Self-paced Online Courses THE UNIVERISTY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL Student Handbook This handbook provides you with suggestions to help make your Self-paced Courses experience the best it can be. We encourage you to read it in its entirety before you begin, and use it as a reference as you progress through your course. Self-paced Courses Online Credit Programs for Part-time Students fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp/catalog
Self-paced Courses Online Handbook Welcome to Self-paced Courses! Taking a self-paced online course is not the same as attending classes on campus, but we think you ll find that it has its advantages. You can develop skills such as self-discipline, reading for comprehension, and clarity in writing that will help you in other learning experiences. You ll enjoy the flexibility of working at a time of your choosing and in comfortable surroundings. And you ll be able to take advantage of the unique benefits of one-on-one instruction. This handbook provides you with suggestions to help make your Self-paced Courses experience the best it can be. We encourage you to read it in its entirety before you begin, and use it as a reference as you progress through your course. About Self-paced Courses Courses from eight campuses of the University of North Carolina system are available for independent learners. When you take a course through Self-paced Courses, your instruction is provided from the campus offering the course. For example, if you are taking a North Carolina State University course, your instructor will be a part of an academic department of NCSU. Your final grade will be reported to the NCSU records office and will be equivalent to courses taken on the NCSU campus. Thus, the institution offering a course provides instruction, maintains academic control, and grants credit, while the Self-paced Courses office at the Friday Center handles the administration of your enrollment. About the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education The Friday Center is UNC-Chapel Hill s center for continuing education, serving the varied needs of adult learners through credit and noncredit courses and the operation of a continuing education conference facility. About Credit Programs for Part-time Students Self-paced Courses is a distance education program offered by Credit Programs for Part-time Students, a unit of the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education. Other programs include Carolina Courses Online and Part-time Classroom Studies (on-campus courses). The offices for Credit Programs for Part-time Students are housed in the Friday Center, which is a short distance from the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Office hours are Monday Friday, 8 am 5 pm (except on Tuesdays, when hours are 9 am 5 pm).
For more information, visit fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp/catalog Website: fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp Contact Information Call: (800) 862-5669 or (919) 962-1134 Fax: (919) 962-5549 Email: advisors: ceadvising@unc.edu student services: stuserv@unc.edu Contents Before You Begin...1 Review Confirmation Letter Purchase Materials Create Study Space Accessing Your Course...2 How to Proceed...3 Prepare Your First Assignment Submit Your First Assignment Review Your Graded Assignments If You Need Help Use Available Resources Maintain Your Momentum Prepare for Your Final Exam...8 Take Pride in Your Accomplishment What Else Do I Need to Know?...11 The Honor Code Getting Help for Special Needs Grades and Transcripts Renewing Your Course Transferring to a Different Self-paced Course Withdrawing from Your Course Refunds More Information...12
Self-paced Courses Online Handbook Before You Begin Review Confirmation Letter You will receive a registration confirmation letter that contains instructions on how to access your course. Please keep this letter for reference throughout your course. Purchase Materials The required textbooks for each course are listed with the course description. Friday Center Books & Gifts, operated by UNC Student Stores, is located at the Friday Center and carries the correct editions of the required textbooks. You can order online at fridaycenterstore.unc.edu. If you buy textbooks from outside sources, be sure that you are purchasing the correct editions. You should buy your textbooks as soon as possible after you enroll. Create Study Space Your course time begins on the day we process your enrollment (the date your receipt is issued). Your enrollment period is nine months from the date of enrollment. The minimum time to complete a course is 1 credit hour: 6 weeks 2 credit hours: 9 weeks 3 credit hours: 12 weeks 4 credit hours: 16 weeks from the receipt of your first assignment. Because there are no classes to attend, it s up to you to establish a routine that includes reading, studying, and submitting your assignments. You should take time to evaluate your study habits before beginning work. You may need to improve them in order to get the most from your course. First of all, think about how you will schedule your study. If you have not been involved in academic pursuits for some time, your life is probably fairly full of career, family, hobbies, or other activities. It may be helpful for you to keep a record for a week or two of how you spend your time before deciding where your study periods will fit. Even if you ve been in school recently or will be attending classes while you work on your course, it will help to decide on a regularly scheduled 1
