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Orientation

Spring 2016
Sociology of Aging
Gero. 300 Sections - (10480) (11040) (11143)
Soc.  Sections 335-(10150) (11030) (11144)

This page is your orientation, (or how-to guide).  When you finish you should proceed to the syllabus link located above.  There are no required face-to-face meetings for this course, however, if at any time you would like one-on-one help email me at wards@arc.losrios.edu for an appointment or stop by during office hours.

Welcome to the Sociology of Aging.

•  Please note that a special email box has been set up for this class. Please put Gero300 or Soc335 in the subject line of all your email messages to me.
  
• If you send a message from within D2L please put your name and the class name on it. D2L only sends me your ID number. Thanks-

COURSE SCHEDULE :

Except for this first Orientation week, this class runs from Thursday morning at 12:05.a.m. to the next Wednesday night at 11:55 p.m.  All quizzes and postings to the Discussion link must be done before the end of class on Wednesday night to receive credit.  Check the clocks on your computer if you are a last-minute sort of person. The quizzes and discussion boards close automatically and often computer clocks can be off by as much as 15 minutes.    Quizzes and discussion boards can not be reopened once they are closed for the week.

 The Assignment Link is the hub of this course. Every link to every assignment for this course, along with the dates they are due, are now posted for the entire semester at the Assignment Link. Feel free to work ahead. We will however all post to the discussion board and do the quizzes within the same week.   .

ORIENTATION

Please find the required postings and the due date to complete the Orientation at the Assignment Link .

To prepare for the orientation posting you need to:

• Finish reading this page and complete the tasks requested.

• Surf the site to become familiar with it making sure you read the course syllabus

• Read the lecture materials for this week (located at the Assignment Link).

• Find the discussion board instructions (again at the Assignment Link) and post your web/discussion assignment. This week it is your introduction.  Be sure to address all the points of this assignment if you want full credit. You might want to check the instructions for Grading Criteria for Discussion Boards  before you post. The link is ALSO provided in the handout section of the Assignment Link.

•  Take the Orientation quiz. The link to this quiz is  located at the top left of most  D2L pages in this course.

• CONGRATULATIONS!  ONCE YOU COMPLETE THE ABOVE YOU ARE DONE WITH ORIENTATION  You can now go on to week one's assignment.   Yep, located at the Assignment Link

• As you navigate around this course you may find that you see things repeated. Until you become really familiar with the layout it is my hope that having things in a couple of places will help students. I call it the Sesame Street Method-- repetition.

 WHERE TO GET CLASS HELP!

New to the web? Don't worry.  There are a lot of ways to get technical help and help from your instructor. To contact me directly use one of the following:

1. email me wards@arc.losrios.edu

2. Come to see me in my office during office hours

3. use the instant message feature in D2L

4. call me at school- 916 484-8160

5.  fax me- 916 484-8519

6. When all else fails, use the telephone and call  my  home office for panic emergencies  at 530 205-5301.  Please don't call after 9p.m. Tell me the best time to contact you if we play phone tag.

Other Help Options Include

1. use the threaded discussion to ask questions (remember to put the word "HELP" in the subject line. ) and  if you are able, answer your class mates questions. 

2.  check the weekly email I send to each of you with instructions and comments

3. check the Announcement page of this class' web site

4.  use the Roster to contact a class mate. (you might not have access to every name you see on the board. If you want to contact some one not on your list email me and I will let them know.  

5. contact me for a one-on- one session either in my office or electronically.

I check  email several times a day except week ends and holidays. You can expect a reply from me with in 24 hrs unless it is the weekend or a holiday. 

Here Are Your Options for Technical Help in D2L :

1. Post your question to any "Discussion" board and use the word "HELP" in the subject line of your posting. That way, we will all know to respond to your posting immediately and you can receive help or assistance from other classmates. Please help classmates as you are able.

2. Read and respond to other's "HELP" questions.

3. Find the HELP FOR STUDENTS link on your D2L home page

4. Check the class roster link and e-mail a classmate for help. You might not see the email address of someone on the discussion board. It is a quirk within D2L regarding which section a student is enrolled in. In that case contact me and I will let them know you are trying to contact them.   

FRUSTRATION ?

On-Line learning can be challenging. Besides learning the course materials, there are the technological glitches and tasks to attend to. Remember, learning takes place when you are thinking outside the box which is usually outside your comfort level.

Sometimes frustration  and even excitement are signs that new learning is about to take place. These feelings are normal and often the path to higher learning. 

