Navigating Your Course

Transcription

1 Dear Online Learner, We are looking forward to your participation in Immortal Diamond: A Study in Search of the True Self! The course opens at 9am (Mountain Time) on Wednesday, April 30, In this document are some important pieces of information that will help you prepare for the online course: 1. General Course Information (Pages 1 3) 2. Instructions on Navigating the Course Pages..(Pages 4 15) General Course Information Accessing the Course Bookmark on your internet browser. This web address is the portal for the online course. Your username for this portal is the same address that we used to send you this . Your starter password is trueself14. (You will not be able to login to the course until after 9am (Mountain Time) on April 30). For example: Username: example@ .com (your address, all lowercase letters) Password: trueself14 (all lowercase, the number "14", no spaces) (You will be prompted to change your password after the first time you log-in. You can OnlineEducation@cac.org to reset your password if you lose it.) Helpful Reminders as You Begin The first week of the course is solely intended to familiarize online learners with the online platform. If this platform is new to you, it will take a little time and patience to acquaint yourself with it. On Wednesday of each succeeding week, a new section of the course will open. Once a course section is opened, it will remain open through July 9, The new section will open automatically at 9am (Mountain Time) each Wednesday. You will not receive an notification that the next section is open. The course will open to online learners on April 30, 2014 and will close on July 9, After July 9, 2014, online learners will no longer have access to the 1

2 course (extensions and/or transfer of registration to another course are not available). On page 4, you will find Instructions on Navigating the Course Pages. This document will help you navigate through the online course. It is important to review this document before you begin the course. We recommend that online learners engage in the required teachings and readings first before exploring supplemental material. For video-based teachings we suggest using computer speakers to control volume. You are encouraged to participate in the Discussion Forums at the level with which you are comfortable. We expect that online learners will respect one another's posts, processing and journeys throughout the course. Although we do not anticipate any issues, we will remove online learners from the course who are being disrespectful of others. A Teaching Assistant will help facilitate conversation in the course. Direct course content related questions to the TA. Please see the Questions section below for steps to resolving technical problems and a contact list for further assistance. Privacy and Copyright This course is password protected and only available to online learners who registered for the course. Anything posted in a Discussion Forum will only be viewed by registered online learners. The contents of this course are not searchable with internet search engines. You can upload a "profile photo" if you wish. If you have a photo attached to the address you provided, the online platform may automatically upload that photo to your profile. You can add or delete your profile photo at any time. Your online learner profile will list your full name. If you wish to keep your personal information private, refer to the instructions on how to edit your profile once the course has opened. Please carefully discern what amount of sharing in Discussion Forums is appropriate for you. We ask that online learners respect one another's privacy and not share one another's contact details or forum posts outside the course. This course and its materials are copyrighted by the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC). You may not copy or share any materials or links from this course. 2

3 Questions when you are in the Course If you encounter any issues relating to the course, first visit our Rohr Institute Online Education FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page. If your question is not answered there, post your question in the Help Forum within the course. The Help Forum will be open for the first week of the course. If a question comes up after the Help Forum closes, reach out to us through the contact list below. Please only the address that corresponds to the issue; this will help maintain a fluid process for all involved. You can expect an answer within 2 business days. Help with Technical Issues, Log-in and Password, send an to OnlineEducation@cac.org Help with CAC bookstore orders, send an to orders@cac.org We are looking forward to your participation in this course! All the best, Rohr Institute Online Education Team P.S. Remember to review the instructions below before the course begins! 3

4 Instructions on Navigating the Course Pages All of the images below are example pictures to prepare you for what you will see in the online course. Step 1: Login at Enter your Username and Password. Click Login. If you have forgotten your password, to have your password reset. Please make sure that you add to your list so that s from this address do not go into your Spam folder. 4

5 After the first time you log-in you may be asked to change your password. Follow the instructions on the page. Follow the promptings until you reach the screen below, and then click Home. 5

6 Step 2: Enter your course 6

7 Step 3: Begin going through the work in the course Important Software Reminder There will be documents that will require you to have the latest version of the free Adobe Reader software. There will be videos that will require you to have a recent version of Flash, you can test what version of Flash your computer runs on by visiting this website, 7

8 Begin with the Lesson in each week before moving on to the readings. When you click on Invitation and Preface (as an example) you will be inside of a Lesson. You can navigate through a Lesson by following the buttons at the bottom of each page or by clicking through the pages in the Lesson Menu in the upper right hand corner (see illustration on the following page). 8

9 Step 4: Working through the Lessons When you are in full-screen mode to view a video you will have to hit the Esc key to return to the normal view. 9

10 Returning to the Course Home Page from anywhere in the Course When you want to return to the course home page, click the course abbreviation in the breadcrumbs area of the content pages. Participating in Discussions During each Lesson, you will be asked to participate in a Discussion Forum specific to that Lesson. Click on the X Discussion Forum from the course home page to enter the lesson-specific Discussion Forum. Once in the Discussion Forum, follow these instructions to participate: 1. Click Discuss this topic in the lower right hand corner of the message 10

11 2. Once you have clicked Discuss this topic you will see all of the posts responding to this topic. To reply to the topic, click on Reply. WARNING: If you are typing a lengthy reply, please type it in your word processing software first. Then copy the text you ve typed and paste it in the Message box portion of your forum reply. That way if you lose your Internet connection while composing, you will still have your writing! To paste within the Message box, use CTRL-V (PC) or CMD-V (Mac) keys. PRIVACY: Your Discussion Forum postings will be seen by every online learner. If you have a personal message to send to an individual, please use the Participants link on the course home page it s in the right hand column. Personal messages will be forwarded to the recipient s address. ASKING TECHNICAL OR GENERAL COURSE QUESTIONS: Please refrain from replying to a lesson discussion with a technical issue or a general question about the course. Look on the course home page for help links, the Help Forum (open only for the first week of the course), or post general comments in the Conversation Forum. 11

12 3. Posting your reply 12

13 Editing Your Personal Profile Some online learners wish to edit their profile for personal privacy reasons. To change your personal info go to My profile settings underneath Settings in the righthand sidebar. Once you clicked Edit profile you will be able to make changes. From this page you can add a profile picture, edit personal information, and change Forum tracking so you can see the number of unread posts in a Discussion Forum from the course home page (Instructions on how to do this are below). Forum Tracking Forum tracking helps you know when others have posted in a Discussion Forum. You can turn this feature on by following the first two steps in Edit profile. Scroll down to Forum tracking, click on Yes: highlight new posts for me. 13

14 After you have made the change, be sure to scroll down and click Update profile. Your course home page will now show if you have any unread posts: When you have finished making any changes to your profile, always remember to scroll down and click Update profile to save the changes. 14

15 Getting Help There are multiple ways to get help in the course. During the first week of the course, you can post a question in the Help Forum. Other online learners are often the quickest to respond with help to resolve issues. You can also one of the contacts on the course home page under the How to Get Help header that correlates to your specific question. Expect an answer within 2 business days, if not sooner. There will be more instructions in the Pre-Course Work Lesson to help familiarize you with the online platform once you are in the course. 15