English 1121: Introduction to the Course

Welcome to ENGL 1121!  During the first three days of this summer term you should read the syllabus carefully to gain an overview of the course, and you should explore our course site in Desire2Learn (D2L).  It is important that you begin this first assignment on the first day of class, June 2, and complete it by midnight on Wednesday, June 4.  The D2L platform will be down June 5-9.

MNSCU is upgrading the D2L platform from 6:00 PM on Thursday,  June 5, through 8:00 AM on Monday, June 9.  If D2L is down, you will receive alternate instructions via email.  Check you METNET email box for updates.  While D2Lis down, you will still be able to access course materials at the WorldWide Writers' PLACE. You may want to bookmark this Web site in your internet browser.

Outcomes: 
1. to introduce you to our D2L Course Site
2. to introduce you to the course content at the WorldWide Writers' PLACE
3. to introduce you to Envision and the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
4. to introduce you to your teacher and to other students in this class

Main Assignment: For this first project, you will create your own student home page by using the  tool provided in D2L. In addition you will participate in online discussion and submit a short paper to the D2L ASSIGNMENTS DROPBOX.

Read: the steps of this project carefully and follow the directions. By the end of this project you will have read the course syllabus, familiarized yourself with the WorldWide Writers' PLACE, our course tools in D2L,  Envision and the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.  In the process, you will also become acquainted with your teacher and other members of the class.

 

This course is composed of a series of projects or chapter assignments.  My advice is that you do these projects one step at a time, two or three steps a day. If you were taking this course as a traditional on-campus class during a regular 16-week semester, you would have 4 hours of class time plus 4-8 hours of homework each week.  To succeed as  an online student in this 8-week summer session, you must set aside 16  to 24 hours a week for class work.  Build into your weekly schedule 4 or 5 blocks of time (4 hours each).   That is how the projects are assigned in the course calendar. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE AND FALL BEHIND.  Once you do, it is very difficult to catch up.  Nationwide, fifty percent of the students registered in online courses do not successfully complete the class.  The most common reason for failure is procrastination. You may want to begin by reading through all the steps of the project, so you have an overview of it first. However, this may leave you feeling overwhelmed. Don't be discouraged. Don't quit and don't put off working because it's difficult. Simply go back to step 1 and just do that one step; then do step 2;  That's one day's work. Then, the next day, go on to steps 3 and 4. If you are still confused, you must ASK QUESTIONS. You can do that by logging into D2L  to send a pager message or e-mail to the teacher or post your question on the D2L DISCUSSION forum for the project. Finally, you can always come to campus to work with a tutor or page me during my online office hour.  We can also make an appointment to meet on campus when you need extra help.

Steps for Completing this Project

Monday, June 2

Step 1: 

Read through these instructions for step 1.  You may prefer to print them out and have them on your desk beside your computer as you work. Then go to https://anokaramsey.ims.mnscu.edu/ and log in to  D2L.  On "My Home Page," click on the title of this ENGL 1121 course.  This will open our Course Home Page.  Look at the navigation bars at the top of the D2L screen. 

NOTE: Your screen will not look exactly like the screen shots posted here because D2L is being upgraded regularly.  In fact, the D2L Web site will look different when it comes back on line on June 9.  Hopefully only the "shell" will change.  All of our course tools and discussion postings should still be there.  However, even after the upgrade, you should see navigation bars and links similar to the images shown here.

Click on the link to "My Home" in the navigation bar at the top of your D2L screen.  It will take you back to "My Home Page" where all of your D2L courses are listed.

 
• There is "My Home" and "Course Home."  The image above shows a banner and navigation bar at the top left of a COURSE HOMEPAGE. 
  • In the top D2L bar you may have links to: My Home, Email, Classlist,  HELP, and Logout
  • In the lower D2L bar you may have links to: Course Home, Content,  Discussions, Chat, Assignments, and Grades.
  • In the lower bar you may also see a link to Syllabus.  This will take to to the "Welcome Page" for ENGLISH 1121 at the WorldWide Writers' PLACE.  This web site is an online rhetoric and handbook for college writing.  It is a public site that you may access without logging in to D2L.  The URL for the Writers' PLACE is http://www.writers-place.com.  (For more information about the WWWriters' PLACE, see step 2 below.)
  
