Before we begin our semester of study together, it is important that you review all the material on all these pages, as it will not only prepare you to be successful in this course, but will also help you prepare for the "Course Information" quiz at the end of the orientation. You must get a score of at least 90% on that quiz to gain access to the assignment dropboxes for this course...and the answers are all contained in this orientation!
You should complete the Course Orientation during the first week of class. (See the Calendar in Canvas for specific due dates.)
As you work your way through these online materials for the Course Orientation, you will encounter additional reading assignments and hands-on exercises and activities. The chart below provides an overview of the requirements for the Course Orientation. For assignment details, refer to the orientation page noted.
(You may want to print this page to serve as a checklist as you go along.)
Activity | Location | Submitted for Grading? |
---|---|---|
Read through this course orientation and Syllabus | Course Orientation [2] and Syllabus [1] | No |
Set up Required Notification Settings | Course Communications and Required Notification Settings page | No |
Introduce yourself and meet the rest of the class! | Canvas | Yes - this activity will count toward your overall class discussion grade. |
Complete the "Initial Course Survey" | Canvas | Yes - this survey contains questions about you and your expectations for this course. Participating in this survey will count toward your overall class discussion grade. |
Take the Course Information Quiz | Canvas | Yes - the quiz is designed to test your knowledge of the course and the information covered in this lesson. You must get a score of 90% or better on this quiz to unlock the drop boxes for the course. You may retake the quiz as many times as you need |
Please post questions you have about course content or structure in the General Questions and Discussion Board, the first and top link in our in Canvas Home website. For questions that are of a more personal nature, please email me individually through Canvas email.
On the following pages, you will find important information about the course structure, requirements, scheduling, and technical requirements and assistance...all of which you'll need to know in order to pass the course. Remember, you are also responsible for the information located on our course syllabus (see the Resources menu).
ASTRO 801 will be conducted entirely on the World Wide Web. There are no set class meeting times, but you will be required to complete weekly assignments. Registered students in this course will need to navigate between several environments in the World Wide Web. These include:
Only students who are registered for this course will have access to the Canvas space for this course. Students who register for this Penn State course gain access to assignments and instructor feedback, and earn academic credit. Information about this course and the online Masters of Education in Earth Sciences is available at the M.Ed. in Earth Sciences website [3].
Not registered? Students who register for this Penn State course gain access to assignments and instructor feedback and earn academic credit. Read more about Penn State's Online Geospatial Education programs. [4]
Observations by modern ground-based and space-based observatories have fueled significant changes in our understanding of the Universe. The Solar System contains only 8 planets but has many thousands of Kuiper Belt Objects, including Pluto. Large area sky surveys have taken inventory of the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy and galaxies in the Universe and determined that only 4% of the mass of the universe is found in luminous objects. Besides the mysterious “dark matter,” we now know that the energy budget of the universe is dominated by “dark energy,” which is causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate. ASTRO 801: Planets, Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe will provide science educators with a strong foundation in astronomy, allowing them to critically evaluate the evidence for the most recent advances in our understanding of the Solar System, our Galaxy, and the Universe.
Astronomers use observations of the light from distant sources to discover the nature of these objects and their environment. ASTRO 801 will lead you to an understanding of light and the instruments for its detection. You will see how careful analysis of these observational data and theoretical models are used to solve the mysteries of the Universe.
ASTRO 801 will combine digital video, audio, simulation models, and the wealth of astronomical imagery from NASA’s Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer Great Observatories. You will use highly detailed planetarium software and simulated observing experiences to directly explore the night sky to make the same observations that research astronomers perform in their work. You will be granted licenses to use the courseware developed for this course in your own secondary classroom.
Lesson 1: Motions in the Sky and the 3D Geometry of the Sun, Earth, Moon System
Lesson 2: Orbits and the Laws of Kepler and Newton
Lesson 3: Electromagnetic radiation and Astronomical Observations
Lesson 4: The Properties of Stars and Stellar Classification
Lesson 5: The Early Stages of Stellar Evolution
Lesson 6: The Late Stages of Stellar Evolution
Lesson 7: Star Clusters
Lesson 8: The Milky Way Galaxy
Lesson 9: Galaxies in the Universe
Lesson 10: Cosmology
Lesson 11: The Solar System
Lesson 12: Life in the Universe
ASTRO 801 will rely upon a variety of methods to assess and evaluate student learning, including
Following is information about Canvas, Penn State's Learning Management System (LMS). In Canvas, registered students may consult course calendars; communicate with instructors, teaching assistants, and fellow students; submit assignments; receive feedback from the instructor and teaching assistant; take online quizzes and surveys; and check assignment scores and course grades. A link to Canvas appears on every page.