For more information, visit fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp/catalog time for your study. Since you won t have the built-in pacing of classes and instructor-set deadlines, you may find it hard to make steady progress unless you establish a definite study schedule. Try to schedule study time when you will be mentally fresh and able to devote at least an hour to your work. After you have determined the best time for your study, think about where you will study. You ll find it easier to focus on your work if you establish an environment for study. For example, it may be difficult to concentrate at the kitchen table if your family is cleaning up after dinner, even if that time is appropriate for study. You ll study best in a location that is quiet and free from reminders of other responsibilities or activities. If a good study location is not available in your home, consider going to a library occasionally for periods of concentrated work. Accessing Your Course Your course is hosted on a learning management system called Sakai. The Sakai course site will serve as your virtual classroom as you progress through the course. First, navigate to Sakai at sakai.unc.edu. If you are not a regular student at UNC-CH, select Non-Onyen Login in the upper right corner. Your personal email address will serve as your username. You should have received an email from Sakai with instructions for creating a password. (See your Confirmation Letter for more detailed information.) If you are a regular UNC-CH student, select Onyen Login in the upper right corner, and enter your Onyen and password. Find the name of your course listed on the top navigation bar, and click on it. Every SPC course is different, but all have similar formats. The course syllabus, the first page you will see after you click on the name of your course, will look similar to the one pictured on the following page. The course syllabus contains all the information you need to get started, and will probably include the following: course overview and objectives required textbook(s) and other materials grading and course policies course requirements/assignments Academic Policies/Honor Code contact information. The Sakai site will serve as your virtual classroom as you progress through the course. Read it carefully. It contains information about the scope and organization of the material as well as guidelines for studying and preparing assignments. Your course has been organized to present the material in a logical fashion, and your comprehension of the subject 2
Self-paced Courses Online Handbook will be aided if you are aware of that organization as you work on your lessons. Return to your course syllabus page whenever you have questions about the structure of your course or need contact information for help. How to Proceed Click on the link for the first lesson in Sakai s left navigation bar. You will probably have a reading assignment and a writing assignment. You may be asked to send a personal information sheet to your instructor telling him or her a little about yourself. When you begin a new lesson, read through all the instructions. Be sure to read the explanatory content provided on the lesson page by your instructor. Communicating with Your Instructor You can contact your instructor via email whenever you have questions about the content of the course. In the navigation bar on the left, click on Contacts to find your instructor s address, as well as other useful information. Add your instructor s address to your email address book. If you use a filter on your email account, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not prevent you from receiving messages from your instructor or Friday Center staff. 3
For more information, visit fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp/catalog Prepare Your First Assignment Preparing your assignments for submission is an important part of studying, as it provides the main channel of communication between you and your instructor. Before you submit an assignment for grading, you should be sure that it reflects your best abilities. Try to get an overview of the material you ll be covering in the lesson before you dig into the required readings. Refer to the title of your lesson, the introduction or overview, the chapter and section headings in your texts, and your course author s notes to get an idea of the scope of your lesson. Then, with that in mind, tackle the reading material. Be particularly attentive to the learning objectives that the author has set forth. If you approach the material with an inquisitive mind and try to fit what you read into the outline of the course, you ll find it easier to retain what you read. Many courses have direct links to required or optional supplementary reading online. Study the material until you feel comfortable with it, then begin to prepare your written assignment. Pay careful attention to instructions, and be sure you understand what a question is asking. You may wish to prepare a brief outline of your responses to essay questions, or draft your answer and check it over before preparing your final copy. Organization, grammar, and writing style are important; if your skills in these areas need improvement you may want to purchase a writing handbook. If you are taking a course that requires you to work problems, show all your work. You may get partial credit for problems if your instructor can see where you made your mistakes. If you have questions that make it difficult for you to complete your written work, you should contact your instructor via email before submitting the assignment for grading. Your assignments provide a good opportunity for you to demonstrate to your instructor your interest in learning. Let him or her know if you would like additional information or suggestions for further reading. Respond to his or her comments on your previous assignments. If you re willing to wait a bit longer for your graded assignments, you could request that additional comments be included on your work. Although you probably won t be carrying on a dialogue in person, you may participate in a rewarding dialogue via email with your instructor if you re willing to take the initiative. 4
