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Welcome to the online version of BA 207 Business Law 1
I'm Professor Brand. You can call me "Prof B"
The course actually starts on Friday, January 6th
That would be an orientation from Friday through Sunday
and the full first week of class starts on Monday, January Ninth through Sunday
January Fifteenth
When you access blackboard and go into the course, you'll see a welcome
announcement that gives you these details
and that you can
go directly to the syllabus at grcc.edu/ba207online
or get my contact information
at http://www.grcc.edu/gbrand so you can access those on the web
even
without going into
Blackboard and I suggest that you
bookmark them for future reference
and the rest of the welcome announcement takes you through
the different areas
the blackboard course
and that's what i'm gonna do right now
so over on the left there
is
a series of links in the menu
the first one takes you to the Announcements area and that's where
you'll find
important announcements each week including when assignments are due
when grades are posted
the next link is to assignments
and when you start the course the
first folder is available and that will be
the orientation folder
and when you go inside the orientation folder
there will be
video for you to watch
this is a typical layout for each week - there's an introduction
... a list of assignments and when they're due
the readiness survey that you complete
and when you click on some of these links they will open in a new tab or window
in this case
uh...
it takes me to the readiness site and
uh...
there's a new tab open and what I want to do is close the new tab and not
the whole browser
and it will take me back into the orientation
when i'm done going through the readiness site
there's a
button underneath for "mark reviewed"
and when I mark it as "reviewed" it will show up that way in the next time I
login
I can see what progress I made
and also uh...
the professor will be able to track your progress in the course
uh... the next link takes you through reviewing the information area
so
the link here
is a shortcut to this information area, so click on it and it takes me into the
information area
where uh...
there is a link to contact information that was actually
just uh...
a link to
my webpage that was listed in the announcement
and my contact information is there
my phone number, email, office
e-mail is the best way to contact me
i'm only in my office during my office hours which are listed here
for winter semester that's monday through thursday
twelve fifteen to one pm
and tuesday and thursday two thirty to four pm
and there are some other helpful links
on that page and there's a link to the syllabus
there's
my schedule
go ahead and close that tab out
the next one is the frequently asked
questions
and when you go into there, there are some common questions like
what is the difference between attendance and
participitation
Attendance is actually
logging into the course, participation is
measured by actively participating in the discussion board so
you are required to
make quality posts
and there's a rubric in the syllabus that defines what quality is
at least three out of seven DAYS each week
there's another one about the final exam and also one of our grading so you can
read through those
next one is the schedule click on that and actually it will
open up as a PDF file
and
the text is kind of small to read here but
each week is laid out, what assignments are due
and keep in mind
that there is spring break and there's no class during spring break
that's march fifth through eleventh
and then
uh...
at the bottom
uh... also keep in mind that the
the class actually ends on thursday so
uh... exam week doesn't go through sunday
it's april twenty third through twenty sixth
and the final exam is completed online in in the blackboard course just like the
rest of your assignments
the next one down is the syllabus, so click on that link, that will open in a new tab or
window
and
again you can access this even outside of your course
there's lots of information to read through here
uh... but you really want to pay attention to the grading. These are the
uh...
assignments that are graded in the course
so any other assignments
uh... don't have points associated with them
keep in mind if you don't miss more than two weeks of class, I drop your lowest
twenty five point assignment
twenty five point assignments are your short essays
quizzes
and here's the rubric I was talking about
it gives you an idea of how I award points
based on quality of the post, whether you stay on topic
and how many days per week
so, you can read through that
course outcomes, course policies there and
links to
college policies too
uh... links to the catalog, handbook
and some other policies that you should take a look at
there's a variety of
learning resources
I use a tool called Blackboard Collaborate which is really good
live web conferencing software
and um... i will use on occasion to do reviews or other things which are optional
I will announce them
There's a link in the syllabus that takes you through a system check and orientation
how to use blackboard connect which
will allow you to get text messages or other notifications from the course if
you sign up for it
on blackboard IM
which is an instant messaging tool
which allows me to know who else in the course has Blackboard IM installed
and
uh... if i'm available online you can instant message me
and that uh... I will typically have running during office hours - so my office hours
are done with Blackboard IM
and Blackboard Mobile if you
have the right
mobile platform you can install blackboard mobile
and you can do a lot of the coursework
through the mobile app
there's also an hour early alert system
which will contact you if you fail to login to the course or
are flagged for academic performance. There is other information in the course
about
uh...
academic support services
how to contact
if you have technical issue
and how to get tutoring. So make sure you read through
the syllabus
and then it's going to take you back into the orientation folder
complete the orientation and basically if you have a question
click on this link it'll uh...
take you directly to the discussion board forum
where you can ask questions if you create a thread
and you can
ask questions on it
uh... are answered in the syllabus or schedule
and also there's a subscription button - if you click on that and then you'll get uh...
email notifications whenever something gets posted in the forum
Ii don't suggest that you have that set for all of your forums but for the
virtual office when you
ask the question and are waiting for answers - this is a good one and I'm subscribed to
this forum
Grades is where you get your grades
and i'll always post announcements and send an email out when they're ready
and then the information area - resources
is a valuable area too
if you go into the resources area
now there's a link to the
book companion site
drop box is free software that you can use to you
get your files accessed anywhere
from any device, mobile device, access to all the slides for all the
chapters as well as videos for all the chapters are here
so the last link is the tools area
there's a variety of tools available - pay attention to
the send email - this is going to send email
uh... and you click on all instructor users
that will send an email
from your GRCC email account
make sure you put a proper subject and complete message in there
and and now we all know
uh... that is coming from the specific course and student in my course
this allows me to respond uh...
faster
so it'll make sure that you use your grcc email and send out another email
account because those other email accounts can get
caught in my spam filter
so if you have any questions
and you've reviewed the syllabus, schedule, frequently asked questions
uh... please feel free to email me at grband@grcc.edu
looking forward to a great semester!