If you are new to Canvas, it is strongly recommended that you complete the PSU: Canvas Student Orientation [6].
You may also want to review the Canvas Student Guide [7] to acclimate yourself further, and watch the following video:
Credit: Canvas Overview for Students [8] from Canvas LMS [9].
In this video, you will learn how to navigate your Dashboard, courses, and Global Navigation Menu in Canvas.
When you log in to Canvas, the first thing you see is the Dashboard, which provides a high-level overview of your current courses. The Dashboard can be displayed in three different viewing options.
Card View displays a course card for each of your favorite courses. Each card can include clickable icons for Assignments, Announcements, Discussions, and Files. List View displays an agenda view of graded items from your courses, as well as any non-graded items your instructors designate for a course To Do list. You can also add your own items to the agenda.
Recent Activity View displays a stream of recent notifications from all your courses, including announcements, conversations, assignments, discussions, and peer reviews.
You can also access the course grades page from the Course Card and Recent Activity Views by clicking the View Grades button. The Grades page displays grades for all of your courses. To view grade details for a specific course, click the name of the course.
To view a course, click the Courses link in Global Navigation and click the name of the course you want to view. The course opens to the home page set by your instructor.
You can use the Course Navigation links, breadcrumb navigation, or the sidebar to navigate to different areas of the course.
The sidebar includes a To Do list that displays links to announcements and other items that require action in your courses, such as assignments, quizzes, discussions, and pages.
If your course includes student groups, you can view a list of your groups in Course Groups. Click the group name to view the group homepage. View recent assignment feedback in Recent Feedback. Click the assignment name to view feedback in the Submission Details page.
Canvas displays a Global Navigation Menu that gives you direct access to your courses and other areas of Canvas.
Click the Account link to log out of Canvas, specify your notification preferences, upload and view personal files, modify your user settings, manage ePortfolios, obtain a QR code to log in to the Student app, view global announcements, and enable a high-contrast user interface.
Click the Dashboard link to return to the Canvas Dashboard. Click the Courses link to quickly access your favorite courses and view a list of all your courses. Click the Groups link to access groups in which you are enrolled or view a list of all your groups.
Click the Calendar link to view your personal calendar and course calendars. Click the Inbox link to view and send messages to your instructors and peers within Canvas. Click the History link to view a list of course content and content areas you have viewed within the last three weeks.
Click the Help link to access help resources for your institution.
Thanks for watching this Canvas overview video. To learn more about Canvas, ask questions, or engage with other Canvas users, please visit community.canvaslms.com.
The Canvas Help Center provides extensive, up-to-date documentation [10] on making sure your computer is configured properly for Canvas. Failure to follow these recommendations may result in significant issues while viewing materials, taking assessments, and using drop boxes. Use of unsupported browsers is at your own risk.
To be sure you are able to access reserve readings and other library resources in this course, visit the library’s Online Student's Use of the Library [11] site. This guide outlines all that Penn State libraries offer you as an online student. It is strongly recommended that you visit the Services for Students [12] page.
If you have questions, just ASK! [13] a librarian! The ASK! page will connect you to librarians in a manner that meets your needs; e-mail, phone, or chat for a quick response.
Here are some quick tips to keep in mind when preparing to be successful in an online course:
You should plan to devote at least the same amount of time to your online courses as you would to attending lectures on campus and completing assignments. Other good study habits, such as attending class (logging on) regularly and taking notes, are just as important in an online course as they are in a lecture hall!
You should plan to devote 10-12 hours per week to completing lesson readings and assignments. Your learning will be most effective when you spread this participation out and engage with the course on a daily basis, if possible.
Take every opportunity to interact with the content, the instructor, and your classmates by completing assignments and participating in discussion forums and group activities!
Keep in sync with what's going on in the course and stay on top of deadlines and upcoming assignments.
Ask for guidance when you are in need of clarification. You can also use the Discussion Forum to ask general questions about the course set-up or content.
The links below will connect you with other resources to help support your successful online learning experience:
This website provides links to many resources on everything from taking notes online to managing your time effectively. Please note that you must be a World Campus student to receive some of the support services mentioned on this website.
As a student, you have access to several resources to help you improve your understanding of the course material, or better use technology needed for your courses. This website provides instructions and links for accessing online tutoring, writing help, and assistance with learning technology.