Check out this visual below to illustrate this concept

The diagram above illustrates how your knowledge base increase in size. The input of new knowledge combines with your current body of knowledge to produce a larger knowledge base. While the new information is outside your knowledge base it is foreign and unfamiliar. This is often where frustration sets in. Be patient.  Once you learn how a certain task is done, it becomes part of your knowledge base and your knowledge box increases in size (along with your comfort level). It takes time, studying and patience with yourself.

I tell you this because many first time on-line students will find that the first three weeks or so of an online course requires staying power while learning how to navigate the new environment. You should know that about 40% of all new online students drop during these first few weeks. I don't want you to be one of them.  Contact me before you feel the need to drop. Maybe I can help.

  

SUBMITTING QUIZZES:

There are no unit exams; instead you will be taking weekly, interactive quizzes located at the "Quiz Link" at the top of this screen.  Be sure to read the instructions for using this feature (recall that the link to D2L help is located above- read Taking Quizzes).

It is important to note that you must click the SAVE button for each questions for it to be submitted.  You will be allowed to enter the quiz link twice (in case you mess up the first time) . After that you will be locked out so be careful. Sometimes, if you contact me before the end of the week, I can reset the quiz and unlock it. But it must be before the end of the quiz week. There are never any make-up quizzes offered. Sorry. There is instead several opportunities for extra credit peppered thought out the course. Keep an eye out for them. They are like hidden treasures. Be sure to check the class policy for using extra credit.

Students get kicked out of the testing area and the server may crash.  So be careful, plan ahead. 

Quizzes are open book, open note (I know that excites you) .  You will note that a significant amount of points are assigned to both the  weekly quizzes and your postings . Both should reflect the knowledge you have gained (but more about that later).  So take both the quizzes and the postings seriously if you want a good grade. 

COURSE FINAL:

Your FINAL  posting referred to as Social Policy Topic Presentation will be posted to week 16 discussion board as your course final.  You may however complete it at least two weeks early and send it to me for a preview. That way you are assured of an "A". I will provide you with  feedback.  The instructions for this project are located in  the Electronic Hand out section of the "Assignment Link,"  under the Orientation week. It will be just five short paragraphs long plus citations.  No longer.

 I will make the link hot the week before the end of the semester. If you choose to send me a preview of your presentation have it ready to grade, not a draft.  You should get a response from me within 48 hours except on week-ends and holidays that I received it. If you do not, assume I did not get your correspondence.  I don't want you to feel panicked about your grades so please allow plenty of time for problems.  Please don't send it as an attachment. Just paste it into your email. Thanks.

By all means, save a copy of all your work and all your emails from me on your hard-drive in the event of a system crash. Technical difficulties are not an adequate reason for  late work so please plan early. NO LATE QUIZZES CAN BE ACCEPTED Sorry:-( Please don't ask. If I accepted yours I would have to open it up for the entire section to submit late to be fair.

Please Note:

Each Social Policy Topic presentation is submitted to a program, available to professors, that detects plagiarisms. Copying any or part of your researched  posting from any source without citations will result in your being dropped from this course with a grade of F. Take this as seriously as the school does. If you have questions about plagiarism contact me.

Additionally postings will also be periodically tested for plagiarisms. Copying any or part of your weekly posting from any source without citations will result in your being dropped from this course with a grade of F. This includes your colleagues postings also.

LINKS AND DISCUSSION BOARDS:

Each week's assignment links are already hot. You can view the entire semesters work (except for FINAL'S WEEK) ahead of time.   We will, however, move through the course together week-by-week. Each of you will log on at different times and different days. We will complete each week by Wednesday night at 11:55p.m. Although each week's discussion board will remain visible to you any postings after that time will not receive credit towards the week's assignment. The board often will close a few minutes earlier than is recorded on your computer. Differences in computer clocks can be as much as 15 minutes. So please, plan ahead.

ATTENDANCE:

In an on line class posting to the discussion board is your way of coming to class. If a student does not post for three weeks, not necessarily consecutive, it is considered the same as not coming to class.  These students may be dropped from this course. It is the responsibility of the student however to drop the course formally from admissions and records . Failure to do so will result in a grade of  "F" .   

The discussions are threaded, meaning that each topic starts a new thread and each response to that topic is  posted under the thread as a reply. Start a new thread when you post your assignment and use the reply to reply to your colleagues postings.

Did you find the instructions and assignments you  need for your discussion postings ?They are found each week at the Assignment Link under the column heading "Web Discussion Topics" .

Each week you will be asked to :

• read the text and lecture before you complete the web assignment

• post your web assignment to the discussion board and cite the body of your posting. Tell us where you got your information (provide the URL, the book, or article you read right after the statement, not at the end of the posting ). Cites listed together at the end of the document will not be give credit for citations. They must be done in the body of the post.