Self-paced Courses Online Handbook Submit Your First Assignment Prepare the final copy of your work following instructions in the assignment. In some cases you are required to use certain software to prepare your work (Microsoft Word, for example). If you do not have it, contact your instructor for acceptable alternatives. Follow the instructions for submitting your assignments, which are generally found at the end of each lesson. In most courses, you will click the submit button below the assignment to open an email addressed to both your instructor and Student Services in the Self-paced Courses office (they must get a copy in order to track your progress). It is important that you save a copy of the sent message. If your instructor doesn t receive your message, you must have a copy of the email (with any attached files), indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent emails as well as the attached files, as there is no way to guarantee that any email message will be delivered. If the submit buttons in your course do not work for you, follow the alternate instructions, which are included below the submit buttons in each lesson, for submitting your assignments. After submitting your first assignment, we encourage you to wait to work on the next one until after your first one is graded and returned to you with feedback. You may submit up to one-fifth of the total number of assignments at one time. Additional assignments may not be submitted until these have been graded and returned or until two weeks have elapsed. These rules are designed to ensure that you have the benefit of the instructor s guidance as you work on your course, and that you allow sufficient time to review and revise your work. Each self-paced student has a record maintained by Student Services staff on which the receipt of assignments is entered. Your record is updated with the grade and date your assignment is returned. Generally, this process takes at least two weeks from the time you email the assignment until it is returned to you. Occasionally there could be a delay in some step of the process. We try to monitor this process as closely as we can, but we also rely on you to let us know if you think there is an unnecessary delay. Please do not hesitate to contact the Student Services office if you haven t received a graded assignment in a reasonable length of time. At certain times of the year, instructors may not be available for rapid grading of assignments and 5
For more information, visit fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp/catalog exams. This is particularly true during winter holidays, near the end of terms, and in the summer months. Review Your Graded Assignments Your graded assignments are useful tools. Through them your instructor gives you feedback on your strengths and weaknesses and provides suggestions for improvement. We encourage our instructors to provide ample comments on each assignment they grade; if you feel that you are not receiving adequate assistance, send a message directly to your instructor or contact the Student Services staff. Read over each graded assignment carefully. Pay particular attention to comments regarding your treatment of the material, both in content and form. If general comments are included, try to remember them in preparing subsequent assignments. If you did poorly on specific questions, refer back to your texts to see how you made your mistakes. You might find it helpful to rewrite your answer for future reference. Occasionally you might be asked to rework an assignment and submit it again for grading. If so, instructions will be provided for the resubmission procedure. You will be charged the actual cost of grading the reworked assignment. Please be aware that once you receive a grade on an assignment it should be regarded as final. You may not revise a graded assignment and resubmit it for a better grade. All graded assignments should be kept and used as aids in preparing for your final examination. If You Need Help The Contacts link includes a list of names and email addresses you may need for help with various situations. Contact your instructor if you have questions regarding the content of the course and your progress. Contact the instructional designer at the Friday Center about problems with your course site, including bad links or navigation problems. Contact the Student Services staff at the Friday Center if you have questions about enrollment, Onyen, credits, withdrawal, and so on. Contact the UNC Help desk for any problem you have with Sakai, your Internet connection, your browser, downloads, and so on. Help is available twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. You can call 919-962-HELP, or visit help.unc.edu to learn about other 6
Self-paced Courses Online Handbook options including email, live chat, and walk-in support. Use Available Resources In addition to the required texts, some courses suggest that you read supplementary materials on an optional basis. You may also wish to read more widely in the subject to improve your own understanding, or you may need to use a variety of resources to help you prepare required papers or projects. Students enrolled in Self-paced Courses can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students, www.lib.unc. edu/de. This website includes information on using library resources such as e-reserves, online databases, online journals, online books, and live help with research and library access. Your Onyen and password will grant you access to many of these resources. If you are unable to access the library s licensed resources, a distance librarian is available online to assist you. If you are currently a degree candidate at a college or university, you may wish to use your own university library. If you are not a degree candidate but reside near a university library, you can inquire about community borrower privileges that may be available to you. Librarians are generally quite helpful to people pursuing further education who are in need of assistance with materials, so don t hesitate to ask them for help. Maintain Your Momentum If you are not able to keep to your schedule, don t give up! After all, one of the advantages of Self-paced Courses is its flexibility. Just keep in mind that regularly scheduled study is the ideal, and make it your goal. The abilities to read with comprehension and retain what you read are necessary for real learning to take place. You will develop these skills through practice. Concentrate on your reading and take frequent breaks to organize the material in your mind. At the end of a study session, 7
