Objective: 

Though we can't meet face to face, we still need to build community. All students will use the message board to introduce themselves and find others in the class with which they have some thing in common. This is an opportunity to learn to use the message board, which will be used extensively throughout the term.   Students will determine which other students they wish to team with for work for the remainder of the term.

Assignment:

Go to the course Bulletin (Message) Board/Forum, and introduce yourself.
Respond to the introduction of 3 fellow students.
Find two people with whom you want to work all term (switching is possible). 

Details:

Go to the Bulletin  Board.  If other students have already posted, you may wish to lurk (read what others are saying without posting).  Once you gain confidence that we are all friends, Introduce yourself..

In the message tell us about yourself.
For example (these are just ideas as starters, but be creative):

Where do you live?
Have you always lived there or where did you come from?
Do you work? Where? What do you do? How long have you been there?  Do you like it?  What are your career goals?
What do you want to do someday?
Do you have a family? So, tell us about them.
What is your major? Why?  How far along are you?
How long have you been at UCC? Did you attend other colleges before? Do you plan to continue after UCC? Where?
What are your hobbies? Favorite sports? TV shows? Music groups? Vacation spots?
What do you hope to get out of this class?
What is you prior background with computers? 

Or see the Prof's introduction for more ideas.
Your "composition" should contain a minimum of 15 "facts about you" in phrases or sentences.
Obviously you won't hit all the above.

Respond to 3 fellow students.  Find those with whom you have something in common.

Tell them how you are similar. (same town, same goals, same major, same high school, same favorites?)
Ask them for details on something they said that you found interesting.  
Respond to questions asked of you.

Unfortunately the Message Board does not have a spelling checker.  So, I suggest you composed all your messages first with your word processor.  Spell check them.  Copy them to the clipboard and paste them into your Bulletin Board.

Procedure:

Login to the message board.  Your login and initial password will be mailed to you.  Immediately for to More and Edit your personal profile to change your password and add additional information.  

To introduce yourself - choose Post from the top menu. The first line in the right hand screen should say Post a New Topic in "Introductions".  If not, you are in the wrong topic and will mess up the board so choose Back from your browser and click on Introductions in the left hand window and then choose Post.  This is not a writing class,  but 10 mail topics and each with several subtopics/idea to write about yourself have been suggested above for inspiration.  Your post should answer many (a dozen or more) particularly those that are school (your major, credits completed) or computer related..