Greeting Letter

I am delighted you chose to be a part of this class on Reading Biblical Greek. I understand that in virtual education clarity is key, so let me cover some of the basics.

Books

1. Please read the syllabus carefully for all the specifics.
2. The two textbooks you must have are A Graded Reader of Biblical Greek and a Greek dictionary. Options are:

• The Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Frederick William Danker). Chicago University Press. Currently $52.38 on Amazon.
• A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Third edition (Danker, Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich). Chicago University Press. Currently $150.41 on Amazon.

I will talk about these two options in our first time together.

3. Most students are anxious to buy a Greek Bible. There are two standard editions. Both have the same Greek text; the difference is in the types of footnotes. The first is generally better for students, the latter for scholars.

• Aland, Kurt, et al., eds., The Greek New Testament, 5th ed. revised. New York: United Bible Society.
• Nestle, E., et al., eds., Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th edition, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.

4. I use the term "cohort" to refer to the group of people with whom you will be studying. The cohort dashboard is here: www.billmounce.com/cohort/thirdsemestergreek.  This is where you come for the class calendar, announcements, Meeting IDs for video conferences, etc.
5. Please fill out your user dashboard. This is where you go when you sign into the class (www.billmounce.com/user). Part of what will help you learn Greek is knowing that you are part of a community, and the specifics on your dashboard will help. This information is private to the cohort, but if you are not comfortable sharing some information then you can omit it. But please, enter a real salutation, real first and last names, state, country, and a real picture. No pictures of your dog, child, grandfather, of what you looked like when you were in high school.
6. We will use WebEx for our video conferences. Here is a basic tutorial.
7. I will be having office hours before class begins. It will be a chance to say hello and especially to make sure your video conferencing is working. I will post office hours on the cohort dashboard under Announcements. "Office hours" means I will just be hanging out in a video conference, and you can come and go as you please. You don't have to be there when it starts, and you don't have to stay the entire time.
8. We use Google+ for basic communication, and especially for asking questions about chapters and exercises. Here is a basic tutorial.
9. The information about grading quizzes is here. Please read it carefully.

10. Read through our Code of Conduct.

11. The video sessions will be recorded and you will be able to access them whenever you wish from the online class.

Quizzes and Tests

1. Quizzes are available along with their keys along the bottom of every lesson page in the online class. You will take the vocabulary quiz, grade them with the key, and email a scanned copy of the quiz to [email protected].
2. Tests will be made available in the Announcements section. You will complete them and email them to the TA. He will grade them, record the grade, and return the test with his comments.

Communication

As far as communicating with me, please use the Googele+ page to ask questions instead of email. I travel so much for BiblicalTraining.org that it is easy for emails to get buried in some electronic pile. The online messaging is much better.

Bill