Here are a set of tasks to complete.  If you complete them all you will earn 10 points toward your course grade.  If you have trouble logging into either WebBoard or Mallard to complete any of these tasks and you know you are registered for the course, send email to Prof. Arvan at l-arvan@uiuc.edu.  If you are not registered, you won't be able to log in, so don't bother with the email.   If you have registered after the first day of class it may take a day or so for your accounts to be set up.

WebBoard tasks -

You can't start these till you receive a notification alerting you to your initialWebBoard password.  Your WebBoard login is your netid.

1.  Click link above and to the left to get to WebBoard.  After logging in, click on the More item on the Black Menu bar.  Then click on Edit Your Profile.  At a later point, you can change other fields on the form.  Right now, just change your password.  You have to do that twice.  Then scroll to the bottom of the form and click the Save button.  You should get a message that your password has been changed.   I strongly recommend that you DO NOT USE YOUR UI DIRECT PASSWORD.

2.  Click the Welcome conference on the left.   Read the bottom most post from me and the next few posts from the TAs.  Make your own post, telling us a little about yourself.

3.  Click the Getting Started Econ in the News conference.  Read the article from the NY Times.  That is in the first post.  Also read the second post from me (economics questions on the  NY Times Article).

4.  Make a reply either to one of my questions or to somebody else's post in the conference.  To make a reply, first have open the message to which you want to reply.  Then click reply in the menu bar or, if you prefer, reply with quote.  Note that replies and replies to a reply form a thread.  WebBoard allows threads to scroll for easy reading.  

Mallard Tasks -

Your Mallard login is your netid and your Mallard password is your net password (the same as the one for UI  Direct).

1.  After you have logged in, go to the Lessons Page.

2.   Take the Introduction to Mallard link.

3.  Take the intro quiz.  (If you don't know the answers just submit it and check out the hints).    This quiz has the same format as the other Try It quizzes in the course, but obviously is not about Economics.

4.  Take the Getting Started Survey.  This will give me some background info on you to help get a sense for how accessing the technology should work in our class.

Syllabus -

Go back to the Course homepage and follow the links.  You should find the schedule with readings and lecture due dates.  You should find information about the teams and how to work the problem sets.  You should find information about how we will conduct class discussion.  You should find the page that gives the grading policy and grade scale.   In general, you should find out all the background information you need to proceed in the course.

WebBoard versus Email

Use WebBoard for class business.   I view that rather than email as our primary communication tool.  Don't send me email about "I'm stuck on this quiz, can you give me a hint?"  I won't answer that.  Make a post about that in WebBoard.  There are conferences specifically dedicated for that type of thing.    The only reason for using regular email is if you have a problem with your WebBoard account, e.g., you forgot your password.  

If you have followed these steps, you are ready to start the course.