Lesson 0. Orientation

Overview:

Before registration ends, I want you to find out if this is really the correct course and a good format for you. If you are enrolled in the course at the end of regular registration and then later find that it is not a good course for you, you will have lost several hundred dollars and the opportunity to take a course that would meet your needs this semester.

Back in the days when we had students attend an on-campus Orientation meeting, it was an hour long and probably most students spent between 2-3 hours dealing with this by the time they got ready and drove to the meeting and back again. You should be able to complete this online Orientation in much less time than that - in about an hour or an hour and a half.

Comment about navigation of this website:

How often, when you take a course in the classroom, do you read the entire first-day handout? If you're like most of my students, you don't do this. Often students don't get too confused by this in a classroom course, because in class, usually the teacher gives you specific instructions and hints about what to do and so the critical information is communicated anyway.

But, in this course, if I sent you a reminder about things as often as I talk in a classroom course, it would drive you crazy - can you imagine getting six or eight email reminders of specific things every week? It just wouldn't work. So I have to do something to help you be able to find the information about how the course works when you need it.

All the critical information about how the course works is available from the first-day handout and that's what you'll explore in this Orientation. I realise that it would be more convenient if, whenever I refer to a document, I'd give a link to it specifically. I am not doing that because it is important for you to know how to find the information again from the first-day handout.

I recommend that you open a multiple windows in your browser. Keep this Orientation in one window and the first day handout in the other windows. That would make it easy to look back and forth.

So, if you are annoyed with always having to look up things in the first-day handout, just tell yourself that I think it will make your later experience in the course easier.