This blog features posts by Penn State staff and students on a wide variety of topics relevant to online learning. Learn from online students and alumni, as well as staff members dedicated to student success, how you can get the most out of your online course experience.
The iStudy online learning tutorials are free and available to all Penn State students. They cover a broad range of topics including online learning readiness, time management, stress management, and statistics - among many others. Check out the extensive list of topics for yourself to see what topics may be of most use to you!
Meaningful interactions among students and instructors are the hallmark of a successful online class, particularly a graduate seminar like this one. Canvas supports several types of communication, as described below. This is great, but it also means we need to be careful to make sure we have our notifications set properly to ensure that you're seeing everything your instructor sends you, and your instructor sees everything you send to her.
For this course, you are expected to have notifications for the following Canvas features set to "Notify me right away":
Please note that in addition to pushing the notification to your email immediately, you can also elect to push it on a mobile device with the Canvas student app. See here:
If you have any questions about setting up these notifications, please let me know! (You can edit your notification settings by selecting Account > Notifications from the lefthand navigation here in Canvas.)
Discussions [20]allow students to interact with the instructor and other classmates. Threaded discussions allow multiple posts and replies. New posts appear in the Course Activity Stream page, so you will know when something has been posted.
In general, questions and comments about project assignments and course content should be shared with the entire class via the appropriate discussion forums. That way, everyone can benefit from the discussion. To make sure you're part of these conversations as they're happening, subscribe to all of the forums in this course. You are responsible for information shared on the various discussion forums, so you are strongly encouraged to subscribe to them all.
Please note that in the discussion forums default mode, it is very difficult to keep track of whether you've read a post or not. To override the default mode setting, perform the following steps:
1. Use the Discussions link in the main menu to open a view of all discussion forums.
[If the Discussions link is not available in the main menu (it is visible in some courses and not in others), simply enter any discussion forum, find the Discussions link at the top of the page, and click the link. Proceed to step 2.]
2. Click on the gear/cog icon in the upper right to open the Edit Discussions Settings dialog.
3. Under My Settings, check the box for Manually mark posts as read, and then click the Save Settings button.
4. After you've changed the default settings, you can click on the blue dots to the left of discussion posts to more easily keep track of what you have and haven't read.
Conversations [21] are the equivalent of e-mail in Canvas. It's great to use for a quick e-mail to another student, instructor, or a whole team. Keep in mind that the text editor is very minimal, and does not have much formatting capability. Despite its limited formatting, this is the appropriate email channel for private correspondences with your instructor, not using your regular email. That way, all course communications live within the course.
Announcements [22]are messages from your instructor that contain important information, and I send a lot of them, at least one each week. Current announcements can be accessed through the Announcements tab in Canvas. I use these to introduce each new lesson, provide group feedback on graded assignments, and to disseminate other information quickly and broadly.
Now that you've had a chance to learn about the course and the online learning environment, I'd like to get to know you...and help you get to know each other! Complete the activities below, then continue with the remainder of the Course Orientation.
By now, you hopefully have a much better idea of what this course, and the online course environment, will be like. Time to test your skills! Once you have reviewed all of the materials for the Course Orientation, you will need to take the "Course Information Quiz" and pass it with a score of 90% or better in order to unlock the assignment dropboxes for this course. You can take the quiz as many times as you need until you obtain at least a 90%.
Good luck!
You have reached the end of the Course Orientation! Double-check the to-do list on the Course Orientation Overview page to make sure you have completed all of the activities listed there before you begin Lesson 1.
Links
[1] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801/syllabus
[2] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801/l1.html
[3] http://Earth.e-education.psu.edu
[4] http://gis.e-education.psu.edu/
[5] http://www.Earthscienceworld.org/images
[6] https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1780857
[7] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-4121
[8] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Video-Guide/Canvas-Overview-Students/ta-p/383771
[9] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Video-Guide/tkb-p/videos
[10] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1284
[11] http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/onlinestudentlibraryguide
[12] http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/c.php?g=516093&p=3540332
[13] http://ask.libraries.psu.edu/?stream=8
[14] https://student.worldcampus.psu.edu/academic-support-resources/strategies-to-improve-online-learning
[15] http://student.worldcampus.psu.edu/student-services/tutoring-technology-resources
[16] http://studentblog.worldcampus.psu.edu/
[17] http://istudy.psu.edu/
[18] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1559
[19] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1666
[20] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1911
[21] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1293
[22] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-4121#jive_content_id_Announcements