How to Get to the Course
and Courseware
Information and Tips
Please Read this for all the necessary
starting information
To Download
To Log On
To Order Books
For Help
First Assignment
By now you have probably received your postcard
from the Distance Learning Office and that means you are registered in our
Ways of Knowing coordinated studies online course.. Please email both Tom
Kerns and Diane Hostetler and
let us know you are enrolled and participating.
Downloading your Courseware:
Our courseware for this quarter
is going to be FirstClass. To download this software to your desktop(which
you must do to access the rest of the course), go to http://fc.northseattle.edu
Directions for how to download the needed software are on that site and easy
to follow. Be sure that you follow all of the indicated steps. The server
address should read fc.northseattle.edu after you finish the last required
step. If you have any difficulty ortechnical problems you will be able to
solve them with the help of the Distance Learning office and the technical
staff at NSCC. You may call or email Joanne Fall or Carol Howe and ask for
further assistance.
The FirstClass software may be
downloaded (highly recommended) to your own computer or may be used via a
web interface. That means that you can connect to FirstClass and use the
web to reach it if that is your only choice. This is not the preferred option
since the web interface (look) is not as clear as the downloaded program
and it does not offer quite as many options. The download is a very small
one and we find, a better option to use on both Windows and Mac platforms.
If you are trying to log on to
our class from a remote location other than your own computer, you might
then choose the web version. But if at all possible, we urge you to use the
downloaded version. The download and installation is very easy; but you must
follow all of the steps indicated on the page, especially the last step which
insures that the server address in the setup of your
program is fc.northseattle.edu.** We have provided a short powerpoint
for you if you need more visual explanations of how to download and use FirstClass.
to access the instructions, click on powerpoint.
To view this presentation, you will need to have Acrobat Reader on your computer
which you may download here.
.The
program is free. Be sure to log in with your first initial and last name
and the password provided.If you have technical problems please call the
Distance Learning Office and ask for Carol Howe or Joanne
Fall.
To Log
on to the FirstClass Site: Click
on the [Setup] button and type your User ID and Password in the spaces
provided. You must use the following for your USER
ID and PASSWORD: Your user ID will be your first initial and last name
with no space. Your initial password is the last six digits of your Student
ID. Click on [login] Once you are on the site you can and should
change your password to one that you can remember.Look on the top menus
for [change password] and follow the instructions. Please
remember that we will not know your password and will not be able to
give it to you if you forget it. Please write it down.
**Note: If you receive an error
message after you log in, check and be sure that when you have clicked the
setup box on your login screen, the server address reads fc.northseattle.edu
If the server is not addressed to that server address, you will not be able
to log in.
You'll need to learn how to use the FirstClass
software that you've downloaded. If you go to your desktop (the first thing
you see whn you log in) you'll see that there is a help folder, and a tutorial
somewhere inside it. You should work carefully through that tutorial so that
you are comfortable doing all the necessary functions outlined there. If
(or when) you need telephone help, a) you can call
the Distance Learning Office at 527-3738 for Carol
Howe or Joanne Fall at 527-3723.
To Order
Your Books: Some of our
books are available online and you will be able to access those texts
via the internet. These have been marked in the Books section of the
Syllabus and on the Readings Link of this site. You will find the passwords
necessary for some of these readings on the FirstClass site.Those books
which need to be bought are available through theNSCC bookstore which
is managed by Barnes and Noble on campus. You may call them for information
on how to order them if you are unable to get to campus. They can be
reached at 206-527-3637 . their hours can be found on the North Seattle
site: Bookstore
If you do not have a computer,
there are open computer labs on campus:
OPEN COMPUTER
LABS There are two open computer labs available to all North
students.The labs are located in the Instructional Building (IB) room
3303 (this lab has both PC's and Macs) and in the High Tech Learning
Center (HT) room 1845B (all PC's). North's open computer labs have the
widest variety of software on the campus and are open for walk-in use.
The hours vary each quarter so please check either the campus
home page (http://www.gonorth.org/services/support/)
or the doors outside the labs for specific lab hours. Policies and procedures
for the labs are posted in the labs and the lab staff will be happy to
assist you.
For Help:
A Reminder: You can call the Distance
Learning office with problems.
The Distance
Learning Office at North Seattle is prepared to answer your questions.
Call or email for help. Contact the Distance
Learning Office at distance@sccd.ctc.edu; or Phone at (206) 527-3738.
. You may want to print out this message if it
isn't comfortable to read on your screen. In fact, we find that if something
is more than one screen long it is sometimes easier to just print it out
and read it away from the computer. You may also want to do this for many
of the mini-lectures you'll be reading this quarter. You may also want to
do it for the class schedule (though we'll be adding to it each week), just
so you have a printed version of when things are due.
Our First Assignment:You'll need
to write a short biography about yourself, maybe a page or so long, or as
long as you like. You'll post this in our classroom in the folder titled "WOK-bios." Simplest
way to do this is to first open up that Bio folder. Under the messages menu,
click on "new message." Write your bio however you like. If you
can put a photo of yourself in your biography, that would be great. (In fact,
maybe what we'll do here is just give 739 extra credit points to every person
who puts a photo in their biography sometime in the first week or two of
the course.) The photos help make our classroom community a bit more personable,
and the more personable the better in these online environments. Send your
message to the class. By clicking send, it will place your message (bio)
in the Bio folder. Please read the biographies of all of the class members.Please
have your biography information posted before October 1st, Wednesday.