Orientation Part V: How to Succeed

Select the following option (you have only one choice):

Submitting Assignment: Orientation Part V--How to Succeed in your Course

Your course (e.g., Mth 151, Mth 173, Phy 121, Phy 232, etc. ):

If you have one, please provide your access code.  You may leave this part blank if you do not yet have an access code. 

If you do not have an access code and have not already done so, you need to immediately go to http://vhcc2.vhcc.edu/dsmith/_vti_bin/shtml.dll/request_access_code.htm and submit the completed form. 

Once your access code is active you can view your posted work at http://vhcc2.vhcc.edu/dsmith/geninfo/labrynth_created_fall_05/menu.htm , as instructed in the email you received with your code.

Remember that it is crucial to enter your access code correctly.  As instructed, you need to copy the access code from another document rather than typing it.

Access Code
Confirm Access Code

Your Name:

Your VCCS email address.  You is the address you were instructed in Step 1 to obtain.  If you were not able to obtain that address, indicate this below.

Copy the document below into your word processor or text editor.  Complete each task, and respond as indicated:

Task:  `q001.

If you were in a course that meets in a classroom you would be attending regularly.  In an asychronous distance course, while you have the course materials and access to a great deal of instruction, you do not have the benefit of regular meetings, and it can be difficult to find the time to work on the course. 

You cannot allow this course to become something you need to 'find time' to do.  You need to schedule a regular time to work on this course, and you need to schedule a sufficient number of hours to do this work.

Here's the arithmetic of being a college student:

• The generally accepted standard is that at the minimum, it's a full-time job to be a full-time student. 
• A full-time job for 16 weeks translates to a total of 640 hours, over the course of a semester, devoted to a 15-credit courseload. 
• Approximately 240-300 of them in class and/or lab and the remainder devoted to preparation and study outside the classroom. 
• This comes to something over 40 hours per credit-hour.  That's 120 hours for a 3-credit class, 160 hours for a 4-credit class and 200 hours for a 5-credit class, spread over 16 weeks.

There is of course a wide degree of variation in the time actually required of an individual student:

• Some courses require less time than others.
• Students vary in the knowledge they bring from prerequisite courses.  It is a widely acknowledged national problem that secondary education is substandard, and that students are seldom fully prepared for college-level work, with the result that students need to spend extra time on assignments.
• Students learn at varying paces, some more quickly and others more slowly.
• Study habits and efficiency of time use vary widely among students.

So not everyone requires all those hours, but some will require more. 

• You should begin this course with the assumption that you will require about the number of hours specified above.

Though there are exceptions both ways, most students who manage to establish a regular schedule are successful in these courses, and most people who fail to establish a regular schedule are not successful.

Please explain in your own words why it is important to establish a schedule for this course, and to put aside the required number of hours.

****   Your response (insert your response beginning in the next line; the next line is blank and doesn't include the #$... prompt):

#$&*  (your response should have gone on the line above this one)

Task:  `q002. 

Write your work out on paper. 

Don't try to do multi-step problems on your computer keyboard. 

• It's quicker to write them out then transcribe your work on the keyboard, and the act of writing things down has a number of advantages. 
• Writing things on paper allows you to organize your thoughts, to make multiple representations of the situation, and to save your work for reference. 
• Writing, sketching, doodling, etc. also tend to reinforce the learning process.

Use sketches:

• Make sketches to represent the things you are thinking about and try to organize your thoughts as you proceed.

Take notes:

• You should always make notes as you work.  Taking notes reinforces the learning process and provides you with a reference for the future.
• In some exercises a single complex problem or situation will be broken down into a series of questions.  In such cases it will be necessary for you to maintain the thread of the problem.  Maintaining at least brief notes will allow you to do so.

Please respond with a statement detailing your understanding of the advice given above.

****   Your response (insert your response beginning in the next line; the next line is blank and doesn't include the #$... prompt):

#$&*  (your response should have gone on the line above this one)

Task:  `q003.

On anything you send the instructor, including but not limited to q_a_ assignments, queries and tests, sufficient documentation is required to allow the instructor to follow your thinking and the details of your solution.

An example of good documentation to the question 'How long will it take to make $400 at $10 per hour?':

'At $10 / hour it will take $400 / ($10 / hour) = 40 hours to make $400.'

A poor answer to the same question:

'4000'

This is a poor answer first because it's undocumented, second because it's wrong, and third it can contribute to a habit of poor documentation, which will nearly always cost you points on your tests.

• It would be fairly easy for the instructor to figure out where the 4000 came from--most likely you multiplied when you should have divided, though you may have just been really careless with your 0's--so it might be possible to help you see what you did wrong here.  However this is usually not the case with undocumented answers on more complicated problems.
• The more usual case is that your instructor has no clue about what you did wrong and no reasonable way to 'reverse-engineer' your solution and address your error.
• On a test the bad thing about such an answer is that even if you thought correctly through several steps and made only one minor error in your arithmetic, you didn't document the process and there would be no way to give you any partial credit.

