• Director's Note
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• Session This Week
  • In the Classroom
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• Next Week's Sessions

Director's Notes

WELCOME INTERNS! Congratulations to all of you who were selected for the PI Internship this semester. We are so happy to have a fresh group of interns to bring new insights and experiences to our sessions at the institute. Feel free to make yourself at home and explore the building as this will be your home away from home for the next 16 weeks as we immerse you in the world of human learning and behavior.  You are officially one of our newest Interns. To learn more about your 16 week internship please review the Internship Manual and read all about the expectations we have of all our interns (i.e., read the syllabus) and the exciting training schedule (i.e., the course schedule) my staff and I have specifically designed for you, our newest interns. I hope you will be able to find your way around our building. We have a Library where you can find numerous resources for your studies.  We also have a Conference Room available for formal and informal chats and discussions with me, the Director, or with other Interns. Do take some time to check your progress report each week to make sure your internship is moving in a positive direction.  If I can do anything to facilitate your use of the Institute please do let me know. Once you have explored the Institute (the course home page), click on "This Week at the Institute" each week to see what sessions our staff has available for you to attend.

As we begin this course some of you may have been together in previous online classes and have had the opportunity to get to know one another. However, for some of you this is your first online course! I would like us to take time this week to participate in several activities that will assist me and others to get to know you and will also introduce me to you!

Our Institute Staff is small but very efficient and effective and here to provide you with the ultimate internship experience.  I, Dr. L. K. Curda, am the Director. I also want you to get to know our Internship Coordinator (Mentor) at the Institute, Ms. Melissa Kelly. Melissa will be online and available to assist you with any and all technical difficulties this semester. To put faces to our names and learn more about us see below.  Please do not hesitate to call on one or both of us whenever you are in need of assistance. Also note that a link to each of our email addresses is provided at the bottom of each weekly page. We are a simple click away. To put faces to our names glance at the pics below. To put faces to our names and learn more about us go to the PI Staff page.

Dr. L. K. Curda Associate Professor University of West Florida
Ms. Melissa Kelly Super Mentor And Graduate Student University of West Florida
Melissa's main responsibility throughout this course will be helping anyone with technical problems. So, if you have any questions related to downloading, accessing, sending attachments, etc., she is the first one you should email. Melissa provides technical assistance to ALL students enrolled in numerous online classes in our Masters program. As you can imagine she stays pretty busy. Like the rest of us, Melissa also has a busy life with a full-time job, her own courses, and gets paid only a small amount to work as a mentor, so please do not expect her to drop everything the second you send her an email. She will do her best to respond to you as quickly as possible and assist you with your problem. If you have questions related to the course content and assignments, you should not send these to Melissa, but to me. Melissa will also be available for general guidance through the course and is responsible for tracking all your assignments. She will be keeping track of your weekly assignments in the class gradebook (progress reports). So, if you have any questions related to the gradebook she is the first one you should email. Also, if you turn in an assignment late, you should be sure to email her so she will know to backtrack, check, and give you partial credit. Melissa is human just like the rest of us and is likely to make errors here and there when trying to keep track of everyone's assignments. If you find an error, please email her to request respectfully that she review your assignments, giving as much detail as possible to help her identify the problem. The gradebook will be updated once each week. If the error is not corrected the following week, then feel free to send her a friendly reminder. As a mentor, Melissa is here to help me with the extra time it takes to coordinate interns (teach an online course) and to help you with any and all questions you may have.  Melissa is well aware of my expectations related to assignments, participation, and anything else you may want to know but be hesitant to ask. She may also be able to answer any content-related questions if you are somehow unable to get a hold of me. Melissa is a student of several of our online course. Feel free to ask her any questions you may have. At times, if she is not confident she can provide the answer she may ask you to send an email to me also. As the instructor, I (Dr. Curda) grade all assignments and provide all feedback so if you have a questions related to this you should always communicate with me.

Each Wednesday at 5 PM at the Institute the Director posts the Sessions for the Week (what you are reading right now) and provides a complete overview and description of the Institute Sessions. Each week's agenda provides for a message from the Director (your instructor - me).  Following this, all Interns may continue through each Session.  Getting Your Training Materials should be your logical next stop because it assures each intern that when he/she attends sessions each week that everything he/she needs will be available. Once you obtain your session materials, all interns are directed to the appropriate sessions for the week. A variety of sessions are offered throughout the week so interns do not get bored looking at the same four walls day after day.  All interns must review the Training Checklist each week and then check their Progress Report with the Internship Coordinator. You may also read a brief description of the sessions for the next week. 

