Setting Up

Setting up a conference on COW is actually pretty simple. The good folks at ITD recently created an online form (http://cow.itd.umich.edu/COW/request.html) you can fill out to request your own COW conference. Once you fill out the form, your conference should be ready within 24 hours.

If you have trouble with this form, send an e-mail to the U of M COW Administrators: cow.administrators@umich.edu. You should include the following info:
• Your name
• Your phone number and an alternate e-mail (if there is one)
• The name of the class or group for which you would like a conference
• A short description of the class or group
• The name you would like given to the conference

Note that in the near future, the University will begin charging organizers for the use of COW. The details for this are being worked out presently and more information will be available soon. However, keep in mind that you will need a valid UMCE account or a University account number and signer. The latest rumor has it that the fee for per conference will fall under $5 per month. This is not a finalized decision by any means, however, and will not take effect for some time.

About Naming

To keep COW as organized as possible, you should give your conference a name that has the following form: School-Course#.Section-SeasonYear

Here are a couple of examples...

• BIO-248.002-W96 ( for Biology 248, section 002, in the winter of 96 )
• COMM-311-F94 ( for Communications 311 in Fall of 94 )

If you will be using one conference for all of your sections then you may leave that part (.Section) out of the name, as is the case with the example Communications 311 course.

The COW Administrator will review your request and, if approved, he will create the conference placing your as the fair witness. He will then send you an e-mail message to let you know that your conference is ready to go. While you are waiting, or even beforehand, you might want to organize some material to put onto the conference. For some suggestions on how you might want to structure your conference, link to the next section: Preparing Material.