Dear Class:

Welcome to Writing 1- 66420 Online. This class runs from January 16 to May 12, 2018. I am looking forward to working with you this semester.

Instructor

My name is Dr. Lisa Montagne. Montagne rhymes with “champagne.” Students address me as Dr. Montagne or Dr. M. Please read “Meet Your Instructor” on the class website to learn a bit about me. You will also be sharing an introduction of yourself with me and with the rest of the class. The instructions for this are on our class Canvas website under “Week 1 Instructions” in the Modules section. Please note that I may refer to the course website as Canvas, or as the LMS.

Communication

Please be sure that you read all of my Announcements carefully, as they contain instructions, lectures, and assignment notes in addition to what is posted in the Canvas Modules. You will find the Announcements in the Canvas course in the Announcements section.

My email address for this class is: lmontagnegalloway@ivc.edu. Please put my email address in your contacts to keep it handy, and so that my emails will not be sent to your junk mail file.

PLEASE send emails to me at the above address—it will be the fastest way to contact me, rather than using the Canvas inbox, which I will check occasionally, but not as often as email.

Please feel free to email or call me with questions or if you need to chat about the course for any reason. My phone number is on the syllabus, which you will find on the Canvas course site in the Syllabus section. Please keep my number handy, and do not feel shy about calling. For online classes, I conduct meetings with students only over the phone, Skype, or Facetime. You may send me text messages, but ALWAYS start with your name and class every time that you send a message. I do not save your messages or your numbers in my phone.

It is very important to follow instructions exactly at all times. Taking a class online requires that you navigate the technology quickly and easily. If you have any questions about instructions, then ask. If you spot any inconsistencies or flat-out mistakes on my part, let me know. These do happen, so I need you to help me out. You serve as my virtual personal assistants.

Please note that, in addition to sending Announcements through Canvas, I email the class through the college email system so you will receive outgoing emails to the account that you have associated with the college system. If you send me an email from another account, I will most likely hit reply to that particular account, but I will not use it otherwise. You must check your college email on a regular basis. You will be able to communicate with the entire class through posting on the Canvas discussion board in the Course Cafe.

Announcements

You will receive regular announcements from me that are sent from the Canvas course site. You will receive these at the email address that you put into your Canvas profile. However, it is better if you just regularly go to the Canvas course site and click on the Announcements section in order to keep up-to-date on the course. Also, live links, photos, and other visuals that I put in the Announcements will only show up inside Canvas.

Schedule

My schedule for working on this class is between Monday and Thursday, which is the main part of my workweek. I am telling you that this is my schedule so that you have reasonable expectations about when you will hear from me. In other words, don’t panic if you don’t get an immediate reply to an email or a phone call; I most certainly haven’t forgotten about you. You may or may not hear back from me on the weekends; do not count on getting replies to emails or phone calls from me on the weekends, so plan ahead.

Textbooks

The IVC bookstore has the textbooks available for purchase, which you must do immediately. If you chose to order the books online, you may get behind if the delivery time is slow, so keep that in mind. If you choose that method, be sure to choose the fastest delivery possible. I will not be accepting late work because you do not have the textbooks. However, you may choose to use digital versions of the texts, if you wish. Keep in mind that it is not easy to go back and forth between pages in the digital editions, but some people prefer them, so it is up to you. I use digital versions for pleasure reading, but not for studying.

Be sure to get the correct edition of The Little, Brown Handbook, Brief Version. It is the 6th edition by Jane E. Aaron. This publisher produces a number of English handbooks that have similar sounding names, so be very specific about the title. If you do not get the correct one, you will waste time in having to find the correct one because IT DOES MATTER.

The page numbers that I am using for the assignments are for the 5^th edition of Fifty Great Essays, and for the 6th edition of The Little, Brown Handbook, Brief Version. I will not be posting or looking up page numbers for other editions. I will not respond to requests for page numbers for previous editions.

Be WARNED: The feedback that I get from students who use older editions is that they were very sorry that they made that decision. The wished they had the correct editions all along.