For more information, visit fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp/catalog think back over the whole of what you ve read, trying to remember the important points. If note taking is helpful to you, provide time in each study session for writing. The work you will submit for grading is designed to help you collect and synthesize what you ve learned from a particular lesson. It gives you the opportunity to practice using what you ve learned through essay questions, problems, or other learning activities. Prepare for Your Final Exam Once all assignments have been submitted for grading, you may take the final examination. (A few courses assign a final project or paper instead of a final exam.) Some courses have online final exams, in which case instructions will be provided in both the syllabus and at the end of your last lesson. The instructions below apply to the majority of Self-paced Courses, which require a supervised final exam. You must submit an application to take the final exam. A direct link to the application to take the final exam is included at the end of your last lesson (and on the syllabus). Plan to read it before beginning your course so that you can become familiar with the procedure for scheduling exams. To review for your exam, you should study your graded assignments, any notes you have taken, the discussion material found on your course lesson pages, and your assigned texts. The syllabus includes information about what your exam will cover. If you have developed good study habits and used them throughout your course, preparing for your exam should not be difficult. Use the guidelines below to choose the best time and location for your exams: All assignments must be submitted before the exam is taken, but it is not necessary to have received all graded assignments back from your instructor. You should begin making your exam arrangements well in advance of the time you would like to take the exam. Your exam must be supervised at an approved exam center (an accredited college, university, technical institute, community or junior college, or, for persons in the military, the facility s education center). Under extenuating circumstances, students are allowed to take exams at locations other than approved centers; if you feel that you have special needs, contact the Student Services office for more information. 8
Self-paced Courses Online Handbook Special supervision arrangements can be made for students with disabilities or chronic illnesses, as well as for incarcerated students. If you do not know where approved schools are located or which schools in your area are accredited, contact your state department of public instruction. Most states have directories of their postsecondary institutions. If there are a number of possible choices in your area, you may want to get in touch with several of them before making definite plans to ask about their policies regarding supervising fees, scheduling, and facilities. If you live in the Chapel Hill area, you may, for a small fee, have your exam supervised at the Friday Center. Call 919-962-1104 or 800-862-5669 between 8:15 am and 4:45 pm weekdays to make arrangements. At NC State University, exams are supervised at the office of Credit Programs & Summer Sessions in the McKimmon Center, 919-515-2138. You ll need to identify the specific person who will be supervising your exam and have that person sign your exam application form. If the school you select has a guidance and/or testing center, it should be your first contact. If there is no guidance/testing center, call the registrar s office. Explain that you are taking an online course through the University of North Carolina and that you need someone to supervise your final exam. If you will need special facilities (such as a place you can speak into a cassette recorder), be sure to indicate your needs before you make the final arrangements. When you have located a supervisor and selected a date for your exam, complete the exam application and mail or fax it to Self-paced Courses. We will mail your exam directly to your supervisor and notify you by letter of the date we send it. You should check with your supervisor before going to The Friday Center 9
For more information, visit fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp/catalog the exam center to make sure it has arrived. If you have difficulty making your exam arrangements, contact the Student Services office for assistance. It is your responsibility to take your examination at the scheduled time or to contact the examination supervisor if you need to reschedule the exam. Adequate preparation will make your exam much easier, but the way you approach your exam will have a lot to do with your success. Try to remain calm and confident. Your exam will probably be challenging, but it offers you the opportunity to use your skills and knowledge to your best ability. The first few minutes of your time should be spent reading over the entire exam, noting the instructions and the types of questions you ll be working with. Estimate how much time you ll need for each section if you aren t given specific suggestions for time usage, and plan your exam time accordingly. If your exam has multiple choice or other objective types of questions, you may want to answer them first so that you ll be sure to have enough time for short-answer or essay questions. In answering multiple-choice questions, you may find it helpful to read through the entire set of questions, answering those that you know but not stopping for those that you