Note also that if a question can be answered with 'true' or 'false' it doesn't matter whether you put down the right answer or not, if all you put down is 'true' or 'false' it is impossible to tell whether you got the answer by a correct process or by a coin flip, and in this course credit is not give for coin flips.

As another example, if a test problem asks for the graph of an expression it is not sufficient to copy the output of your graphing calculator; unless the problem specifically tells you to use the graphing calculator you must document how the characteristics of the graph result from the given expression. Document your answers, show the instructor that you know why the answer is what it is, or you risk getting no credit for the question.

Explain why it's important for you to document your work.

****   Your response (insert your response beginning in the next line; the next line is blank and doesn't include the #$... prompt):

#$&*  (your response should have gone on the line above this one)

Task:  `q004.

To repeat something that will be especially important on tests:

• You cannot assert one of a limited number of answers and expect to receive credit (e.g., by choosing 'true' on a question to which the answer is 'true' or 'false'). 
• You must fully justify any answer, and especially answers for which a limited number of choices is possible.
• This means that you need to explain your thinking and show the steps of your solution.

Please explain what it means to justify an answer on a test, and why this is important:

****   Your response (insert your response beginning in the next line; the next line is blank and doesn't include the #$... prompt):

#$&*  (your response should have gone on the line above this one)

Task:  `q004.

Don't waste your time misrepresenting what you know.

• Some students copy the homework of other students or receive inappropriate help on homework.
• Some students go through a q_a_ or query program and look at the answers, then essentially copy the answers on the next run.

The instructor notices this pattern but doesn't penalize it, and doesn't mention it.  You are responsible for working through the course in the recommended manner. 

Some students get the 10% or 15% of their grade that's based on homework and daily assignments by . However students who use this strategy tend not to learn the material well and almost never succeed on the tests that make up the vast majority of their grade.

Please state these ideas in your own words.

****   Your response (insert your response beginning in the next line; the next line is blank and doesn't include the #$... prompt):

#$&*  (your response should have gone on the line above this one)

Task:  `q005.

Also it isn't strictly necessary to do all the homework and daily assignments, since test (and for physics students lab) grades are the dominant factors in your final grade.  Some students do indeed succeed without submitting much work other than tests (and for physics courses labs).

However, while this is possible, it is strongly recommended that you DO NOT (I'm not really shouting this, but it requires extra emphasis) expect to be able to prepare for tests (and, where applicable, labs) without submitting the assignments. 

• For most students it is simply necessary to go through the process and learn the material by submitting the assignments and getting instructor feedback.

Please state this in your own words.

****   Your response (insert your response beginning in the next line; the next line is blank and doesn't include the #$... prompt):

#$&*  (your response should have gone on the line above this one)

Task:  `q006.

When documenting test items you need to use the methods appropriate to your course.

• Just because you can get the right answer in one way or another does not mean that you are using a procedure on which you can build further understanding.
• It's not a matter of 'my way' vs. 'your way'. The structure of the subject dictates the things you need to understand.
• If you are taking a test on material which requires you to write and solve equations, for example, then using trial and error to arrive at even a correct solution is not valid and would not receive credit.

State this policy in your own words.

****   Your response (insert your response beginning in the next line; the next line is blank and doesn't include the #$... prompt):

#$&*  (your response should have gone on the line above this one)

Task:  `q007.  It is also not valid to justify a solution by copying a picture or a solution from a calculator (unless of course the problem specifies that the calculator is to be used in this manner).

• It is fine to use a calculator to do your arithmetic, but you must, for example, show the steps in solving an equation.
• If the solution of a problem includes a graph you must explain the behavior of that graph rather than just copying calculator output.

The key is that while a calculator can be very useful, operations like entering a function or an equation and copying output from a calculator is not a college-level skill.

If the process is part of the course, you have to show the steps of the process.

State this policy in your own words.

****   Your response (insert your response beginning in the next line; the next line is blank and doesn't include the #$... prompt):

#$&*  (your response should have gone on the line above this one)

Task:  `q008.  The next part of the Orientation and Startup appears under the heading "Part 4:  Review, Assessment and First Assignments" , and consists of a series of review/assessment documents.  Among other things, these documents will get you accustomed to the learning style of the course.

These documents review things you should know, but which students often do not.  As a result these documents can require a significant amount of time. 

At this point you should know where to find the homepage for your course, and you should also have bookmarked it.  If not, you should review the information in the link

which you encountered earlier. 

Return for a moment to the homepage for your course and copy the contents of the Address box of your Internet browser into your response below.

****   Your response (insert your response beginning in the next line; the next line is blank and doesn't include the #$... prompt):

#$&*  (your response should have gone on the line above this one)

Now highlight and copy your document, paste your copy into the box below. 

Double-check to be sure you have accurately filled in the information at the beginning of this form.

Then click on Submit Form. 

It is suggested that you save a copy of your document as a backup.

When you submit this document you will have complete Orientation Step 7.  Your next activity will be Orientation Step 8.