Just reviewing presentations for the upcoming term, one of my first items, before anything else, in the first live session of the term I lay out who I am, what I've done, who my students have been (generic demographics) and then what they can expect of me. I also lay out what I expect of them. I don't talk about normal course things, those are posted, what I DO talk about are my basic expectations: 1. Review everything early in the week, make notes of things you may see as obstacles. 2. TRY to do it. "you'll be surprised how often a task seems insurmountable, then you try it and start with step 1 and before you know it, you're done" 3. IF you've tried, and run into something, REACH OUT, early and often. I tell them "I'd rather hear from you 20 times throughout the week than once on Monday telling me you had issues and couldn't do it" I tell them that by them starting and trying, then reaching out, if they have run into an issue, we're at a point to move forward and we don't spend an hour working on "oh, yeah, I can do that part, oh, yeah, I can do this part to...etc." Kurt "Trip" Bauer