   
  
• At the right side of the D2L header you may see today's date, a link to FAQ ("Frequently Asked Questions" about D2L), and HELP.
• Click HELP to view the index of topics linked to instructions of all of the D2L tools.
• In the center bar you should see the PAGER button.  For PAGER instructions, click on HELP.  Select PAGER from the HELP "Table of Contents."

Step 2: 

• Go to the home page for the WWWriters' PLACE.  Read the welcome on the home page and follow the link to navigation tips.  These tips will make it easy for you to find your way around this large Web site.
• To access our course syllabus from the home page for the WWWriters' PLACE, click on College Writing Courses ... then from the list that opens, select our course for this summer session.
• You may want to print out this site map of the WWWriters' PLACE.
• Using the navigation button in the header at the top of the home page for the WWWriters' PLACE, go to the Commons.  Explore the links offered in the Student Center in the Commons.
• If you have any questions about the WWWriters' PLACE, you should log into our D2L course site.  Select DISCUSSION... "General Forum."   Post your questions to the appropriate discussion thread and I will answer.

Step 3: Introduce yourself to the others in this class by creating your own home page in D2L.

See instructions for creating a student home page using the D2L  tool for Student Pages.  To access Student Homepage tool, at our D2L course site go to CLASSLIST and click on the  icon beside your name.
To find a link to your teacher's home page, go to CLASSLIST and click on the  icon beside my name.  Likewise, visit the homepages created by your classmates.

Remember that you are using this page to introduce yourself to your teachers and classmates, so you may want to  include the following:

• Your name.
• Your photo.
• A paragraph about your family.
• A paragraph about where you live.
• A paragraph about your interests or hobbies.  You may want to include a link to your favorite website.
• In addition to being a student, do you have a job?  If so, tell us what you do.  You may want to include a link to your employer's website. 

Tuesday, June 3

Step 4: Course Texts

	Every project will include reading assignments in Envision, one of the textbooks for this course.  These readings are required.
	You should use the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers as a reference for grammar, mechanics, formatting papers and documenting sources.  This handbook is published by the Modern Language Association.  You are welcome to visit their Web site at http://www.mla.org/.

Note: if you click on the image of the textbook cover, you will go to the web site developed to support this text at http://wps.ablongman.com/long_alfano_envision_2.  Follow the link to "Student Resources."  You should visit this site now and bookmark it so that you can return to it easily.

Step 5: Class Discussion

During this semester you will complete several projects.  In addition to the main assignment for each of these projects, you are also expected to make a least one posting to each class discussion exercise for that project.  These postings are required for you to receive full credit for the project.  I expect them to show that you are actively engaged in learning and practicing the concepts presented in the assignment.  I also expect your postings to demonstrate your interaction with me and with your classmates in online discussion.

To complete this step, GO to our D2L course site and select DISCUSSIONS. Follow the links to the DISCUSSION FORUM for the Introduction Project.

• Post your response to the discussion question for this project.

Wednesday, June 4

Step 6: D2L Assignments Dropbox Tool

 Each project in this course has a series of exercises and a main assignment.  You will submit the main assignment by using the  Dropbox tool in D2L.  Log in to our D2L course site.  Go to DROPBOX on the navigation bar at the top of your screen.  If you need instructions on how to use this tool, go to HELP in the  D2L navigation bar toward the top of your screen.

For this project, use the D2L DROPBOX  tool to submit the following short paper:

Using WORD or another word processor, write one double-spaced page (150 words) describing your personal goals for this class this semester.  Follow the instructions in your syllabus for formatting your paper.  Save your file as a WORD.doc or rich text format file (.rtf).  Then use the  DROPBOX tool in D2L to submit this paper. This assignment is due by midnight on Wednesday, June 4.

To receive credit for completing this project, you must:

___ Use the  Student Pages tool in the CLASSLIST to create a home page introducing yourself to the class.
___ Make a posting to the discussion thread for the Introduction Project.
___ Use the D2L  DROPBOX  tool to submit your personal statement of your course goals.