Taking an Online Course
If this is your first time in an online course,
you may not know quite what to expect. It is quite a different learning
environment from the traditional classroom setting. Take a few minutes
and read these Tips
for Online Success developed by the distance education team
at Texas Women's University.
Using Blackboard
This course will utilize Blackboard
to manage course information. Blackboard is easy to learn and use.
Here are some instructions to help you learn how to navigate the
software.
Online
Postings and Replies
Several topics in this course require you to
participate in asynchronous threaded discussion using Blackboard.
Your participation in this discussion takes one of three forms.
Part of the time you will be asked to make an original posting in
response to questions that will be posed by the professor. These
questions generally require you to synthesize the readings for a
particular topic or respond to a case scenario. Your responses will
be graded based on their quality and originality. A mere restatement
of what is in the readings or what another classmate has said will
not be considered a high quality or original response.
The second form of participation in the threaded
discussion is a reply to an original response. In your reply, you
should not merely agree with the original posting. Rather, you should
point out new areas for consideration or flaws in the original reasoning.
These replies may end up generating additional discussion, much
as you would encounter in a traditional classroom setting.
The final for of participation in the threaded
discussion is through continued dialogue after the reply session.
You may respond to as many replies as you wish, although responses
to replies are not required. This type of participation will earn
extra credit.
In all postings, do not just state an opinion,
but support your position with facts.
Here are some "netiquette"
tips from the distance education team at Texas Women's University.
Online Discussions
Throughout the course you will participate in
synchronous online discussions. These will be similar to "chat
room sessions" you may have participated in. For several of
these online chats, practitioners will be joining the class to offer
their expertise. The professor will control the floor for these
online discussions. Your participation in the online chat will be
graded similarly to the threaded discussions - quality and originality
of participation. It is NOT solely about quantity.
Transcripts of all online chats will be archived
in Blackboard for your later
review.
