Week 16: FAQs for Health 101 Online

I had to laugh while doing this week’s reading.  The articles could easily be describing me.  I had every article opened on a new tab on my laptop, along with tabs for Pinterest and Facebook.  My cell phone was sitting next to me on the couch and the mid-day news was on TV!  I am not the “typical” college student demographic, but I definitely understood how many of our students operate while trying to complete their online work.  I always tell my students that multi-tasking will take longer for them to complete their assignments and the quality of work will not be as good, yet here I am, doing the same thing!

Here are some FAQs for Health 101:

• How do I contact my instructor?  Email is best since I do not regularly check Blackboard messages.  Email me at mconrey@miracosta.edu.   Remember, you may be doing homework at 2:00am, but I am probably not online at that time.  Please allow 24 hours for a response to an urgent matter, and up to 3 business days for a general question.  Sometimes, several students will have the same question and when this happens I will send out an announcement to the entire class for clarification.

• I’ve never taken an online class before.  Where do I start?  You can login to Blackboard HERE.  For a general tour of our class site, watch the screencast below.

• How do I know if my work was submitted?  You can always check the Blackboard Grade Center to see if your work was submitted.  Once you’ve submitted an assignment, you will see an exclamation point (!) in the Blackboard Grade Center.  This means your work was submitted, but hasn’t been graded yet.  If you do not see an exclamation point or a score, your work was not submitted.  Please make sure that all document attachements are in doc, docx, pdf, or rtf format.  Other formats will not be accepted.

• Can I turn in work whenever I want or work ahead in the class?  You may turn in work anytime during the week before the due date.  Due dates are always Tuesdays by 11:00pm, and assignments for the week will not be accepted after that time (all assignments disappear from Blackboard at 11:01pm Tuesdays).  You are always welcome to work ahead if you would like (apprixmately 4 weeks of assignments will be posted at a time).  Keep in mind that you are required to respond to fellow students in the Discussion Board, so you may need to visit the Blackboard site several times during the week.

• What if I have problems with Blackboard?  If you are having technical difficulties, please contact the Student Help Desk for assistance.  The Student Help Desk also provides video tutorials on Blackboard if you have a specific question regarding how to submit assignments, create discussion threads, etc.