R. Craig Collins > ITSE 1294 > Announcements

Announcements © R. Craig Collins, 2005/6

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I'd like to welcome you all to ITSE 1294, also known as ITSE-1294 Spc Tops CIS: Hlth Care Occup.
I realize this is not the first time I have spoken with some of you, but I just want to make sure everyone is starting on the same page.

To begin with, the course material can be found at:
http://www.templejc.edu/dept/cis/ccollins/itse1294/index.html

The first thing you'll notice there is probably the text books; I only require Practical PC, but I strongly recommend you have access to an Office 2007 reference. Any book store will have shelves of these, and the campus bookstore has two or three, I personally prefer Absolute Beginners due to its layout, and low cost.

Once you start looking around the web site, you may get a little overwhelmed... just take a breath and relax. Taken a little bit at a time, say, over 6-8 weeks, you should find it to be a very manageable pace. (PS, my 1294 class that just finished, 65% got A's, and 20% earned B's... the primary reason the other folks didn't get an A was they didn't turn everything in... so they could chalk that up to poor time management :)

The next item you should probably look over is the Orientation, at
http://www.templejc.edu/dept/cis/ccollins/itse1294/orientation.html

This will discuss what you should be working on now, after you get your practical PC book, and after you are signed up into Desire2Learn (D2L), the on-line support tool you'll be using to submit homework, participate in discussions (just once a week, no specific time), and take tests. You will receive a separate email THIS WEEKEND from the College telling you how to log in, once your account has been created. (Each time you will need to use D2L, you will also get instructions on how to do it... it is actually fairly easy, and I expect you'll be pros very quickly.

Often the biggest challenges for on-line students are two fold:
1) committing the time you need to get the work done by the deadlines, (a problem for all classes, but perhaps more so on-line) and
2) not having an instructor right there to answer questions.

Just because this is an online class, that doesn't mean you have to rely only on emails, or the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) web page on the class web site.
http://www.templejc.edu/dept/cis/ccollins/itse1294/faq.html

First off, I have reserved a block of time, Monday afternoon, from 12:30-2:30 where you can come see me, and even work with me in a lab if needed. I also run a lab Wednesday afternoon, from 12:30-2:30 (Watson 522) that you can drop by, as well as an evening lab Thursdays, from about 7:30-9:30, also in WTC 522. You can see my office hours, and a map to my office, as well as see the rest of my class schedule at this page:
http://tc.templejc.edu/dept/cis/ccollins/OfficeHours.htm

That's about it for now, in the future look for updates on the D2L 1294 main page, and occassional emails, and I await hearing from you soon.

If you are having any trouble getting started, please feel free to come by my lab Wednesday's in Watson Tech #522 from 12:30-2:30, or stop by my office hours Thursday afternoon, Watson Tech #507. I also have a lab Thursday evening, if that fits better into your schedule.

This class is not on the Practical PC CD or D2L, they are just tools to support this on-line class. So, let me help you with those if you need it.

Recall also, you must complete the Tutorials in each Practical PC chapter, but don't worry about that grade. However, you are graded on the Quick Checks and the GetIt quizzes... if you bomb one of these (usually due to spelling, computers need exact matches), you may repeat it to improve your score. However, I don't want to see you trying 38 times, once or twice, okay?

R. Craig Collins
Faculty, Temple College
2600 S. First St.
Watson Technical Center, #507
Temple, TX 76504-7435
254-298-8461
http://www.templejc.edu/dept/cis/ccollins/collins.htm