Lesson 1: Orientation
Welcome to College of the Siskiyous' online Geology of California course for Spring 2011. This week's lesson is designed to acquaint you with the course's resources and procedures so that you can "hit the ground running" when we begin to learn about California's geologic history, resources, and hazards next week.
Like our other lessons this semester, this one is divided into four parts: (1) a list of learning objectives—things you'll be expected to be able to do after mastering the concepts you study this week; (2) a guided reading and browsing assignment that will help direct your learning about the week's topics; (3) an exercise that will enable you to put what you have learned into practice; and (4) a brief quiz that will help me assess how well you've learned the main ideas and skills covered in this week's lesson. The formats of our exercises will vary; some will be taken from your Hazard City CD whereas others will be online exercises from a variety of sources. In each case, however, you will need to point your browser to the companion Etudes site in order to submit your answers. Quizzes and the final will be conducted on the Etudes site as well.
Exactly how all of this works will become clearer as you explore the websites that are at the heart of this lesson. If you encounter problems or have questions please write to me using e-mail or via the discussion board or a private message on the ETUDES site. I will check my e-mail as often as possible prior to the first week of class and check Etudes regularly beginning on about 10-Jan.
Weekly Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this week's lesson, a student is expected to be able to:
- Locate and use course resources on both this COS GEOL 20 site and on the companion Etudes site;
- Access the exercises on the Hazard City CD that we will be using throughout the semester.
Reading and Browsing Assignment
- Browse through the pages on this COS Geology of California website using the navigation bar on the left side of each page. Be sure that you read through the syllabus carefully and know where to find information about the writing assignments, how the scores on different assignments contribute to your grade, and what the policies are for late assignments, incompletes, and so on.
- Browse through the companion Etudes site for this course, and be sure that you know where the discussion board for the class is located as well as how to get into the "Assignments, Tests, and Surveys" tool. If you are new to Etudes you should review the Etudes student help page posted on the COS website. It will explain how to log into Etudes as well as how to carry out some basic tasks. Note that for all of your work in Etudes you will be expected to use the Firefox browser, which is available as a free download from Mozilla. This browser consistently downloads images from Etudes and displays them correctly, whereas Internet Explorer does not. You should download and install Firefox before you start this week's quiz if you do not already have it on your computer.
- Load your copy of the Hazard City, 3rd ed. CD into your computer, start it, and check-out the Glossary and Help sections and one or two of the exercises (just look, don't spend time working on them now.) [Note: This CD is available from the COS bookstore and may also be available from other online sites. If you purchase it from an off-campus vendor be sure to get the third edition (ISBN 0-13-156682-2). We are going to be using some of the exercises on this disk that are not included in the older editions.]
Exercise 1: Discussion Board Post (Due by 9:00 AM on 17-Jan-2011)
Now that you have had a look at the course websites and the Hazard City CD, go to the Etudes site and post a response to the welcome message I have left on the Etudes Discussion Board (under "Discussion and Private Messages" tool). This will help each of get to know a little more about our classmates, and what their backgrounds and goals are for the semester.
Quiz 1: Orientation (Due by 9:00 AM on 17-Jan-2011.)
Finally, complete Quiz 1 in the Etudes "Assignments, Tests, and Surveys" tool. There are ten questions, each worth one point. If you can answer all of them correctly it means that you know your way around the course resources pretty well and are ready to start learning about California's plate tectonic setting next week. Like all of our weekly quizzes, this one is timed (you'll have 30 minutes) and must be completed in one "sitting". (That is, you will only be granted access once.) So, be sure you're ready to complete your quiz when you start it—and be sure you're using Firefox. Good luck.
