This is what your fellow WVC classmates say:
•29% of the students indicated that they felt that the distance learning course was harder
than the traditional methods of instruction on campus
•14% said the distance learning course was easier
•57% said they were about the same
source: 2006/2007 Distance Learning Report
To find out read Are Distance Learning Course Right for You?
Then take the distance learning skills survey
To successfully navigate this course you should be computer competent in the following:
Microsoft Word (the Computer Applications Department offers many courses)
E-Mail including sending and receiving attachments
Internet (Click here to check browser requirements)
This distance learning course is conducted completely via e-mail, the Internet, and through telephone communication. The primary mode of instruction is through e-mail and Internet connection. You are expected to communicate with your instructor and other classmates about specific assignments. Most of your work, however, is done on your own through reading assignments and accompanying lecture materials.
In order to successfully complete this course, you should plan your schedule very carefully and try to stick to it. A campus course that meets two times a week will take an average of four hours of student preparation per week. Since you are not meeting as a traditional class, you can expect to spend an average of six to seven hours per week on your online course work. Look carefully at your work schedule, school schedule, and family obligations and allow plenty of time for each.
When taking a online course you must take the initiative to ask your instructor questions if you do not understand the material. You may have to communicate with your instructor with an e-mail message or you may have to call the instructor and leave a message on an answering machine. Either way, the response from the instructor might not be instantaneous. You must learn to move on to other material and wait for your instructor to respond.
This course will use the Angel course management system.
You must login to the course via Angel on the first day of instruction for Library 04. You can view a tentative syllabus by clicking here.
Before the class start date:
Before the class starts, if a currently enrolled student drops the course then waitlisted students are automatically enrolled based on their place on the waitlist. For example, if you are second on the waitlist then two currently enrolled students would have to drop the course for you to be enrolled automatically. Check MyWebServices (http://westvalley.edu/mywebservices/) to see your place on the waitlist.
First day of class:
Acces to class on ANGEL (http://wvmccd.angellearning.com/) is only open for registered students. Unlike face-to-face classes there isn’t a way to "sit in" on the first day for waitlisted or non-waitlisted students. If on the first day of class, I have registered students that have dropped or do not login then I will contact waitlisted students the next day to see if they would still like to register for the class. Those students contacted will have 24 hours to respond. The number of waitlisted students are contacted based on number of available spots in the class and in the order of the waitlist.
