Module 1 Course Orientation

Some Useful Study Guidelines for Students The purpose of this course is not only mastering some performance competencies set by the curriculum but also providing students with ample opportunities to apply their learning back to personal lives, works, and current or future studies. In order to achieve this course goal, it is recommended to utilize several learning principles and structures to meet those needs. Following guidelines explain those intentions in detail. All students need to thoroughly understand these guidelines and use them as a "guide" to make better learning throughout the course. Learning principles applied This course will apply four general learning principles for classroom and online learning. 1. Self-directed active learning Learning will be self-directed and initiated by the learner through class and Internet interactions. The learner is mainly responsible for his/her own learning. Instructor guides the learner with carefully planned interventions and learning resources whenever they are needed and considered to be appropriate to enhance the quality of learner's learning process. 2. Networked collaborative learning Learners will be directly and/or indirectly involved in group and networked activities to augment their learning experience and develop team or group knowledge. Team or group learning will help learners learn not only how to learn from peers but how to teach them. In this networked environment, the learners will diversify their learning experience through the mixed teaching and learning mode. 3. Engaged knowledge building To make the self-directed and networked collaborative learning experience successful, the learners are required to make active involvement and interaction in the learning process with other peer learners. To make this happen, the learners will voluntarily participate in question/answer sessions, group discussion sessions, and other team activities occurred through online learning environment. This collaborative learning environment will contribute to the team/group knowledge building. The accumulated group knowledge will then base the learning ground for the learners in the next learning cycle. This cyclical knowledge building process eventually will result in a master course knowledge database which will be utilized by learners, instructors, and tutors to enhance instruction. 4. Applied and transferred learning To ensure mastery of the required core competencies of the course, learners will be asked to apply course learning to their work, studies, and daily lives at the each stage of the course. Framework of learning To fully achieve course learning objectives and help student learning progress, the following framework of learning will be used to structure students' learning experience. Self-paced and individualized learning phase Learner studies the course content according to the learner's own learning speed and competency level. Group learning phase Learner interacts with other peer students and/or tutors to augment learning experience and accumulate group knowledge. Learning application phase Learner applies his/her own learning to actual events or works to internalize the required competency. Learning and transfer evaluation phase Evaluate the learning before, during, and right after a course. Evaluate the application of learning during and right after the course. * Each phase of the framework of learning can be processed either in a linear or mixed pattern according to the intention of the learning experience of an instruction. As a summary, the framework of learning can be illustrated as the following diagram.   I believe the above mentioned guidelines will help students study and apply what they learn during the class throughout the semester and even after the course. You have an assignment for this learning module. This assignment will allow you to practice some activities needed to get familiar with the course structure and communicate better with other students and with instructor for class purpose. If you want to do the assignment now, click on the following link and complete the assignment. The assignment will also be available at the Links area of D2L class homepage (Assignments list). Assignment 1 Also, since we have a shorten class period during the summer and in order to provide enough preparation time for the next assignment, you can read and continue with assignment 2 instruction from below link. Assignment 2