Welcome to Introduction to Psychology
Spring 2010: Second 9 Week Session
Instructor: Katy Neidhardt
kneidhar@cuesta.edu
Phone: 546-3111, ext. 2566
Dear Student,
Welcome to distance education at Cuesta College and the hybrid-online version of introductory psychology. Psychology 201 is a lecture course designed to provide familiarity with basic concepts in psychology. For this online version, the lectures will be scripted PowerPoint slides—therefore, in combination with the textbook, you can expect a considerable amount of reading for this course. Course performance will be assessed according to course point totals obtained on two midterms, participation in weekly online discussions, and the final exam. More detailed information will be given at the on-campus course orientation on Tuesday, Mar. 23rd from 7:00-8 pm at the SLO Cuesta campus (rm 6302). During the first week of the term—if you are enrolled in the class—you will be able to log on to your Blackboard account. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE COURSE SITE BEFORE THAT TIME! (Blackboard is the web-based course management program we will use for this course; see below for more details.)
Please confirm that the information you provided to Cuesta College when you registered is current, and that you have access to your Cuesta email account.
Katy
CLASS REQUIREMENTS
- A working e-mail account, access to Adobe Acrobat Reader, Realplayer, Quicktime and the Internet (and a back-up plan if your internet access or computer go down).
- Textbook: Myers, D. G. (2007). Exploring psychology (7th Ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. This textbook is available in hardcopy at the college bookstore (http://bookstore.cuesta.edu) or in an online version (viewable as a web page linked to practice quizzes, flashcards and capable of letting you highlight passages and write notes on the page) for $36 at (http://ebooks.bfwpub.com/exploring7e) - click on the link to Purchase e-version and ignore the question for Username and Password.
- Basic computer experience
CLASS MEETINGS
We will be meeting on the SLO Cuesta campus (rm 6302) for FOUR mandatory Tuesday evening meetings
- Tuesday, Mar. 23rd (orientaion meeting—you will be dropped if you are not at this meeting!)
- Tuesday, Apr. 20th (Exam 1)
- Tuesday, May 4th (Exam 2)
- Tuesday, May 18th (Final Exam)
COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS
Be aware that your computer needs to meet minimum system requirements to run Blackboard and to access lecture material. The requirements are:
- Computer Specs. Pretty fast computer so you won't be stuck waiting for things to happen while online.
- Web Browser. Mozilla Firefox or Safari for Mac (Internet Explorer does NOT always work well when viewing videos, viewing lectures as webpages and taking practice quizzes).
- Adobe Acrobat Reader. Needed to view most course materials, including syllabus, chapter learning objectives and lecture notes. Most recent version of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
- Real Player & Quicktime. You will need these to view videos related to lecture material.
OUR BLACKBOARD SITE
Go to the Blackboard site at http://cehosting.blackboard.com (This course will NOT be available until the first day of the semester). Click on Cuesta College and then click on the Log In link. Your college username and password are:
- Username: Use the SAME username you use to enter the my.cuesta.edu portal; firstname_lastname.
Example: If your name was Sally May your username would be: sally_may
- Password: STUDENT (you may change this later). Any change to your password will be effective for ALL Blackboard courses in which you are enrolled at Cuesta.
- Note: If you had a Blackboard account during the previous one or two semesters, your username and password may not have changed and may still be required to login to the current semester. Also, do NOT bookmark the log in page; this can create problems when trying to log in.
Blackboard Support at Cuesta. For site help, email: support@my.cuesta.edu
Blackboard 24/7 help desk. For site help, either call: 1-866-847-3251 or visit:
http://supportcenteronline.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4186
There is also a "Browser Check" link on the Blackboard login page that will not only check the users browser but also provide information about which versions of JAVA are supported. And it has information on how to configure your browser so popups are allowed, because Blackboard requires them.