Welcome! I last revised this site (a bit!) October 30, 2017

Hi my name is Jim Janossy and I teach in the College of Computer Science and Digital Media of DePaul University, Chicago! You may be exploring this site because you're enrolled in one of the courses I teach, currently CSC-200 Contemporary Computing and GPH-205 Historical Foundations of Visual Technology. These are the courses I have focused on for the last several terms, but since I joined DePaul in 1984 as a fairly young person I have taught LOTS of others including courses in computer programming (assembler, COBOL/CICS, C, Java), e-commerce, systems analysis, database technology, and even computer ethics! Over the years I've authored books in many of those topics, about a dozen in all, and several course workbooks. Check me out an Amazon if you'd like to see some of these.

I've had the good fortune to have been able to gravitate in my current teaching to the topics I love most: introducing computer concepts and modern usage (sound, image, and video editing), art/visual technologies, and the ethics of technology! The courses above are typically offered every term at DePaul including summers and our short, intensive "intersession" term which runs three weeks in December. These courses have been offered entirely online for the last few years and have been very popular with students across all majors, since each fulfills a Liberal Studies Program requirement.

My research has centered on the use of technology to foster the most effective learning possible by minimizing or eliminating "extraneous cognitive load." That's a fancy term for getting rid of actions, steps, navigation, and other hassles that are not learning but can often be a disruptive and unproductive part of the way courses are conducted. For this reason (and others, including cost minimization) I develop open web sites for courses I teach (which means you can get to them without logging into anything), I publish my course lectures on YouTube and make them public, and I publish my course materials via a workbook publisher so anyone can get them anytime, in a very inexpensive form. The real benefit of each student having the course materials in this form is that nothing is hidden from the student, it's all out in the open. In fact, the first chapter of each course workbook is available for free download at the course web site! Among other things this makes it possible for any potentially interested student to fully explore what a course is about before enrolling. It also means that no one is delayed starting a course due to something truly unfortunate, such as the book store being sold out of a book!

The other pages in this web site provide general advice that applies in some courses I teach. I update this web site from time to time to keep it current. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at jjanossy@depaul.edu or text or call me at (872) 205-0642.

Enjoy!

:) Jim