Course Overview

Welcome to Philosophy 18 (Eastern Religions), online version!

Orientation

This overview

• describes each section of the Blackboard course and how it is to be used,
• discusses general expectations and standards,
• investigates what it takes to be a good online student,
• suggests that this course is really about "avoiding thinking" (and what that means),
• offers a reminder about the importance of reading instructions and asking for help if it's needed, and
• provides (a) copies of the first two reading assignments from the textbook (in case you haven't purchased it yet); (b) a comprehensive glossary of the key terms used in this course; and (c) a map of Eastern religions.

Blackboard

Blackboard is a way of using the Internet, accessed through your browser (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), to deliver course materials to you and to enable you to respond through discussion postings and journal entries, and by Blackboard Mail (an email tool within the course).

You might be familiar with Blackboard. If you aren't, you'll find lots of support available. There is contextual online help (at the top right of the menu bar) as well as Butte College's own Blackboard Support Desk where you can write to or talk with real human beings (click on the link on the home page that says "Help and Other Resources" for more on the support we offer).

Course Home Page Area

The course front page is divided into two sections, the course home page area and the tools menu (to the left of the course home page). The course home page is devoted to links to various Learning Modules (LM for short). Let's take a look at that area (the picture may be from an earlier semester):

"LM00-Begin Here" gives you an overview of the course and other important information; that's where you are now.

"Help and Other Resources" gives you way to contact student support if you have trouble logging in to Blackboard or other technical issues related to Blackboard. You'll also find a link to download free software you may need for this class as well as links to campus resources such as the online library database (which you can access from home).

The third icon is a file folder labeled "Previous Learning Modules." You won't see this icon until a couple of weeks into class. Rather than have the Learning Modules accumulate on the home page as the weeks go by, I'll put older LM's in this file. You can access them easily, but remember that you won't be able to retake past-due quizzes.

Finally we come to the first Learning Module. It's labeled with the the LM number (such as LM01, LM02, and so on) and the date it first becomes available (generally, Learning Modules are released Mondays and Wednesdays at 8:00 AM Pacific Time).

Each Learning Module includes a brief description of its content along with a abbreviations for each of the gradable assignments contained in that LM. You'll find a key to those abbreviations on the right hand side of this page.

Click on the link to any Learning Module and you should see the first page displayed with the table of contents on the left. Actually, there are two tables of contents.

• The left-hand table of contents gives you links to each element in the Learning Module, including Presentation materials (always the first page in the table of contents of an LM), discussions, quizzes, and so on.
• Within each Presentation is an internal drop-down table of contents so you can easily navigate to each page of the Presentation; there's also a convenient "print all" link if you want to print all of the Presentation pages.

Please begin with the Presentation (the LM should open with the first page of the Presentation displayed) and, when you're finished, click on each of the other links, in order, in the left-hand table of contents to see the remaining elements of the Learning Module.

Special technical notes!

• The Presentation pages are stored in a campus server, not within Blackboard, so if the campus loses power or has network issues you may get a "404 - Page Not Found" error even though Blackboard (which is hosted off campus) continues to work. In that case, make sure you're connected to the Internet (verify that Blackboard is still working), and then let me know by Blackboard Mail that you're unable to access the Presentation (and then give the number of the Learning Module). I'll send you an alternative way to access the Presentation.
• Within most Presentations you'll find a link to the audio portion, which includes slides illustrating what I'm saying. The audio slide show is hosted by VoiceThread and you should be able to hear my comments, see the slides, and even add questions of your own right from within yoiur browser. If for some reason VoiceThread is not available, each presntation contains a transcript of my audio comments. The slides are mostly for decoration and are not necessary for a full appreciation of course content.

Left-Hand Tools Menu

The second major area of the front page is the left-hand tools menu.

• Click on Course Content to return to the home page; click on the little down arrows to the right of words "Course Content" to see a listing of all available Learning Modules.
• Announcements will take you to a listing of the announcements for the course; you should see any new announcement as a pop-up window when you log in to Blackboard. Once you close the pop-up window you can click on the Announcements button to see the announcement again.
• Looking for the Calendar? It's not used in this class; instead, click on the Syllabus button to see the course syllabus and, following the syllabus, the complete course calendar. This calendar lists every assignment and its due date throughout the semester. Please print it out and keep it handy; it's one of the most important documents in the course and useful on a daily basis.
• Chat enables you to talk with others in the class (it doesn't work with those outside the class). Please remember that the chat is saved in a file that I can access later so be sure to use netiquette! (See the next page.) Please do not share quiz answers or any writing you will be submitting for a grade. Any work you submit for this class must be your own; using what others have produced, even as a "template" for your own answers, is a violation of the student code of conduct.
• Looking for the Discussions? The Discussion tool is not used in this class; instead, you can access each discussion by opening the relevant Learning Module. The description of each LM is clearly labeled with discussion numbers so you can find current discussions or previous ones (which you'll need for your Analysis Journals).
• Goals takes you to the overall student learning outcomes for this course. These outcomes are linked to various Learning Modules that are released throughout the semester. In addition, each Learning Module contains specific outcomes for that module.
• Mail takes you to Blackboard email. It's important to recognize that you can only write to people inside this class, including me, but that you can't write to others outside of class nor can you receive email from the outside. Please use Blackboard email to communicate with me in all matters having to do with this class.
• Roster opens up the class profiles so you can see pictures of those in the course (including me!) and read a little about their interests. In the discussion postings, you can click on the little "action link" after a person's name to see the person's profile. It's as awesome as Facebook! (Well, almost.)
• The Syllabus button opens up a link to the syllabus. This is one of the most important documents in the course! It contains not only general information relating to the class but also the "complete course calendar" which lists every assignment and its due date throughout the entire semester. Even though the document is long, please print it out and keep it handy; you can check off completed assignments as you go and never be surprised by a due date
• Who's Online lets you know if others in class (including me) are logged into Blackboard. You can start a chat session if you like right from "Who's Online," but only with one other person. There are settings you can make that block your name from appearing even if you are online. If I'm online, feel free to invite me to a chat to talk about course content.
• Finally, under My Tools, you can access your grades, look at your progress, and take personal notes about anything you read in class (no one else can see the notes).

Navigation Within Learning Modules

You can use the left-hand table of contents within each LM to go from page to page (remember that the Presentation link, usually the first page in a Learning Modules, has its own internal table of contents.). Sometimes, because of a computer glitch, the entire left-hand table of contents may not be visible. If you close the LM and open it again, the rest of the table of contents may appear. If not, you can also navigate using the "action menu" icons at the top right of each content page. By clicking on the arrows, you can go forward and back from page to page in the LM (but not within a Presentation). Here's what the action menu looks like:

 

return to top | next page