Many students generally ask about access to future weeks for this course so you can work ahead if possible.  This option is available to you at the Institute.  By next week I will have posted almost all future weekly sessions so you can get your dues in ahead of time if you choose. Please note, however, that the "Director's Notes" section will remain blank until the current week.  As the Director, I like to post my message each new week so I am able to post timely information in regards to institute events.  This means that even if you work ahead you will still need to check in at least once a week at the institute and make sure you are informed of any changes to the sessions.  In addition, even if you do work ahead other interns may not and one of your responsibilities each week includes reading and replying to discussions.  This will require you to wait until others have posted to the discussion so that you can reply. 

There are many ways in which you can work ahead in this course.  You may choose to start work early on one of the major assignments, read ahead in the text, etc.  You are welcome to work ahead in whatever manner suits you.  I have provided this option in other courses I teach online and can tell you that although many applauded the opportunity at the beginning of the semester, few actually ever worked ahead.  Just keeping up each week seemed to be enough work for most.  However, it did assist those who, on occasion, had to go out of town for work or play and wanted to get ahead for a single week. So, next week, check out the schedule page and you should be able to access all past and future institute events.

Director's Expectations:

The Progress Report will have weekly checklists posted. The purpose of the checklists is to provide you with a current assessment of your status related to weekly assignments, including threaded discussions. Each of you will be listed by the last 4 digits of your social security number. Each Friday the Internship Coordinator will update the checklists for assignments during the previous week to reflect the assignments you have completed. The weekly checklists should be used by you to determine that your participation in weekly assignments is noted but is not evaluative in any way. At this time it is probably wise for me to add a brief note about my expectations related to participation in threaded discussions, etc.

Discussions: To ensure that the quality of your assignments meets my expectations please be sure to revisit threaded discussions from previous weeks to check for any comments or suggestions I may have provided you. I will not respond to every individual every week even though I do read everyone's postings. At times, I will simply add to the comments you have made and give you an atta boy/girl for a good submission. Other times, you may find that I ask you to elaborate or provide more depth to your postings. You may also find that your peers ask you to do the same. If you see these types of replies it should indicate that you have not fully met the requirements or expectations of the assignment. Here, I do expect you to post a reply in response to my questions or your peers' questions. If you do not bother to go back and read and add additional postings when necessary then your participation grade may take a small downward turn throughout the semester. If you happen to check the threads and I did not respond to you then please expect that I was satisfied with your answer and you have complete credit for participation. You should be concerned that your participation grade will suffer if you habitually post your assignments late. Posting late reduces the likelihood that your peers will be able to go back and read your post and provide you with feedback, input, etc. if you do post late it is your responsibility to email the Internship Coordinator (Melissa) and let her know. Melissa will not be checking all the past weeks for late assignments. Once she is done with the checklist for the previous week, there is no reason for her to continually backtrack unless she is notified by you that it is necessary. If you do notify Melissa of a late posting please be as detailed as possible. Some weeks there are many assignments to choose from and it will help her find your postings if she knows which ones to check.

When you participate in a threaded discussion I expect that you will read the posts of your peers and respond to them just as you would if they made a similar statement in class. You may ask for clarification, reaffirm what they say, add on to their example, question the legitimacy of their statements, etc. This creates discussion around the topic which is the goal of the exercise. Replies should not simply consist of "I agree" or "Right on." It must be more thoughtful and in depth than that. As many of us (myself included) are procrastinators, most people do not post to the required threads until the day they are due. This creates some difficulty if everyone is also trying to respond to everyone by the same date. Therefore, my general policy is that you post your original response to the thread during the first week it is assigned. The following week you should spend some time reading everyone's posts and responding to your peers. In addition to your post I require that each student respond to at least 3 of their peers within each thread in which they participate. To clarify... you should respond to 3 others' ORIGINAL posts as well as reply to those who reply to YOUR original post if anyone queries you.

If when you post your original response there are others to whom you would like to reply then feel free to post your replies within the same week. However, this extra week given for response to peers allows you some leeway in responding to others. I am going to insert reminders in each thread to make sure this is clear and everyone receives their points for participation so I hope this will help. The idea is that you read how others are thinking about the topic and to clarify, expand, or reaffirm your own understanding. Please let me know if you are still unclear about these requirements and I will try to clarify further. You will notice that your weekly checklists will have separate post and reply columns because I view these as separate assignments within the weeks they are listed. Feel free to post replies early.

