Course Orientation
Readings
Instructor notes
Learning activities
Web resources
Readings
During this orientation week, you should familiarize yourself with the Oncourse learning environment.
Also, you should read and familiarize yourself with the following course materials:
- the course syllabus (make particular note of the policy section)
- the course assignments page
- the guidelines for participation
- the guidelines for collaboration
Note: There is no text assignment for the Pre-Unit. However, by the end of this week, you should have completed the reading assignment for Unit 1.
Instructor notes
Your job for the first week of the class is to familiarize yourself with the course and with the course conferencing system as well as with the instructors and other members of the course. Note any questions you have, or things that seem confusing. You can ask us about these by email or phone.
Learning activities
All to be completed by Sunday January 13.0.1: Student profiles
Update your student profile in Oncourse. To do this, follow these steps:
- Go to http://oncourse.iu.edu
- Login with your IU username and password.
- Go to the profile link.
- Click on edit my profile.
- Enter the requested information.
- In the "other information" text box, of special interest is where you live, what your work and education experiences are, unique things about you, and why you are taking this course.
- Please post a photo to Oncourse as well. You can do this by providing a URL that points to a photo that you have uploaded on a Web server somewhere (type in the URL) or you can use your ID photo if you have had one taken. NOTE: Oncourse provides 100MB of storage space for your private use. No one can access the files in your Oncourse "File Manager" unless you give them the URL of a particular document.
0.2: Complete the background information and scheduling survey
You can fill out this simple survey which will allow me to get to know you better by going to the following link. The survey will also help you schedule the unit during which you will be committing to completing a project with a group and the unit in which you will be playing the facilitator or wrapper role.
0.3: Introduce Yourself
This week we will spend some time in the discussion forum getting to know each other and getting comfortable with the Oncourse environment.
In the "Class Orientation: Eight Nouns" discussion forum in Oncourse, introduce yourself to the class by choosing 8 nouns that describe you. Explain why you chose each noun. Comment on one or two of your colleague's nouns. Try not to use adjectives - this will be harder than you think! :)
0.4: Course Expectations
In the "Class Orientation: Expectations" discussion forum in Oncourse, post two or three expectations that you have for this course. Think about what you hope to gain from your experience in this class.
Web resources
There are no particular Web resources for this Pre-Unit, but you may want to look through the Web Resources page to get an idea of what is there. If you know of other good links to add, please let me know.
Comments: joalexan@indiana.edu
