Startup and Orientation to your Distance Course

Much of the first week of your course will be allotted to the Orientation.  However you may wish to complete the Orientation before the beginning of the term.  You may begin submitting the Orientation at any time. 

The Orientation should be completed according to the schedule on the Due Dates page, which you will encounter in Step 4.

Steps 3 and 4 should be completed by the end of the first day of the term, or as soon thereafter as possible.

The Orientation is broken into 8 steps.  Step 3 takes most students an hour or two, though some finish more quickly.  

Steps 4 - 7 each take most students between 15 minutes and 30 minutes, provided instructions are followed carefully, one step at a time.  If you skip or do not correctly follow instructions, it will probably take longer.

Step 8 of the Orientation consists of some preliminary content-related exercises, spread over several documents.  The questions are largely based on skills and information encountered in general secondary education and in prerequisite courses.  Depending on your course, your working style, the quality of your prerequisite courses and your performance in those courses, this part takes most students between 2 hours and 6 hours; though some students report spending more than 6 hours.  For most students these exercises provide a good refresher and review, as well as some additional information. 

Steps 1 and 2:  Obtain your user information and submit your access code request.

Normally you will have completed Step 1 and Step 2 in response to the Initial Information document.

If you have registered for the course, you should take a few minutes and complete Step 1 and Step 2 of the Orientation.  These steps will not be changed for the upcoming semester and may be done at any time after registration.

• Step 1 will lead you to your VCCS email address (which you might already have) and VCCS Help files. 
• Step 2 consists of a short and simple form to request an access code.

These first two steps can often be completed in less than 5 minutes, and normally require no more than a total of 15 minutes.

Step 1.  Click on the link below to obtain your username, password, related instructions and other necessary information.  Note that if you have registered for the first time, your VCCS email account might take as long as 24 hours after registration to become active.  However it might well be active almost immediately; take a minute and check.  If you already have VCCS email and know how to access it and obtain help, you may skip this step; however you might also want to take a minute to refresh yourself on the latest information.

Accessing Login Information; Obtaining Help; VIVA; Accessing your Student Email

Step 2.  Using the link Request Access Code submit a request for your access code.  You should receive your code within 24 hours of submitting the form.  If you do not receive your code within 24 hours, email the instructor at dsmith@vhcc.edu , using your VCCS email account, and request the code.

After submitting your access code request, you may submit the documents in the remaining steps of the Orientation and Startup before you get your access code, as long as you are careful to provide your correct VCCS email address. 

• Once you get your access code, be sure to include it as well. 
• Except for Orientation documents, your email address is not sufficient.  Both your access code and your email address must be accurate.

By the evening of the day following your submission, and often sooner, the instructor will post your work, along with his responses.

• Your work will be posted at your 'access page' (instructions will be provided when you receive your access code). 
• As usual you should keep a backup of the original document.

Step 3.  This step is centered around two documents and the web form you use to submit them.  Once you complete this step you will understand the most important procedure for communication, as well as one of the central learning strategies, used in this course.

• Go to the Submit Work Form.  Fill out the identifying information (access code, email address, etc.), just type a simple 'hello' message in the last box, and submit.  The instructor will respond by posting a copy to your access site, along with a short comment.  Posting will typically occur on the evening of the day you submit the form, or on the following evening.
• Go to the document Preliminary Question-Answer and do as instructed. 
• Then go to the document Introductory qa and do as instructed. 

• 'Real' homepage
• Assignments and Due Dates
• Course Information, Syllabus
• Blackboard grade center

Step 5. Part III of the Orientation instructs you on how to access the material on your disks.  If you don't yet have your disks you can skip this part for now, but be sure to come back to this step once you get your disks.

• Orientation Part III tells you how to run and check out your DVDs.

The first two steps require only Internet access. 

The third step requires the use of your DVDs.  If you do not yet have the DVDs then you may put off Part IIIb until you have them, and you may continue without loss of continuity to the remaining Orientation exercises.

• checking out the DVDs for your course.

Step 6. Orientation Part IV covers the details of communication in your course

• identify yourself but maintain your privacy
• copy and paste access information
• if access compromised request changed code but not often
• the forms page
• (almost) everything needs to be sent using forms (if privacy-protected submit thru form, back up by email, response will be to email)  (if it ain't on the form I might not notice it)
• keep the thread
• make it self-contained
• keep track of what you have sent
• avoid sending redundant work
• notify instructor if response isn't posted by the end of the next day
• questions are welcome; face-to-face is inefficient and rare
• formatted work must still be sent by form, may be backed up by email word-processed format
• no ZIP

Step 7. Orientation Part V demonstrates the actions and habits that lead to success in your course.

• regular schedule
• allot sufficient time
• write it on paper, don't try to do mathematics or physics on your keyboard
• document the process in everything you do, especially on tests
• don't misrepresent your work
• use appropriate methods to solve problems
• calculator output is not documentation of process
• responsible for keeping track
• self critique
• describe graphs
• use correct typewriter notation
• use your hard drive, it's quicker than the web and won't cut you off

Step 8. 

Begin by completing the remaining preliminary qa's for your course. 

• The table, located a few lines below, indicates which qa's you should complete for your course. 

These qa's provide a review of important ideas and introduce you to the use of qa and query documents as learning tools. 

Simply find the column for your course.  If you see the word 'yes' then you should click on the link at the beginning of the corresponding row, work through that document and submit it using the Submit Work Form.

• Pay very close attention to the self-critique process. 
• In all qa's you are evaluated mainly on your effort, documentation and self-critique.
• You may do all these qa's in one sitting.  However, unless you are certain you are doing everything right, it's better to get the instructor's feedback throughout the process.  For example you might want to do a couple of the exercises then wait until the instructor posts feedback to your access page (remember this will be not later than the day after you submit your work).

Submit your documents using the Submit Work Form.

Key to reading the table: 

• Find the column for your course.
• If you see the word 'yes' in the column, then click on the link in the corresponding 'link to document' column, complete the document and submit it.

Links to supplemental sites: 

• Additional Typewriter Notation examples and exercises are found at: typewriter notation examples.htm.
• Explanation of basic trapezoids as used in this course is at trapezoids.
• Synopsis of the rate-of-change scheme of uniformly accelerated motion and graphical interpretation at Unif Accel Motion Scheme
• Examples of algebra of units calculations