Student Welcome for EGL 102 Online

Dear Prospective Online EGL 102 Student:

Over the span of 16 weeks, you will engage in a variety of individual activities and collective discussions which are focused around the central project of the course--writing a research paper of 10-to-15 pages in length.

The course itself is not self-paced or an independent study. It is structured so that everyone will move through the course material at close to the same pace. Each week, I will make a new Module available on Monday. Within each Module, there will be readings,discussions, exercises, and activities based upon our textbook, There will be due dates for the exercises and activities, spread out across the week (and I don't give credit for late assignments, BTW). Due dates will be posted in each Activity and in the course Calendar.

Regarding the collective discussions, these will not be real-time activities. Instead, you will have a given period of time (usually a few days) in which to post your initial messages and read and respond to the messages of your classmates.

There is no textbook for the course. As in any college course, you will still have a lot of reading to do, but the readings will be web-based materials to which you will link from inside the course.

Once the course begins on January 19, 2010, enrolled students will be able to access it at this URL:

http://elearn.oakton.edu

In order to access the course, you will need:

1.Your WebCT login ID;

2.Your WebCT Password

Your WebCT login ID consists of

1.The first letter of your first name (typed in lowercase); plus

2.The first 7 letters of your last name, or just simply your last name, if it is shorter than 7 letters, (typed in lowercase); plus

3.The last 4 digits of your Oakstar ID number. The Oakstar number begins with a capital B and appears on your bills, receipts, grade reports, and transcripts from Oakton. You can also find out your Oakstar number by going to the web page:

http://www.oakton.edu/resource/it/idlookup.html

Your WebCT Password is typically your date of birth expressed as six numerals in the format of mmddyy
(It will be the same password you use for accessing MyOakton.)

For additional help with this process, please see these sections of Oakton’s WebCT Student Guide

http://www.oakton.edu/online/globalid/

http://www.oakton.edu/online/4_0webctguide/index4_0.htm

The course contains online orientation materials. When you reach the course home page, click on "Start Here" (in the upper left-hand corner) and read and follow the directions contained there.

Here are some suggestions for achieving success in this course:

Self-motivation and self-discipline are essential. That means you must meet all deadlines and participate in all group activities. This mutual participation is key to the learning experience in Composition I Online because the rest of the class will not be able to wait for those who fall behind. So, keep up with the group, and complete all work on time.

I encourage you to refer to http://www.oakton.edu/online/learner.htm for an explanation of behaviors that contribute to a successful online learning experience.

Commit 10 to 12 hours per week to this course. Although online courses allow some flexibility, you still must put in the same number of hours as students in traditional courses. Online courses, you must understand, are neither easier, nor less work than traditional classes.

You must have regular access to a computer with Internet access, and you must have familiarity with a word processing program, preferably Word. If you don’t have access to Word, please be sure to let me know. I will not be able to use the “Comments” feature for your papers if you are unable to use Word. You also must know how to copy, cut, and paste between documents and perform spelling and grammar checks. Our course does not teach those skills. To access the course, you will need Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher, Netscape 6.2 or higher, or AOL 7.0 as your browser software.

If you have questions, please contact me.

Best regards.

Michael McNett

Michael McNett
Instructor
mmcnett@oakton.edu