USC The Business College - Online Orientation

In this section of the Orientation you will learn about the course menu and the contents in the most common menu items.

Notice: Not all course menus look exactly like the one in this tutorial.

First you should note, the number of buttons and the button titles may vary from course to course. This guide will help you get started in most of the courses at USC. Below is a sample course menu and a description of each button.

The Announcement Button allows you to navigate to the announcement section of the course. Here your instructor will post special announcements for your course. You should check this section each time you login to insure you have the latest information about your course.

The Course Information Button takes you to important information about your course. Here you will fined your course Syllabus, Attendance policies, Grading information and more. You should review this section carefully to insure you do not miss important details about your course.

Here you can view Staff Information such as instructor, name, email address, office location, and office hours. This area may also include information about additional staff, such as Teaching Assistance or Graders.

These are Course content areas and may contain a variety of learning materials. Instructors use these areas to present information in many different ways, from basic text to multimedia. Instructors can also post Assessments and Learning Units within any of the content areas. The following is an example of the how a course content area may appear.

Common Content Areas

The following content areas are examples of some of the more common uses for content areas:

Course Information: Course Information displays descriptive materials about the course such as the course syllabus and course objectives.
Course Documents: Course Documents can be used by instructors to organize learning materials and lesson aids.
Assignments: Assignments list the due date and description for class work. The instructor posts assignments and can modify the tasks and due dates from the Assignments page.
Books: Instructors post recommended reading lists, useful articles, and other similar material in the "Books" area.
External Links: The "External Links" content area provides a page to reference Web sites useful for a course.

Students are encouraged to communicate with fellow classmates and instructors as part of the learning process. The "Communication" Center allows users to:

send email
access course Discussion Boards
use the Collaboration Tools
review the Student roster
access Student group pages

The "Discussion Board" is a communication tool used to enhance the learning environment. Topics are posted to the Discussion Board that course participants can reply to and converse online. This feature is designed for asynchronous use, meaning students do not have to be online at the same time to have a conversation. An additional advantage of the Discussion Board is that student conversations are logged and organized. Conversations are grouped into threads that contain a main posting and all related replies for easy retrieval.

" External Links" connects course users to outside learning materials. Instructors may select outside materials and post a hyperlink and brief description for each external source.

Tools that can be used in the course Web site. These include: Digital Drop Box, Edit Home Page, Personal Information, Calendar, View Grades, Student Manual, Tasks, and Address Book.

Most courses at USC require at least one textbook and may require other materials such as special software or journal materials. You will find the books and materials that are required for the course listed here.

You are now ready to review the course navigation links click "6. Navigation Links" to continue your orientation.