Required textbooks—

Aaron, Jane E. The Little, Brown Handbook, Brief Version, 6th edition. New

York: Pearson, 2014. ISBN: 9780134678733

Diyanni, Robert. Fifty Great Essays, 5^th edition. New York: Pearson, 2013. ISBN: 9780321848499

Williams, Roger. Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Lulu Press, 1994. ISBN: 9781411602199

Orientation

There are no on-campus meetings for this course. This email serves as your course orientation. This orientation will also be a document under the Course Orientation Module, and under Announcements on the Canvas course site.

Canvas LMS

In order to access the website for this course, go to

ivc.instructure.com.

To login, use your regular campus user name and password.

You will sign into the system at this site, and you will find a link to our course there; you are automatically enrolled.

Once you are inside our Canvas course site, go to the Account icon in the upper, left-hand corner menu and add your own profile information. If your preferred email is not already in your account, you must add an email address under ways to contact you in order to receive announcements. You must also choose your notifications in order to get information about the course sent to you.

Click here for instructions for how to add an email.

Click here for instructions on how to set notifications.

Click here for instructions for how to upload a profile photo.

Need Help?

Go to the IVC Distance Education site here: http://academics.ivc.edu/de/Pages/default.aspx

Go to guides.instructure.com

Click on the Help/? button on the Canvas left-hand menu

COURSE FORMAT

Start each week in the Modules section of the course.

On the class Canvas website, all assignment instructions, resources, discussions, and documents will be located under each weekly Module. If you don’t see much there right away, do not worry. Everything that you need will be there when you need it.

All assignments are due on Saturday right before midnight-- that is at 11:59 pm. Please note that you will have something due EVERY WEEK. There is a weekly deadline posted on each weekly assignment module.

Please make sure that you carefully read all of the instructions on how to turn in assignments. Always include your full NAME at the beginning of all emails and assignments, so that I can easily identify you. Always put something specific in the subject line of emails, so that I can easily know what I am looking at.

SAVE YOUR WORK

I NEVER download your work, or save your work after I have recorded the assignment, so it is ALWAYS your responsibility to SAVE YOUR OWN WORK for the entire semester. You get credit toward your grade for everything that you do, so it adds up. Since we are using an electronic medium, sometimes things get lost, so make sure that you save everything in case something should go wrong, which does happen on occasion.

I will repeat: SAVE ALL OF YOUR WORK so that there will be no confusion. You may need to re-send or re-submit if something gets lost, which does happen occasionally. Sometimes the cyberspace gremlins will get you if you are not careful.

Make sure that you back up your work on a USB drive, or someplace other than your computer. A Dropbox account is useful. You can always just email yourself documents, so that they are saved in the cloud. Computers can crash, and emails do get lost, so make sure you are responsible about keeping track of your work. You must have your own working computer. If your computer crashes, or if you are having other technical problems, you can go work in the campus library computer lab, but these problems cannot be an excuse for not getting work turned in on-time.

ONLINE COURSES

Online courses are not necessarily easier or take less time than on-campus courses. In fact, doing online courses require a high amount of self-discipline, excellent organizational skills, and a commitment to hard work. It is crucial that you keep on schedule and on-task. If communication lapses for more than a week, I may withdraw you, so keep that in mind. You must keep to the weekly schedule. You must turn in work EVERY WEEK on a consistent basis.

WEEK ONE DEADLINE

You must complete the work for Week 1 by January 20 or be withdrawn as a No-Show.

If you are failing in the middle of the course, you may be withdrawn so that you will not get an F on your record. Being on-time counts, being thorough counts, and being conscientious about communicating counts. Please carefully note the grading policies in the syllabus. Also, the California state-wide policy for community college courses are that you only have 3 chances to pass a course, and then you will not be allowed to register for the course again on the same campus. So, keep this in mind.

However, if you put in the effort, online courses can be very rewarding and increase your skills and independence as an accomplished student. You will also be taking part in a vibrant, online learning community. It is extremely important that we have an open channel of communication. I believe in you! I know that you can do it!

Good luck getting started on the work for Week 1, and I will see you very soon in Canvas,

Dr. Montagne