A course orientation is used to familiarize the students with the course.
Information from the instructor at the beginning of the course should give the new student an idea of how the learning process is structured, including a schedule of topics and assignments, communications modes, and the types of activities and assessments required in the course. This information is often found in the course syllabus and reviewed in more detail in the introductory materials of the course.
Required evidence that this standard has been met includes:
- A detailed course syllabus (see Standard 3)
- A course orientation section or introductory lesson in the course
- For new students, an e-mail and/or printed letter is sent at the beginning of the course to explain how to get to the course website and what to do first once there.
Suggested Best Practices:
- Post a welcome message on the first screen of the course that students will see that tells them where to go in the site first.
- Provide an introductory lesson similar to what is covered on the first day of a face-to-face course, including:
- an introduction to the instructor(s) and TA(s)
- an overview of the course structure
- an overview of the course requirements including technical requirements
- a list of help resources (e.g., the ITS Help Desk, the World Campus Help Desk, vendor websites or campus contacts for specialized software or media) that includes a “testing” area containing samples of all media types used in the course, and links to any plug-ins they may need to download, so that students can test their connections and computers
- an overview of the course communications system, including how one should best ask questions.
- Include a “course information” quiz at the beginning of the course to test students’ knowledge of important course information.
- Include a “Scavenger hunt” assignment at the beginning of the course that leads students through an exploration of the different areas of the course.
- Publish a course schedule so students can easily see due dates and other important milestones.
- Post a weekly message to students to remind them of what they should be working on at a given point in time.