Each column in the weekly checklist will be carefully labeled as to what assignment is being marked. If you are unclear what assignment is being marked please feel free to email Melissa. She will be updating the checklists each Friday. If you have any questions related to an assignment that you have not received credit for please email Melissa. Please allow her at least one week to post an updated checklist for the previous week. Also, don't panic if you aren't marked for something you have done. Melissa and I both make mistakes and are glad to review anything as long as you call it to our attention in a polite manner. 

Chats: Chat times will be made available each week as necessary to facilitate learning and group discussion of current sessions at the Institute.  Chats are not required at any time.  They are made available for interns who enjoy this form of communication with the Director and other interns.  Beginning next week, a weekly chat time will be posted on the Training Checklist.  All patrons are welcome to join in.  If you have never used chat then go to the Conference Room where you will find links to directions and login information.

Late Assignments: My final comment to you in this section this week (normally this section is much shorter) is in relation to turning in assignments late. As I noted above, your participation grade will suffer if you continually post to threads late. However, in relation to other assignments (i.e., papers, projects, etc.), my late policy is this. For every day the assignment is late I take off 10% of the total possible points for that assignment. For example, if an assignment is worth 100 points and you turn it in 1 day late, the most points you can receive is 90. If you turn it in 3 days late, the most you can receive is 70. After 10 days, your assignment is worth 0 points so there is no reason for you to turn it in. If you have any questions about this policy please let me know. I am generally a pretty understanding person so it would behoove you to contact me if you know something will be late to receive an approved extension.  If an extension is approved by me then the late charges do not apply. An extension can only be given if I am contacted PRIOR to the due date.  The bottom line here is keep me informed!

I hope the overview of the Institute procedures above assists you in quickly becoming an intern that is ready to shine. 
 
I hope most of you have already ordered and received the textbook for this class. If not please make this your first priority this week as we will begin discussing chapter 1 next week. Do not fret that boredom will overcome you this week if you do not have your text because there are plenty of tasks to keep you busy this week.

My goals for you this week are to:

• familiarize yourself with the course web site, particularly the forms of communication
• familiarize yourself with the major goals and topics for this course as well as the major forms of assessment
• get to know your instructor, mentor and peers through participation in the icebreaker threaded discussion, posts to the listserv, and personal home pages
• prepare yourself to begin learning about theories of learning, cognition, instruction, and development
• use the TIP database to begin exploring theories and their applications in a variety of learning domains
• download and install appropriate software needed to receive course presentations and materials

Get Training
Materials

Each week this section will provide you with any necessary material that will be essential for you completing sessions. This week most of your tasks will center around getting to know one another in the course and making sure all technical aspects of the course are in order.

Task #1:
You need to have version 5.0 (or higher) of Adobe Reader installed on your computer to be able to access some of the files provided in the course.  Many of you may already have this program installed.  Check before you take the time to download and install it.  If you need to download the program, use one of the following two methods.

• Option 1 - Download and install the program from the Adobe website:
  1. Go to the Adobe website: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
  2. Download Adobe Reader.
  3. Follow the instructions on the website for installing the program.

• Option 2 - Download and install the program from SoftServ:
  1. Log-in to Argus: http://argus.uwf.edu
  2. Click the IT Help tab.
  3. Scroll down to the IT Self Service channel.
  4. Click the Free Software Downloads link.
  5. Select and install Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  6. Follow the instructions on the website for installing the program.
   If you have any difficulties email Melissa (your Internship Coordinator).

Task #2:
One communication strategy for many on-line courses is through a class listserv. A listserv is a distributed mailing service enabling you to send mail to one email address which then sends the mail to everyone subscribed on the list. The list being used for this course is called "web".  Instructions for subscribing to the list are provided for you to join the listserv for this course in the Conference Room. Additional information about other forms of communication, such as chat and threaded discussions are also there for you to read and review as necessary. Read and follow the directions for subscribing to the listserv for this course.

Task #3:
I would like for you to email me with the name you preferred to be called and your home and work numbers in case email fails us. It is important that I am always able to get in touch with you when necessary. In most cases I will do this by email using the classlist or the eLearning email system. Therefore, please make sure that he email the university has listed for you is one you check.  If not, you can choose to change the email address or forward your mail to the account you use.  Directions for this can be found on the UWF ITS web site.  

• Email your Director;
• Email the Mentor;
• Email other interns.
• Refer to the Course FAQ.

To Our Sessions for the Week
(To Page 2 of 3)