Professor Ray Saenz

On-Campus Orientation Sessions:

Welcome to my courses. Attendance at one of the above course-specific sessions with me is required. These are different to the general WebCT orientations offered by the Distance Learning Department (not required by me at this time). If you are excused by me from the former, or even if you will be attending, please follow the instructions below to become familiar with the requirements, logon procedures, and websites related to the Online Courses:

• I will add you to your course after attendance in one of the above Orientations.

• Courses: Psychology 2301-General; Psychology 2314-Lifespan; Social Psychology; Introduction to Social Work.

Your section number is indicated on your receipt or class schedule printout.

• Go to my Website: http://www.delmar.edu/socsci/rasaenz/rasaenz.html

Review the Syllabus and Schedule for your course, either Psychology 2301 or Psychology 2314.

Email me any questions you may have, also indicating the course and section you are registered for (Example: 6389.709). Once you are logged into your online course, ALL email should be inside the course.

I will email you back in answer to your questions or with the logon data. Then to logon, scroll to the bottom of this Online Orientation Guide. Click any active LOGON link at the bottom of this page.

• At the Course Logon Page, for User enter your WebCT ID, exactly as given to you.

You may usually obtain your ID/Password from the Helpdesk (698-2330). The DMC Help Desk is available to help with technical problems but they should not be expected to substitute for computer literacy courses or to provide a "quickie course" in the skills mentioned below.

• After logging into the course, first take the PRETEST (do not study, does not affect grade). After that, the Course Mainpage will open. Once that occurs, read all my postings in the Bulletin Board, regardless of dates.

ADVICE/CAVEAT FOR ONLINE STUDENTS

Online classes require us to do independent learning, to maintain good study habits, and to not procrastinate. You must logon daily, to at the minimum check the Bulletin Board and your Private InClass Email. Of course, you should study on a daily basis, use the "Study Tools" inside the class, following the schedule I have provided you, targeting Exam dates. If you do not follow this caveat, chances of passing the courses are very low.

If you do not have the technical/computer literacy skills required, chances of passing the course are low and I suggest taking an on-campus course until you do have those skills. Too many students sign up and are then overwhelmed by this. If you honestly see that is your case, then drop the course before the last drop day, or you will end up with an F. Some of those skills are: downloading software, installing software, downloading websites, saving off the internet, creating a folder in your harddrive; using an html editor for creating, editing and re-saving html files; uploading, attaching files, logging onto courses or sites, troubleshooting your computer, configuring your computer's settings properly, booting and re-booting, knowing your computer's resources (processor and speed, RAM, OS, connection type and speed, etc), closing programs, recovering RAM, connecting to the internet, maintaining a connection to the internet, browser settings, modem settings, closing unnecessary programs, among other skills.

SOFTWARE:

WebCT 4.1-Starting Spring 2004, both Internet Explorer 5.0 + and Netscape 6.2 to 7.0+ are "supported". Older machines with less capabilities and lower RAM may have trouble using the newer "bulky" versions, so you may want to test older, "leaner" browser versions, which are linked below for your convenience. (AOL users: After connecting to the internet via AOL, minimize AOL and use one of the validated browsers to go into the course. You will avoid problems.) WebCT is a web/internet-based software, which means that papers/pages display best in it if they are in html format, the language of the Internet.

WebCT Version	Browsers	Validated Browser Versions	Non-Validated	Unsupported
CE 4.1	AOL	7.0, 8.0, 9.0	4.0	3.0 and earlier
"	Microsoft IE	5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 7	---	4.0 and 5.5 SP1
"	Netscape Suite	6.2.x, 7.0, 7.1	---	4.7x to 4.8*, 6.0 and 6.1
"	MOZILLA	1.5, 1.6	---	---

HTML EDITOR-As indicated, papers/pages display best in WebCT when in html format. Items prepared under Works do not display inside WebCT, and others do not either. For your Book Reports and Articles to be submitted as attachments within the courses, write the Book Report and edit the saved articles with the free Composer software that is part of any version of the Netscape Communicator Suite or Mozilla Suite software. If you own another html editor, you may use it. WARNING: If you do not know how to do the above, please seek advise quickly so that you don't get behind or fail to meet the deadlines for submitting the required book report or 20 articles. You may also try to do the above in a word processing program [OpenOffice (free), Wordperfect, Word], and save as html. I have some instructions posted on the Class Bulletin Board if you want to experiment. You may send the experiments to me and I will let you know how they came through. Remember, that is all INSIDE the courses, not to any other email address.

These assignments and the tools you are challenged to use, are partly intended to help the student expand their skills and knowledge, and make them more competitive at the college/university level, and in the workforce. If you are able to show you can perform a certain task, solve an issue, or be knowledgeable, that may be what makes the difference between you or someone else being hired. Thus using Composer, which to some students seems an insurmountable task, actually is a learning experience. When preparing the articles, imagine you are cutting and pasting paper, forming and submitting a neat, clean-looking article. It is what you are doing, but instead of using scissors, you are using software. What grade would you get if basically you tore an article out, crumple-folded it into a folder and turned that in? That is the equivalent of turning in an article-page full of formatting errors, scrambled text, empty graphics boxes, etc.

I look forward to working with you, and wish you a successful semester in all your educational efforts. Click the active LOGON item for your course.

©2001-2007 Copyright by Professor Ray Saenz