For each "day" of the workshop, there will be a course topic. (Occasionally, there will be two topics per day.) For each topic, there will be some online reading for you to do. On some days, the readings will be very brief; on others, they will be more extensive. On each day, there will be an assignment for you to complete.
You may read the "lessons" at any time of day that is convenient for you, but I would suggest you start out each morning with that activity.
The assignments may require you to post some information to the course mailing list, or to develop a web page that illustrates some concept or technique, or both. If the task involves a post, I recommend you do that by late afternoon (say, 4 pm your local time). If other participants want to comment on your post, I recommend that be done no later than 11 am EDT the following day. While certain discussions may continue over longer periods of time, I suggest 11 am the next day as an upper limit in most cases, so that we can continue to move our discussions onto new topics as they unfold.
Since this is a course about developing materials for the Web, most assignments ask you to develop one or more pages that incorporate the specific tools and / or techniques just covered. If the task involves writing a web page, I recommend you complete a good first draft at least by late afternoon of the given day (your local time).
Your first official assignment will be to create a basic home page for yourself specifically for this workshop. I will create a course page with links to the names of all participants and a link to their home page for this workshop. As you complete each assignment, you should add a link to your workshop home page; then I will follow that path to find what you've done, so that I can comment on it for you. If you already have an "official" home page at your current institution, feel free to include a link to that on your workshop home page too.
You are encouraged to use the course mailing list (actually, a simple email alias) for discussion of topics covered in this course. I'll monitor it regularly, and respond as needed, but participants are encouraged to respond to each other as well. I ask you to keep your posts courteous and constructive. No flames, please.
If you think that someone is submitting inappropriate posts, please get in touch with me directly about your concerns. I'll deal with any such problems individually, rather than via the public email alias.
I will be at the Geometry Center, monitoring workshop activities such as the course email alias, answering email or calls you place to me privately, as well as reviewing your daily assignments and offering suggestions for improving them. Oh, and putting the finishing touches on the readings for a few of the later topics.
On most weekdays, I will be at the Center for most of the business day, except for some sort of daily break (e.g., lunch each day, and some Tuesday afternoon appointments). That is, from about 8:30 am through 4:30 pm, Central Daylight Time. I will modify my "standard" hours somewhat, if it becomes clearly necessary that I do so. I can check back in again later each evening and on the weekends, but I won't be able to spend all night or all weekend online.
Although I have set up assignments for each weekday of the first two weeks, I do still imagine that the bulk of your work for this course will go into the project that led you to sign up for this. So I can't predict how much time you will spend on the workshop. If I can use our previous, on-site, workshops as a guide, however, I'd say that most of you should plan to spend at least 5-6 hours a day, each weekday, on a combination of course readings, basic assignments, discussion group participation, assisting fellow participants, and completing your project work.