For technical requirements including browser requirements and pop-up blockers, read more at the Technology Innovation Center's list of online class tips HERE.

Student Orientations to Online Learning

Want more information on succeeding in an online course? Sign up for a Student Orientation to Online Learning. Each term, Online Education offers multiple 1-hour Student Orientation to Online Learning (SOOL) sessions open to any student. To find out more, click HERE (Links to an external site.).

Netiquette

We may not be in the physical classroom but all students are still required to be respectful and polite in the online classroom. No hate speech, derogatory or insulting comments, or disrespectful behavior will be tolerated in the classroom. The instructor reserves the right to delete disrespectful or derogatory comments in discussion boards, Voice Threads, or messaging.

The rules of Netiquette (Links to an external site.) apply in the online classroom. Please show respect to your peers in the online setting as you would if we were meeting in person.

Time Commitment

Some students sign up for online classes because they think it will be faster and easier than face-to-face courses. No parking, no class meetings . . . maybe the whole course can be done in a week! These students quickly realize, however, that this is a myth rather than reality.

Online courses follow the same state and college guidelines as face-to-face classes in terms of required work and weekly time commitment. In fact, most students find online courses take slightly longer than face-to-face courses since much of the material that would traditionally be delivered in a lecture needs to be read or watched in an online course.

This is a 3 unit course. Using the Carnegie Unit, college courses require 1 hour of in-class work and 2 hours of homework weekly for each unit. So, 3 unit course requires approximately 3 hours of class and 6 hours of homework per week. This means that each 3 unit course you take requires approximately 9 hours per week--it makes no difference if the class is face-to-face or online.

The weekly modules in this class have been carefully planned to work within this requirement. In order to be successful in this class, you should plan to invest about 9 hours each week. You will spend this time reading our texts; working through the online lecture content for the week (including videos); contributing text, audio, and video posts to our discussions; taking your quizzes, and completing your study guide assignments.

As you plan your time for the course, think about how you work best. Though you may attend a traditional class on only two days a week, you most likely do your homework on other days, right? You probably work on a traditional class 4 or 5 days each week, and you should expect to do the same for an online course. The due dates in this class are designed to encourage you to spread the work over multiple days--your learning will be much deeper this way.

Assignments are always due on Monday evenings before 1145pm.
New materials are posted by Tuesday morning at 8am. You should start reviewing the new materials by Tuesday and Wednesday.
You must post to the discussion board three times over three days. This means that you must post any three days during the week. You can post on a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and receive full credit.

One of the best things you can do--right now--is block out time in your schedule for this course. Decide when you will work on the above elements, and calendar these times. Just like with exercise, you are much more likely to do it if it's on your calendar!