Dear Parents and Students,
For those of you registered for classes with Memoria Press’s Online Classical Academy, I want to take this opportunity to welcome you if I have not already corresponded with you or spoken to you by phone. Thank for joining us in this great educational endeavor. I know that many of you never got the education you would have like to have received when you were young and in school, but you are looking forward to your child receiving what you didn't get yourself. And, of course, there are a few of you (I have discovered this by talking with home school parents over the last few years) who are doing classical education in order to learn yourself! That's okay. We're here to help you do both.
I know I am speaking for all of our instructors in saying that we are looking forward to a great year. Every time I finish teaching a course--whether it is an online course or a course at our school here in Louisville Kentucky (Highlands Latin School), I marvel at what the students in my class have learned. Ironically, the first thing that occurs to me is how much more these students are learning than what I learned in any class I ever took.
I was sitting at dinner one time at the house of a friend of mine who is a great conversationalist. He threw out the following question to the several couples that were there: "What do you see as the most promising cultural development today?" (my friend is also a great optimist). I answered without hesitation: "The home school movement." Everyone nodded their heads.Not only do I see the home school movement as a development that will change our nation, but the classical movement--a movement within a movement--is spearheading this change. I sometimes think we do not fully appreciate the cultural impact of what we are doing in the growing number of homes and private Christian schools who are reshaping our culture by passing on the culture that we have lost over the past 100 years: the classical culture of the Christian West.
But that sounds so lofty, doesn't it? So let's get our feet back down on the ground, and talk about the things we need to do now to accomplish this great work. I wanted to go over several things having to do with our program. Among these are:
- Things we need you or your student to do before school starts
- Answers to some common questions we have received from you all over the summer
Things We Need You to Do
Access your user profile and make sure you have a phone number listed on the system where you can be reached. If there is ever a problem getting on the weekly class chat, for example, and we need to contact you quickly, we may eed this. See FAQ below for how to access your user profile.
Make sure the e-mail address in your user profile is the address at which you want to receive course information. The e-mail address in your user profile is where all course information will come. If your student is using his or her e-mail address for the course and not yours as the parent, be aware that this is where information will come and you need to monitor that address--or speak with your e-mail host and ask them to automatically copy all message to that address to yours as well. We assume that the parents see these messages, so you need to make sure you see them from your end.Access the main page for each course your student is taking and make sure you have read all the messages posted by the instructor in the News Forum at the right of the page. You might also access the "Question & Discussion" forum link on the same page. Someone else has likely asked questions that you too may have and there should be an answer there from me or the class instructor. This is particularly important if you have joined the class over the last month or two, since there will inevitably be announcements that you have missed.
Have your student get on the main page for the online school and take the “Online Courses 101 (Tutorial)”. This will answer many of the questions that you would otherwise have to e-mail and ask us.
Answers to Common Questions
How do I access my user profile to view or change any of my user information? Simply click on your name in the upper right hand corner of your screen. That will take you to your user profile, where you can view or change any of your personal information, including your user name and password.
What is an online class like? What should I expect? There are several components to an online course:
- A weekly class text chat: This is the one place everyone meets together at the same time during the week. See the question about chats below for more information on chats.
- A News Forum: This is where the instructor posts messages for students. All students are automatically subscribed to this forum and receive an e-mail at the e-mail address in their user profile every time something is posted there. If you have joined the class in the last month or two, you need to read all the posts on the news forum so you don't miss important announcements about the class. If you have a question about one of the message on the News Forum, you can reply to the post on the New Forum. If your question is unrelated to the instructor's New Forum posts, and is about something else, please do not reply to posts on the News Forum, but ask your question in the Question & Discussion Forum (see the next thing on this list)
- A Question & Discussion Forum: This is where you ask your question about issues related to the course at any time during the week. Questions about what to do, when to do it, homework, quizzes, etc. all should be asked here. The instructor monitors this forum and receives an e-mail as soon as you post your message. You should receive a reply in a day or two, if not sooner. All other students can see the message you post, so if you have a message for the instructor you would like only him to see, you can also e-mail your instructor privately. This forum is also used in some courses as a place to conduct a mediated discussion an class questions that is graded for the student participation.
- Quizzes: These are online quizzes you should take as directed by the instructor. There are fill-in-the-blank quizzes, matching quizzes, crossword quizzes, mix quizzes, and multiple choice quizzes. Most of these quizzes are timed. When you complete the quiz, you simply press the "Submit" button at the bottom. You are then either given a grade, or directed to correct the answers that you got wrong. The system will only log your grade in the gradebook when you have gotten all the questions correct and pressed the "Submit" button, or when you run out of time on the timer. If you don't do one of these things, you will not receive a grade for the quiz. The quizzes are open from the first week of the course until the end of the semester, however, the parent is responsible for making sure the student is taking his or her quizzes in a timely manner. The instructor will also try to monitor the quizzes and inform parents if their child is falling behind, but this is a courtesy. The parent is responsible for monitoring the child's progress. The gradebook can be accessed at any time, 24 hours a day, by clicking on the "Gradebook" link on the left-hand column of the course page.
