Hi again everybody.
I'm going to take a few minutes here to get you oriented to some of the key features of
our online class.
I know that online classes are a little bit different.
It feels a little bit different being on your side, and it also feels different being on
my side.
So let's just get that out of the way right away.
I think, for students, one of the toughest things about an online class is getting oriented
and figuring out where to find things.
So that is one of the reasons why I have allotted our entire first week to just getting you
comfortable and helping you get oriented.
And we're going to kick things off with a quick guide, or I should say a quick tour
-- I'll be your guide -- on a brief tour through some of the key features of our online class.
So here we go.
This is our course home page.
There's something very important that I want to point out to you first and foremost.
I have our course designed in Canvas, and I have the settings of our Canvas course set
to public.
What that means is that you and anyone else can see certain portions of our class without
logging in, and there's certain portions that are only accessible to students who are registered
in the class.
So as you see it right now, I am not logged in.
And if you look over towards the left side of the page in our Course Navigation Menu,
you'll see that there are a few options here, but there are some options that are not listed.
So what I want you to ask yourself right off the bat is whether or not you're logged in
right now.
And here's how you can find out.
If you see the option to log in with the key icon in the red Global Navigation Menu at
the top, that means you're not logged in.
So take a minute to log in now.
Once you click on that button, it will loop you over to My CI and you will log in using
your dolphin name and password and click Sign In.
If you're taken back to your dashboard, just click on the name of our class and you'll
go right back to our home page.
And now what you'll see is that key icon and the log in option has been replaced with the
word Account.
By the end of our first module, you will have your own profile picture uploaded, so yours
will appear there just like mine does.
It's really important to be sure that you remember to log in so you have full access
to the course.
Okay, I just took a moment to toggle over to the student view of our course, so my picture
has disappeared, but it's still me logged in here.
On our home page, there's some important information to point out.
Much of the content of the home page will remain the same throughout the semester, but
some things will change.
For example, you'll see that I have a Week One class chat scheduled for Wednesday, January
25 at 4:30.
I'm hopeful you'll be able to make that class chat.
It'll give you an opportunity to try out chat, understand how it works, and we can also decide
upon a date and time for recurring weekly chats for -- that will work for everybody.
Chat will essentially be used in this class for online office hours, and for you to chat
with the rest of the class at the same time.
The buttons below take you out to content areas.
I'm going to click on the Syllabus button so you can see where we go from there.
That button takes us to the Course Syllabus page.
You can always get to this page also by clicking on the Syllabus button in the left hand course
menu.
The Course Syllabus page will link you out to certain portions of our syllabus up at
the top here.
All of those content areas are also included in a printable syllabus that you can access
by clicking on this button that says Printable Syllabus.
That's going to open our syllabus in a Google Doc.
And from there, if you'd like, you have the option to click File at the top of the screen,
and then go down to Download As, and select the format type that you'd prefer to have
the syllabus downloaded in.
And if you want to print it, you can do that.
To get back to our course, click on the Back button in your browser.
At the bottom of the Course Syllabus page, you're going to see a heading that says Assignment
Summary.
Underneath that heading, you'll find a list of upcoming assignments for our class.
Each one of these is a link, and you can click on any link to go directly to that assignment
page.
So that's the first way you can get to our assignments.
I'm going to show you a couple of other ways in just a moment.
Let's go back to our course homepage by clicking Home in the left Navigation Menu.
I also want to point out over on the right side, you will see assignments listed there
that are due in the next week.
At the time of recording this video, there is nothing due in the next week, so nothing
appears there.
I also have the option to click on View Calendar and see a calendar view of upcoming assignments
due in our class.
To go back to our course, use the back button in your browser.
One other very important part of our home page is the button that you see at the bottom.
The button right now says Let's Get Started.
And I'm going to click there in a minute, and show you that it will take us out to our
first module.
Each week when I launch a new module, that button is going to change, and it will represent
the number of the module that we are on.
So anytime you come into our class, you will have a direct link to our current module by
clicking the button that appears at the bottom of the screen.
Also, you can navigate through all of the modules in the course that have been made
available to you by clicking on the Modules link in the left Course Navigation Menu.
So those are two ways to get to the modules.
Let's go ahead and click on Let's Get Started.
Each of our modules will open with an Overview Page.
The Overview Page is really important.
Each module will include a description and it will also include your learning objectives.
To move to the next page in the module, click the Next button at the bottom right of your
screen.
And this is how you navigate through the modules.
As you can see, this first module has been designed to take you through all of the sections
of our course syllabus, so it's going to walk you through all of the pertinent information
that you need to know.
And it will be available to you for the rest of the term, so you can always loop back to
it.
This page is particularly important because it lays out the work flow of a module.
As you see here, there are seven days in each module.
Day One is Tuesday.
What you should be doing in each module is logging in on Day One, as I've already noted,
and assessing the module's content and assignments, and plan your week.
You will always have a Reflection Thread comment due on Day Four, and a Reflection Thread reply
due on Day Seven, along with a Learning Log.
You'll get oriented to what those things are as we move forward.
As you navigate through each module, you're going to come to your assignments.
This is our first assignment, and I know it's an assignment because it has a due date.
So I've just shown you how to navigate through a module and I've explained the difference
between content and assignments within the modules.
Let me show you another way that you can access your assignments.
In the left hand Course Navigation Menu, you'll see that there is a button titled Assignments.
You can go ahead and click there, and it will take you to a list of upcoming assignments.
Each of these will link out directly to the assignment.
That offers you another way to get to the same assignments that are included in your
modules.
Now there's just a couple more things I want to point out.
I'm going to click on the Discussions area.
We won't be using discussion forums a whole lot in this class, but I do have one form
set up that is referred to as The Lounge.
I'm going to open that up and show you how this works.
This is essentially a place where you can post a general question about the class.
If something's not working or if you're a little bit confused about something, you can
put -- type your question into the box here, and then click Reply, and that will be posted
in this forum.
And anyone in the class is invited to reply to these questions.
I'm going to go back one page and point something out.
I would like each of you to go into the Discussions area and click on this little blue icon.
Once you do that, you'll see a green check and it means that you are subscribed to that
forum.
I want everyone to subscribe, because that way we will all be notified if there is a
question posted here.
And that's really important.
I'm now going to click on Voice Thread.
I'm not going to open Voice Thread right now, but I do want to introduce it to you.
Voice Thread is a tool that allows for us to have conversations in voice or video, and
we'll be using it in a few different ways in our class.
The Voice Thread assignments that you have will be embedded within your modules, but
if you ever want to go out to all of the voice threads that I've shared with the class, you
can also click on this icon here and it will open Voice Thread.
Now let's go to the Zoom area.
Zoom is a live or synchronized video conferencing tool.
It's a way -- it's a tool that I'll be using for private consultations, if there's anything
that you need to talk with me about, instead of using phone, I'd really like to try to
use Zoom.
I think that having the -- being able to talk with my students in video really connects
us in a different way, and it helps us to understand where each other is coming from.
I am available to meet with you in Zoom by appointment.
If you make an appointment with me, I will send you a link to my personal Zoom Room,
where we'll be meeting.
^M00:10:02 If you want to meet with fellow students in
Zoom, however, all you need to do is click on that button at the top that says Go to
Our Class Zoom Room, and you are welcome to do that.
That wraps up our tour.
You can now click on the Next button in the lower right corner of your screen to continue
through Module One.