Practice exam available on E-Learning

As you know, the first exam of the semester will be administered this Friday, Oct. 3, on E-Learning. To avoid computer problems, please log on to E-Learning and take the practice exam, using the computer you plan to use for the real exam on Friday.

Once you log on to E-Learning, follow the link to ANT 2301, and then click on the “Assessments” tab. Then, you should see a link to the practice test. It should look something like this:

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge


Please test your settings no later than Thursday to avoid problems during the exam. If you run into any technical glitches with the practice test, please contact the UF Computing Help Desk at 392-HELP.

Problems accessing Turnitin.com

Several students have reported that they are asked for a class ID and password when submitting their reaction papers to turnitin.com via E-Learning. You should not need this information.

The campus E-Learning specialists recommend that all students should log on to E-Learning and try to submit a test paper before tomorrow’s deadline to make sure turnitin.com is working properly. If you are asked for a class ID and password, please call the UF Computing Help Desk at 392-HELP, and they should be able to help you resolve the issue.

Update, 3:35 p.m.: Many students continued to have problems and weren’t getting help from the Help Desk. We’ve been in touch with the Help Desk and E-Learning specialists and have posted a new link on the E-Learning site to submit your paper. So far, this new link appears to be working (for reasons no one understands). Please try to submit your paper again and leave a comment to let us know about any problems you encounter. Sorry for the confusion, and thanks for your patience.

Update, 9:52 p.m.: Unfortunately, the problem persists. See my comment below for the latest.

Accessing assigned readings

Several students have written to me with questions about accessing the required readings from the weekly schedule. I suspect many of you have similar questions, so here are some tips to get you started.

First, I may have confused you in class yesterday by referring to the readings as a “course pack.” In fact, you are not required to purchase a printed course pack (in past semesters, students were). All the readings you need (aside from your textbook) are now available through the course website as PDF files. Just go to the schedule and follow the links for the required readings each week. If you would prefer to purchase a printed course pack of these articles, you can do so from Orange and Blue Textbooks—but you have free access to all the articles online.

Second, most readings, including this week’s chapter by Haviland et al., are available through the UF Libraries’ electronic course reserves, also known as ARES (automating reserves). If you have never used ARES before, you will have to sign up first, using your UFID. Then, once you log on to the system, search for ANT 2301, add it to your personal page, and click on readings to access them as PDFs. If you are off campus, you will have to log on to the UF network either through the library proxy or VPN. Don’t worry if you don’t know what these things are: The library has step-by-step instructions on their website.

For more help on accessing articles through ARES, see the tutorial videos on the library website.

Last, some of the journal articles are available directly from the journal’s website. But to access the articles, you’ll need to be working on a campus computer or be connected to the university network through VPN or proxy remote logon. Learning how to use these tools for off-campus access to the library will save you a lot of time down the road.

If you have other questions or tips to share, please leave a comment below.

Welcome to Fall 2008

Welcome to the course web site for ANT 2301, Human Sexuality and Culture, at the University of Florida. This course is one of the largest at the University, enrolling some 650 students each term. The size of the course makes it difficult for me to get to know many of you personally. This semester, for the second time, we will use this course blog as a new way to communicate with each other.

This website will be an important part of the course. Some materials—including the syllabus, announcements, and details on assignments—will only be available here. The website will also host a blog for the course in order to encourage discussion on relevant news or events around campus, to share thoughts about how the themes of the course relate to current events as well as to share thoughts on the themes themselves, and to stimulate thinking about assigned readings and course material. I strongly encourage you to post comments on the blog to share your point of view or to pose questions that you’d like to raise for discussion with other students, the TAs, and me.

The easiest way to keep up with the web site is to subscribe to the course RSS feed. Just click on the link to “All Posts” on the right-hand side of the page. You’ll have the option of adding the course feed to your favorite feed reader (if you use one) or of receiving a daily email any time there’s new content on the site. Judging by last semester’s experience, most of you will probably want to subscribe by email.

You can also click on the subscribe to “Comments” using the link on the right. When you subscribe to comments, you’ll be notified any time someone adds a comment to a post on the blog. I hope this feature will encourage you to participate in the discussion with other students and with your instructors.

We look forward to a great semester and hope you do, too. What do you hope to learn about in this course? Leave a comment below to let us know.

Your TAs chime in

The first blog entry from one of your TAs is online. Lauren Cheek writes about a new study on the exchange of grooming for sex among macaque monkeys, and she relates it to last week’s film about sex and evolution.

Have a question or reaction? Leave a comment to let us know.

FAQs on accessing assigned readings

A few of you have written to me with questions about assigned readings. I’m posting my answers here, because many others are likely to have similar questions.

One of your classmates wrote with this question:

In the schedule on the webpage you have the required readings by week, so I am wondering if each weekend before the week we should read the designated readings or if maybe there are specific readings for each of the class dates.

Readings are scheduled by week, not by day, so that we can retain the flexibility to accommodate in-class discussions or to spend extra time on certain topics, when necessary. If you can read ahead each weekend, that’s a good strategy, because you’re likely to get more out of that week’s lectures, films, and discussions.

Another student had trouble accessing the required readings online:

I went on the class website to try and download the course readings so I can print them out, but it comes up with an error. Is there any other way I can find them to read this weekend?

I suspect the problem has to do with accessing the electronic reserves at the library. Some of the required readings, including both articles for next week, are available only on the e-reserves system, ARES. If you have never used ARES before, you’ll have to sign up first, using your UFID. Then, once you log on to the system, you can search for the class, add it to your personal page, and click on readings to access them as PDFs.

Note that ARES is only available to computers on the campus network. If you are off-campus, you will need to use the EZproxy remote logon (or setup a VPN connection), just as you would to access journal articles or certain library databases from off-campus. The library has posted step-by-step instructions for accessing ARES, in case you run into any problems.

Also, remember that you have the option of purchasing a printed course pack with the required readings from Orange and Blue Textbooks.

If you have other questions or problems accessing the readings, post them in the comments.

Welcome to ANT 2301

Welcome to the course web site for ANT 2301, Human Sexuality and Culture, at the University of Florida. This course is one of the largest at the University, enrolling some 650 students each term. The size of the course makes it difficult for me to get to know many of you personally. I hope this course blog will give you a new way to communicate with me, with your TAs, and with each other.

This website will be an important part of the course. Some materials—including the syllabus, announcements, and details on assignments—will only be available here. The TAs and I will maintain the blog to let you know about relevant news around campus, to share our thoughts about how the themes of the course relate to current events, and to stimulate your thinking about assigned readings and course material. We invite you to comment on posts or to contact us with questions you’d like to see us address.

We look forward to a great semester.