Orientation Activities t updated 8/24/09

Before or soon after you enroll, please consider

  1. Will this course meet your needs for transfer, etc?
    See the First-day handout under "Information about all sections of this course."
  2. Do you meet the prerequisites?
    See the First-day handout under "Information about all sections of this course."
  3. Is your learning style suited to take this course via Distance Learning instead of in a classroom?
    Information is here
  4. Is your computer adequate to use the course materials?
    See the First-day handout under "Information about this particular section of this course" and, under that, "Required materials."
  5. Arrange to buy the course materials before the class begins so that you are ready to start learning statistics on the first day of class.
    See the First-day handout under "Information about this particular section of this course" and, under that, "Required materials."
  6. Make sure that you are willing to meet the course requirements for
  7. Look through the support services available.
    See the First-day handout under "College Policies and Support Services "
  8. Look over the course calendar.
    See the First-day handout under "Information about this particular section of this course" and, from there, the link to the course calendar.
  9. Read the rules about late work.
    See theFirst-day handout under "Information about this particular section of this course" and, from there, the link in the table at the bottom to "Self-Pacing? / Late work."
  10. Are you using your ACC email address (which ends with g.austincc.edu)? If not, please read here. On these Orientation Forms, you are asked for your email address. It is OK to fill out this first Orientation Form using whatever email address you normally use, because I definitely want to communicate with you. But, by one week before classes begin, it is essential that you be using your ACC email address. All important messages to the class are sent through Blackboard, which uses your ACC email address, since that is ACC's official method of communicating with you.
  11. Fill out and submit Orientation Form 1. Filling out forms for me does not enroll you in the course, nor does any message from me confirm that I have seen that you have enrolled in the course. You must enroll yourself and pay. You can check your enrollment online.


  12. One skill you will need in this course is having several windows open on your computer screen, just as you might have several books and notebooks open on your desktop. Start practicing this now - four different windows with your browser in each of them. Open this page in each of them: http://www.austincc.edu/mparker/1342/distlearn/. From there, open four different pages. In one, choose the "Orientation" page and come to this part of the Orientation. In the other three of them, choose the "First-day handout" page. Then go though some of the activities in this lesson by leaving this page available and using the other ones to follow the various links from the first-day handout. Again, think of having four or five different books/notebooks open at once on your desk.

    Within the week before the class begins,

  13. Read "Don't Waste Time" from the first-day handout, "Information about this particular section of the course", the table at the end, in the left-hand column. This is very important information.
  14. Review the first-day handout again. In particular, review the required activities and the discussion of tests. Make a note to yourself about which test grades can be replaced and which can't.
  15. As I mentioned in the first-day handout, "Instructor information," when you send me email messages about this class, please put 1342 and your name in the subject line, and then whatever else you want. I use that to sort my email so that I'll know what to pay attention to right away. Expect me to reply to an email message within one business day. If you don't receive a reply by then, please send your message again. (Sometimes email is not reliable.)
  16. As mentioned in the first-day handout, "Information about this specific section of the course" in the table at the end, under the discussion about quizzes, notice that there is a quiz deadline EVERY Monday and Thursday of the semester at 11:00 p.m. Generally you should finish the quiz a day early or so, so you don't necessarily have to be working on the material on Monday and Thursday evenings.
  17. Decide which Testing Center you will use.
    Look at the Testing Center website for locations and hours. Pay particular attention to the hours to make sure they fit your schedule. When you fill out the Orientation Form, you'll need to tell me which Testing Center so that I can send your tests to it. During the semester, you can change this if needed, if you give at least two week's notice before the beginning date of the test.
  18. Submit Quiz 00. You will earn quiz credit for this even though it is really part of the Orientation. The best way to submit it is in StatsPortal after you have that set up. The DropBox for it will be made available by Wednesday of the week before classes begin. StatsPortal for the class may or may not be available before that, depending on when the publisher creates it. However, if you are going to be late in starting StatsPortal (after the first day of class) then you can submit it in one of the other ways described in the quiz assignment.
  19. Go through the following discussion of software in the course and, by the time you finish it, make sure that you are set up with the materials you need to start learning statistics on the first day of the course.
  20. Are you using your ACC email address (which ends with g.austincc.edu)? If not, please read here. By one week before classes begin, it is essential that you be using your ACC email address. All important messages to the class are sent through Blackboard, which uses your ACC email address, since that is ACC's official method of communicating with you.
    I prefer that you use your ACC email address on this second Orientation Form. But if you have not been able to activate it, or to get your messages from it, then use whatever email address you're actually checking when you fill out this form. But do keep working on getting your ACC email working. When you do get it working, come back here and fill out one of my Orientation Forms - just your name with your ACC email address - so that I will have something in my database that shows that you are now able to use your ACC email.
  21. Fill out and submit Orientation Form 2. Do this before the first day of class, or within two days after you enroll if you enroll after the class begins. The deadline for completing this form is the beginning of the second week of class, because I need to send out the first test very soon after that. The form will not be available after that.