re unsure about. Then go back and spend extra time on the questions you couldn t immediately answer. Try to eliminate obviously incorrect choices, and then decide between the answers that remain. Try not to spend too much time on any one question. Use your time wisely in answering essay questions. Some students find it helpful to outline their answers before writing them in finished form. If you don t choose to outline, you should at least think through your answer and the way you plan to organize it before you begin to write so that your writing will be logical and complete. Try to allow some time at the end of the exam period for checking over your work. You may notice spelling errors, incomplete sentences, or important thoughts that have been omitted. Check over objective questions to be sure that you read them correctly and marked the answer you intended. Your supervisor will mail your completed exam to the Friday Center. If you take the exam at a site other than Chapel Hill, you ll need to provide an envelope addressed to us and affixed with sufficient postage. In a week or two you should receive a grade report indicating your grade on the final exam and your final course grade. We will not release the actual exam to you, but you will receive any comments your instructor makes about your performance. 10
Self-paced Courses Online Handbook Take Pride in Your Accomplishment Completing a course through Self-paced Courses is not easy. It requires a great deal of self-discipline and work. Once you ve completed your course, you should be able to take on other difficult educational endeavors with more confidence. The skills you ve developed will be valuable resources as you work toward your goals. Self-paced Courses is proud to offer this experience to you, and wishes you the best of luck! What Else Do I Need to Know? The Honor Code As a Self-paced Courses student, you are responsible for obeying and supporting an honor system that prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing in relation to the academic practices of the University of North Carolina. An especially serious Honor Code violation is plagiarism. To make sure you understand how to avoid plagiarism, read the plagiarism handout from the UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center (www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/ plagiarism.html). You are expected to do your own work in all aspects of your course. Getting Help for Special Needs Students with documented learning disabilities or attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder can receive services through the Academic Success Program for Students with LD and ADHD. (Visit learningcenter.unc.edu for more information.) Students with documented disabilities can receive services through the Department of Accessibility Resources & Service. (Visit accessibility.unc.edu for more information.) Students must selfidentify through Accessibility Resources in order to receive services or accommodation from either of these offices. Accessibility Resources works closely with programs, offices, and departments throughout the University with the goal of creating an accessible environment. The office is located in Suite 2126 of the Student Academic Services Building (SASB), 450 Ridge Road, and is open from 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday. The staff can be contacted by telephone at 919-962-8300 (V) or 711 (NC-RELAY) or by email at accessibility@unc.edu. For more information, visit accessibility.unc.edu. Grades and Transcripts Your grade will be reported to the records office of the UNC campus from which your course originated. If you wish to have a transcript sent to another school or agency, complete the transcript request form included in 11
For more information, visit fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp/catalog your grade report and return it to us, or contact Student Services. Renewing Your Course You may renew your course for four additional months by paying a renewal fee. Self-paced Courses will notify you when your course time is about to expire. If unusual circumstances have kept you from completing the course, you may contact the Self-paced Courses office to request a second renewal of four months. Transferring to a Different Self-paced Course You may transfer to a different course if you request to do so within thirty days of enrollment. A transfer fee will be charged. Withdrawing from Your Course If you wish to withdraw from a course, complete a withdrawal form, which you can download from fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp/catalog/ withdrawing.htm. Policies on withdrawal depend on whether you are a UNC-Chapel Hill degree-seeking student. If you are not a UNC-Chapel Hill degree-seeking student, you may withdraw at any time prior to taking the final exam. There is no academic penalty for withdrawing prior to taking the final exam for a course. UNC-Chapel Hill degree-seeking students may not withdraw from a course if they have completed at least one-half of the assignments for the course. If you do not complete your course within the maximum permissible time and have not received permission to withdraw from the course, you will receive a failing grade. There is no academic penalty if you withdraw before completing one-half of the assignments. Refunds Partial refunds of tuition will be granted providing that your request to withdraw is made within 30 days of your enrollment date. No refunds will be made after that period. Failure to submit assignments does not entitle you to a refund. A nonrefundable fee of $25 per credit hour will be deducted from your refund. Full refunds may be granted in instances in which Friday Center Books & Gifts is unable to supply a required textbook. More Information You can find procedural information, rules and regulations, forms, contact information, and a complete listing of all our courses on our website, fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp/catalog. 12