) your introduction in the text box.
- Indicate how that text should be interpreted. Most often it will be wrap-around text or HTML encoded text.
- Choose to submit the changes when you are finished with the introduction.
3.3 Write a Greeting
The greeting is text that is displayed every time participants join a conference. The greeting might serve to orient members by elaborating the conference's goals, purposes, and etiquette and rules. Later it can be used as a bulletin board for announcements or to direct participants to important new information, items, or responses.
- Write, paste, (or edit) your greeting in the text box.
- Indicate how that text should be interpreted. Most often it will be wrap-around text or HTML encoded text.
- Choose to submit the changes when you are finished with the greeting.
4.1 Add Discussion Items
Items are topics for discussion. The first item should give participants the opportunity to introduce themselves, expanding on the information they entered when they registered. Other early items may serve as a bulletin board or discuss rules and norms.
4.2 Inform Members
Obviously, you will need to tell your students how to access and use Caucus. It might be useful to put links in your course web page leading to the Caucus conference center, and to a page of tips telling students how to use Caucus.
4.3 Facilitate Discussion
You may want to be the first to respond to an item, just to get things going. Be sure to provide prompt feedback and encouragement to participants.
4.4 Tips
- Keep your discussions asynchronous. A classroom full of students all trying to
do the same action at the same time is likely to be very slow. A sheet of instructions to connect and log on BEFORE the first computer lab class would help.
- On the Atrium Unix machines, Netscape version 3.03 dumps core (Netscape blows up) when trying to POST a reply to Caucus. The work around is to use Netscape version 4.05 by typing the following at the prompt:
http://phantom.brooklyn.cuny.edu/caucus/