STUDENT ORIENTATION

REGISTRAR

START HERE!

Before starting your orientation become familiar with the site & with your course syllabus. At the very least, you should read through this page, the Online Courses page and your course syllabus before starting your orientation. (Directions for finding your course syllabus - if you haven't already found it - are on the Online Courses page.) Familiarity with those pages will make it easier for you to do well in your course.

When you're ready to start, I caution you to slow down and take the time to work through the entire orientation. It's important that you know where things are and how to access them. It makes sense to know the rules before you start a course.

Too, there seems to be a fairly strong correlation between the orientation and grades. Students who take the time to correctly complete the orientation tend to be successful in their courses. Students who drag their feet, send the wrong answers or blank answers over and over, try to skip the orientation and so on tend to do poorly in their courses.

I realize most of us are used to skimming through text and/or have schedules that make us feel as if we have to rush through everything we do. For your orientation, though, you must purposefully slow down and read for detail. Trust me ... This is definitely one of those situations in which haste makes waste!

ANSWER THESE 5 QUESTIONS.

1. What is your complete name? Please use the name under which you registered for the course but feel free to include a nickname if you wish.

2. Through what college/university did you register for your course?

3. What code word do you wish to use for the Grades page?

The link for the Grades page is at the top of the Online Courses page. The Grades page is where I post your course grade at the end of the semester. (Feel free to go look at what other students have used for code words.)
Your code word must be:
one word (That doesn't mean you can just stick two words together!)
a real word
English
correctly spelled
no names
no proper nouns (no words that start with capital letters)
√ dog, month, truck and child are okay, for example
X Chihuahua, April, Chevy, semana, tuff, oui, bigman, socks435 and John are not
If you're not sure which words are real words, look in the dictionary.
If you choose a code word that does not conform to the directions, I will send your orientation answers back for correction.
If you choose a code word that someone else in your course has already chosen, I will accept your orientation but will ask you to choose a new code word.

4. What is your preferred email address? Please make sure you type it correctly!

You must have an email address for this course. However, you are welcome to use any email address you wish. I suggest that in your orientation you send me the email address that you use most often, the one to which you're most likely to have access. It won't matter to me which email address you use to send assignments ... since I always use the Reply link I don't need to know the email address you used. However, if I need to send information to you I'll use the email address you send in response to this question and will expect it to be one you check often.

5. In case of an emergency at what phone number can I reach you?

Footprints

ANSWER THE 4 QUESTIONS BELOW USING YOUR SYLLABUS.

GO TO THE ECONOMICS COURSES GO TO THE EDUCATION COURSES GO TO THE GEOGRAPHY COURSES

GO TO THE POLITICAL SCIENCE COURSES GO TO THE SOCIOLOGY COURSES

Read through your course syllabus and answer the following questions.

[Access your syllabus by choosing the correct discipline link above and then choosing the correct course link. Each course syllabus has a main page with the course number & name at the top, a Margin Notes and a Final Exam Review page.]

6. Look on the main page of your syllabus. What is the exact subject line you must use in all emails to me?

Remember: It does no good to find the correct subject line and give me the correct answer to this question if you don’t also USE it in the subject line of your orientation email!

7. From the main page of your syllabus, use the link at the top to go to the Margin Notes page. What picture did you see at the top of the page?

8. From the main page of your syllabus, find the Course Schedule. (You can scroll down to the Course Schedule or you can use the the Course Schedule link in the Table of Contents.) How many units are in your course?

9. From the main page of your syllabus, use the link at the top to go to the Final Exam Review page. How many questions are on that page?

THESE ARE YOUR LAST 2 QUESTIONS.

10. Go to the Online Courses page and read through the sections titled Communicating By Email In College Courses and Online Participation Policies. For this question type (or copy and paste) I read the two sections and understand the information.

11. Finally, go to the VARK Questionnaire at www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire. Choose the answer which best explains your preference for each of the 16 questions. Choose more than one answer if a single answer does not match your perception. Leave blank any question that does not apply but answer a minimum of 12 of the questions. Hit OK. When the VARK Questionnaire Results page pops up, you will see the 4 learning styles with a number next to each. Below that you will see a statement such as "Your preferred learning style is __" or "You have a multimodal learning style ... your preferred learning styles are __ and __" or "You have a multimodal (V, R) learning style.” The specific letter(s) you see are your preferred learning style(s). For question #11, send me your preferred learning style or styles. (It will be a V, A, R, K or any combination of 2, 3 or all 4.) Do NOT send me only the scores or only that you are multimodal.

THIS COULD BE YOUR LAST STEP! Footprints

Submission Instructions: Okay ... if you have carefully followed the instructions above and answered all 11 questions you now know WHAT to send in your orientation. Now follow the instructions below on HOW to send your orientation. Remember: It won't do you any good to complete assignments if you cannot correctly send them to me!

Open a new email and type your answers ONLY in the body of the email.
Do not type the questions/sentences in your email ... just the answers.
Number your answers 1-11.
Put each answer on a separate line.
Be very careful to use the correct subject line in your email. (Question #6 above)
Send your email to dramyglenn@earthlink.net.

Wait! You may work on your assignments but you may NOT send me anything else until I reply to your orientation email.

If several days go by with no reply from me, I did not receive your orientation ... probably because of the subject line. In that case, review the information in the Communicating By Email In College Courses section.

If you receive a reply that an answer is wrong, you must find the correct answer and - again - put all of your answers in the body of a new email with the correct subject line just as you did the first time.

Once all of your answers are correct – whether the 1^st time or the 15^th – you'll receive a reply from me that says, “Congratulations! You have completed your orientation and may send your first assignment."

Whether this is your first online course or your fiftieth, good luck this semester ... and welcome!

GO TO THE ECONOMICS COURSES GO TO THE EDUCATION COURSES GO TO THE GEOGRAPHY COURSES

GO TO THE POLITICAL SCIENCE COURSES GO TO THE SOCIOLOGY COURSES