• take part in the class discussions by responding to at least two of your colleagues posts.

• complete the week's quiz. 

• make sure your assignment or replies are done on at least two different days.  

 

During these discussions, you are asked to respond to the question at hand (the assignment) and to the comments of your classmates using class theory and concepts. That might include something of interesting going on in the world that pertains to aging. You can post as much as you like. The more the livelier (up to a limit I suppose).

• I want to repeat this very important instruction. You are expected to post at least three times each week: your findings from the assignment and at least two responses to classmates. These must be done on at least two different days. I don't care how you break them up. Post and reply one day, then another reply later on in the week or post one day with two replies another etc.

  
  It is my belief that being a student entitles you to try on your new knowledge, sometimes making mistakes and then be given the opportunity to correct those mistakes. If your posting does not meet the standards for full credit and it is posted early enough in the week,  I will often post a request or send you an email asking that you elaborate on your post. If you check your postings for notes from the instructor before the end of the week you might have a chance to amend them and bring them up to class standards. Please use the edit feature to edit your original post instead of posting twice to complete the assignment.

  • A good strategy for the class would be to complete the text reading, read the lecture materials,  and research the web/discussion topic . Then  post the assignment and one response early in the week.  Later on in the week check your assignment for any follow-up asked for and post your final response.

•  Besides postings of your assignment and responses, use the discussion link to ask questions, make statements or express your opinion or ask for "HELP." The more you respond, the livelier the course will be.  

PLEASE NOTE THIS CLASS POLICY:

STUDENTS MUST POST THEIR ASSIGNMENT WITH A PASSING SCORE TO RECEIVE CREDIT FOR ANY RESPONSES.  ONE RESPONSE IS NOT ELIGIBLE FOR  CREDIT YOU MUST HAVE BOTH RESPONSES.

Extra credit is peppered all throughout this course. It will show up in unsuspecting places. The idea is that it is a reward for digging into the site.  

• Please note, any extra credit offerings must be completed in the week they are offered.

• Extra credit is only available for students who have posted their assignments and replies and received a passing grade on both. If you choose not to post that week you are not eligible for the extra credit.

• Be sure to check the method of submitting extra credit. If for example you are asked to send it by email and you mistakenly post it to the discussion board you will not only lose the points but no one else will then be eligible for the points because the answer has been posted. Or if you add them to the bottom of your post you will not receive credit if asked to start a new thread.

• If the assignment requires you to email the answers you will receive a reply that when it is received .

• Any grade dispute must be presented within two weeks of the assignment's offerings and all requests must be accompanied by my reply email that the assignment was received or the date you posted it if the instructions called for a posting and not an email. 

QUESTIONS AND HOW TO CONTACT THE INSTRUCTOR

When you don't understand something I want you to ask. Please don't  wait and then feel behind and lost when you finally get help. Remember, there are  a lot of ways to find help. Students who have taken this course will tell you I am a hands-on professor who is usually very easy to contact.

Review of your options (it's the broken record theory :-) You can either :

1. 1. use the threaded discussion to ask questions (remember to put the word "HELP" in the subject line. ) and  if you are able, answer your class mates questions. 

   2.  email me wards@arc.losrios.edu

   3. use the instant message feature in D2L

   4. call me at school- 916 484-8160

   5. call my home office 530-477-5291

   6. fax me- 916 484-8519

   7. Find the weekly email I send to each of you with instructions and comments

   8. check the Announcement page of this class' web site

   9.  use the Roster to contact a class mate. (you might not have access to every name you see on the board. If you want to contact some one not on your list email me and I will let them know.  

   10. contact me for a one-on- one session either in my office or electronically.

    

TECHNO GLITCHES:

You need to understand that this type of technology will have some glitches. For example, when I post each assignment the internet link is active or "hot". That does not guarantee they are still active when you get there. If you find a broken link, or if you find an outstanding link that relates to the subject we are studying, please let me  know-- send me an email or post it to the board.

Servers sometimes crash, assignment links may go dead. Be patient- I check the site several times a week and will attempt to correct any techno glitches. Send me an email or post any problems in the discussion area (put HELP in the subject line) to bring it to all of our attention. 

Lastly, I want you to know that I just adore teaching gerontology and especially on line. I keep close tabs on the class and it is important to me that you to have a good experience. It is your responsibility to let me know if you need help. Teachers can open the door but you have to walk in. Have a great course- see you in the discussion area AFTER YOU READ THE SYLLABUS AND LECTURE LINKS lol.

Professor Ward (you can call me Sue) 

P.S. Look for messages on the discussion link entitled " NOTE FROM INSTRUCTOR" .

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