- Assignments: Assignments are any graded activities other than quizzes that may be assigned to a student. These will mostly consist of assigned papers. A student should complete such assignments on an Office Word program. He will then be able to easily upload the Word file by clicking the assignment link and following directions.
- Resources: Resources can consist of text pages the instructor has made available from the site or web links the instructor has posted to assis the student in completing his work. These are available from the middle column of the course page.
- Gradebook: This is where you can see your grades for the quizzes you have taken or the assignments you have completed. There are usually several categories of grades:
- Current Quizzes: Quizzes the student should have completed to that point in the course
- Uncategorized Quizzes: Quizzes the student has not yet been assigned
- Assignments: Graded assignments other than quizzes
- Total: The child's to date grade
- Current Quizzes: Quizzes the student should have completed to that point in the course
What is a “class” in an online course? The “class” is the weekly online text chat session. This is a page that you enter from the main course page for your class. This is what is called a “chat room.” It is accessible only by students registered in the class. There is a list of people present in the chat room on the right side of the chat page, so everyone can “see” everyone else in the class. You simply type what you would like to say in the field at the bottom and press “Enter,” at which point the comment is made visible to everyone in the class.
Why do you use text chats rather than audio or video software? There are several reasons:
- Chat are simple and do not require any special software on your computer.
- It is quick and efficient. Other forms of communication often involve time delays and limit the amount of communication that can take place. For example, not everyone can say something at the same time in an audio or video class, whereas a number of students can enter text comments in a short period of time in a chat and these can be read quickly by everyone.
- It is secure and safe. There are never any inappropriate advertisements appearing on pop-up screens during class—a problem that plagues some other kinds of software programs.
Are chats required for students? Chats are not required for the courses, although most course give some kind of incentive for students to attend as often as possible. They are highly recommended. The chats help to hold students accountable because they are responsible for having done the lesson for that week by the time of the chat and are asked individual questions about the material. Some families choose to take the course and take advantage of all the other features of the course and not that chat. That can and is often done, and most students who do this do just fine. On the other hand, students missing the chats will miss out on one of the most popular features of our program. They are informative, enlightening, and fun.
What happens in a chat? A typical chat session goes like this:
- Welcome and free chat: 5-10 minutes. Students talk to each other or the instructor in an unstructured environment.
- General class questions: 5-10 minutes. At this point class is called to order and students are asked to dispense with comments that are not pertinent to the discussion. The instructor asks general questions that everyone is encouraged to answer.
- Individual questions: 15-20 minutes. The instructor calls on individuals by asking a question, pausing for a few seconds and calling on 2-4 students at random who are expected to answer the question quickly and correctly.
- Competition: 15-20 minutes. During this part of class, the instructors asks questions and points are awarded for the first several students who give the correct answers. A tally is kept, and the students with the most points are announced at the end of the game. You can guess how popular this part of class is!
- Questions and Announcements: 10 minutes. The instructor answers questions from students and underscores anything important the student needs to know for the next week. Although this is an opportunity to ask questions, students should try to ask their questions before this on the Question & Discussion Forum so class time can be used for other things.
When does “class” start? Your student should begin their work the week of Sept. 3. However, since Sept. 3 is Labor Day, students are not expected to work that day, and any class that has its class chat scheduled for Monday will not meet until Monday, Sept. 10. The student should simply access the course page and look at the information provided for the first week. Be aware that some courses are still under development and will be posting more information later this week. In most cases the instructions will be very clear and explicit. Also, by the end of this week, every class should have a syllabus posted. Some classes will also have a “get acquainted” optional chat that will allow you to ask any other questions you may have.
I haven't received any communication from my instructor, what should I do? There could be several explanations for this. First, you need to make sure you are indeed enrolled in the course. If you can get into the course page, that means you're enrolled. Second, your e-mail address on your student profile on the system may not be the same as the e-mail you are checking. See my comment above about the correct e-mail address to deal with this. Third, your instructor may not, in fact, have made any announcements yet. In a few of our classes, we had to switch instructors late in the summer because of chat time availability. In these cases, you should hear from the instructor by the end of the week.
What should I do if I have further questions? The first thing to do is to check the Frequently Asked Questions link from the main online course page. If you still have a question, and it is a question about online courses in general, then you should go to the main online course page and ask it on the forum there. If the question has to do with something specific to a class, then you should go to the “Question and Discussion” Forum for the class that in which your student is enrolled and ask it there. As soon as you post the question, the course instructor will receive an e-mail that it has been posted and he will respond to your question within a day or two if not more quickly. We do encourage you to use the forums for questions whenever possible. That way, parents or students with the same question can see the answer.
Martin Cothran
Director