IF this is your first online course, welcome. This will be an exciting learning experience.
IF you’ve taken online courses before, welcome. You may find this one a little bit different than other courses you’ve experienced.
First thing to remember! This is a course like any other course – it requires your dedication to learning! It requires dedication to taking the time to do the work! Just because we don’t meet in a classroom at a certain time each week doesn’t mean you shouldn’t schedule this into your weekly agenda. BLOCK IT OFF into your open spaces every day, every week! Then, make sure you stay true to this commitment! You may quickly find that time for this course may be ‘shifted’ or ‘slips away’ as other course commitments add pressure. DON’T forget about this course when others demand your attention!
With that in mind, here’s my recommendation.
Based on personal experience, I recommend that you spend approximately 1 hour online in D2L each week (reading, posting, reading, and responding to others) and 2+ hours researching, reading (particularly the course website), completing activities, and working on your inquiry assignment.
Here is a suggested weekly plan of work for this course. Remember that since there is NO specific classroom to report to, this work is in lieu of attending a scheduled class, as well as the usual work required for an in-class session. Since this is considered a 0.5 credit, that would mean we would be meeting in a classroom twice a week X 2 hours = 4 hours total of just class time.
Plan your work to fit your own schedule, but DO NOT IGNORE this weekly commitment if you want to be successful in this course.
Weekly Work FLOW – suggested actions
| Sat./Sunday before week begins | Monday | Tuesday D2L today | Wednesday | Thursday D2L today | Friday |
| Review upcoming readings and activities. Tinker with creative makes for the week. | Read & think about connections for discussion post (do draft in Word or Google doc) | Finish readings. Finish draft of discussion post POST to discussion forum in D2L | Read and post any feedback or conversation prompts in D2L. Work on A2 blog assignment and creative makes | Read discussion posts in D2L forum. Complete responses as directed in the schedule | Check into D2L to wrap up discussion responses. Work on A2 assignment and creative makes. |
| Approx. 1 hour | Approx. 30 min | Approx. 30 min | Approx. 30 min. | Approx. 30 min. | Approx. 1 hour |
For those of you who need a calendar to organize tasks and assignments, the upcoming tasks and calendar functions in D2L will help you keep organized. OR you can use a Google Calendar to keep yourself organized and on track.
