Welcome to hybrid course students

Dear Hybrid Course Student,

Welcome to this new learning experience using an online instructional component supported in part by the Pierce College Distance Learning program. I think that you will find this type of course rewarding; maybe even more challenging than a fully classroom–based course.

Plan now to dedicate time and energy toward the online component of your learning experience. Your instructor will have more information regarding the way the online area will work for your specific course.

After this experience, you may want to consider fully online courses! Online education is exciting because many people who would like to take courses have other responsibilities, like caring for young people, working, or simply having a full schedule.

Online education allows you to pursue your educational goals from home, at hours that are convenient for you. Online education is not less demanding than classroom based instruction, just different.

In campus classroom classes, you're more likely to listen to lectures and take exams. In an online course you are more likely to participate in “threaded” online discussions, submit assignments electronically, and spend lots of time on the Internet visiting various web sites and reporting on what they teach.

In online classes, the interaction with fellow students and the instructor in the threaded online discussions is where the greatest learning takes place. You should plan to be online, at times convenient for your schedule, 5 out of 7 days, roughly 15 hours each week. In summary, this is NOT a correspondence or independent study course.

We would like to remind you of the existing Academic Dishonesty Policy. Our instructors are fully aware of the policy and the disciplinary actions that could be given. You are in a unique position to experience learning from home, but keep in mind that you are a member of Pierce College and are governed by its policies and regulations. What is the Academic Dishonesty Policy?

There has been some concern with students not being able to receive emails from their instructor(s). Here are some suggestions to ensure a successful online learning experience:

If using a 'pop–up blocker', set it to allow 'pop–up' for the Blackboard site (or disable it when working in Blackboard).
Make sure your e–mail program accepts/allows all e–mail from your Blackboard instructor & Pierce College Distance Learning (distedu@pierce.ctc.edu).
Make sure your e–mail address in Blackboard is correct (see instructions in How to login). This is extremely important since it enables communication with the instructor and the college.
Be advised, official messages from the college will use your Pierce-created e-mail address. To avoid missing critical information, you should set that up for automatic forwarding to the account your read most regularly, if using a different address (like gmail, Yahoo, etc.). More info on logging in and forwarding e-mail...

Washington Online, (WAOL), the organization providing the “online classroom” for these courses, is made up of a consortium of all the community and technical colleges in Washington State. If you are interested in the full list of online courses Pierce offers, the Class Schedule or the PCOL/WAOL Welcome Letter will provide that information.

Have a fun and successful quarter – you will be surprised how much you learn!

The distance learning packet of essential information is available by printing each page using a button like this:

You choose which pages you need to print. For example, try the button & print this page.

Sincerely,

Edward A. Bachmann, Director of Distance Learning
DL Staff