Some basics.

General, Logging on to Blackboard, Getting Started in Blackboard.

Here we will go over a few things, most of which will become obvious to you when you start the course, but it may help you to have seen them first. Three documents you have already seen are: Syllabus, which contain administrative information about the course; Outline, which has broad-brush descriptions of the modules, schedule and reading assignments; and Overview, which has some information for students about taking this course on-line.

Blackboard vs. Class Website.
UAF's electronic course management tool is called "Blackboard." It has many handy features, but we do not use all of them. Some that we do use are announcements, on-line quizzes, the gradebook, and the discussion boards. There are two kinds of discussion board, an individual board, that anyone can post to, and an group board that only your group can post to.

Blackboard does not handle websites well. Therefore, much of the course material is on my faculty web server. Using the two is quite intuitive, but it may help you to realize that they are two different entities. Blackboard requires a password; the website does not.

To access Blackboard, you must have a UAF e-mail account, which all of you have; it was issued when or soon after you registered the first time at UAF and has an address of the form myname@alaska.edu.  You will also need a password, which, if you do not already have one, can be obtained by following the instructions on the Blackboard sign-in page – see the “New user?” link on Blackboard.  That link will take you to ELMO, where you can also find directions to instruct the system to forward your UAF e-mails to your off-campus e-mail account.

If you have trouble obtaining a password, the UAF Office of Information Technology (OIT) has a well managed and helpful help desk.  Here is their contact information: Fairbanks area: tel: 907-450-8300; fax: 907-450-8312
Outside Fairbanks:1-800-478-8226; Email: helpdesk@alaska.edu

Learning Modules vs. Textbook
Most of the instruction take place in the learning modules. The weekly module is the administrative unit for the course. Some modules have several learning sub-modules, others only one.

You will go initially to the course webpage and then to that week's module. You will probably want to bookmark the course website homepage, as well as Blackboard.

The modules generally have the same format: A brief introduction about the module, a recitation of the data from the Outline, a table that is the index to the submodules, and the homework assignment for that module.

The textbook is one of the best graduate course textbooks I have used. You should always read the chapters indicated in the course outline. You can read it before or after the leaning module. Occasionally I make reference to things from the textbook that are especially important, that I don't want to retype, or things that are especially unimportant. Your text has many sidebars and insets, these are quite informative. Each chapter has an appendix called "Directed Reading." These are likewise informative and I invite you to read them, but they are not required, unless I so indicate.

Quizzes, Assignments, Discussion Groups
While most of the instruction takes place in the learning modules and the textbook, most of the learning takes place on your side of the monitor, most of it in the assignments, quizzes and discussion groups. The assignments ask you to manipulate knowledge and acquire more.

Guide for Submitting Assignments
You will submit electronic assignments using e-mail to raperkins@alaska.edu. You should also use email if you have any direct student questions or issues.
Rules:
Always keep an electronic copy of your assignments.
Label the homework files as shown: For the homework for Module 8, for example, if your name is Jon Smith, the file would be HW8_SmithJxxxx.doc. Where the xxxx could be your file number, if you want one, or omitted. Use the underscore, not a dash or space. You need to save the file using this system. Sorry if this seems a little picky, but it is much more efficient if I know what the file is about before I open it.
Sometimes there is more than one file for a particular assignment. In that case I will tell you in the assignment what label to use, perhaps HW8A and HW8B.

All the quizzes are "open book" so you can and should look up answers. (More on that below.) Most of the quizzes are quite simple, if you have read the text and worked through the learning module. Also, there is a similar quiz on the Wiley website that tells you the correct answers. The discussion groups pose a topic and you are asked to contribute to the discussion. Your contribution might be technical, perhaps some fact to look up and report, or you might be asked for your point of view or ideas on something. The outline of the discussion is given in the homework assignments and/or pre-loaded on the discussion board..

Most modules will have an electronic quiz. Access a quiz in Blackboard via the Course Document link in the blue area at the upper left of any Blackboard page. Most of these are multiple choice or true-false and generally you won't have a chance to change your answers once you enter them.. When you take these you are given your score when you finish. Sometimes a student's browser will cut them off during a quiz. That scores an incomplete attempt and gives the student a low score. We will put a text copy of the quiz somewhere in the module for you to work on before you actually log onto the quiz in Blackboard.