Before we begin our semester of study together, it is important that you review all of the material in this Course Orientation, as it will not only prepare you to be successful in this course, but it will also help you prepare for the Syllabus Quiz at the end of the orientation. You must get a score of at least 90% on that quiz to be able to turn in assignments for this course...and the answers are all contained in this orientation and on the syllabus!
This Course Orientation will complement and expand on the information provided there. Be sure to review it carefully! A link to the syllabus is located in the "Resources" menu.
You should complete the Course Orientation by the end of the first week of the semester. It is my habit to make my due dates Tuesdays. So, complete the Course Orientation (which includes the activities spelled out in the table below) by 29 Aug 2017. I will write the due dates here in the course content, but you can also refer to the schedule-at-a-glance page I made in Canvas and also the calendar in Canvas, so you will have more than one way to find out when things are due and if all goes well I won't write down two different due dates for the same assignment.
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 table below provides an overview of the requirements. For assignment details, refer to the Course Orientation page noted.
Activity | Described on which page of this orientation | Due Date |
---|---|---|
Forward your PSU email | Course Communications | 29 Aug 2017 |
Log in to this Web site | Course Communication | 29 Aug 2017 |
Introduce yourself and meet the rest of the class | Getting to Know You -- the discussion board is in Canvas | 29 Aug 2017 |
Take the Syllabus Quiz | Summary and Final tasks -- quiz is in Canvas | 29 Aug 2017 |
If you have any questions, please post them to our Questions? Discussion Forum (not e-mail), in Canvas. I will check that discussion forum daily to respond. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate.
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 in our course syllabus (see the link to the syllabus in the "Resources" menu).
EARTH 520 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 will need to navigate between two environments in the World Wide Web. Why two? Why not just one? Here's why: I am committed to making my course content open to the public; however, PSU's lawyers are committed to keeping certain types of data behind a wall that only those with PSU credentials can access. For us, this latter category boils down to anything with a grade on it and anything with a copyright. So, quizzes, discussion boards, problem set feedback, and material from library e-reserves will all require you to login. I keep all that stuff separate from the main course content so that the content can stand alone.
The instructional materials in this site consist of eight lessons of study, each including multiple pages of text, graphics, and activities. Activities prompt readers to explore selected Web sites, to download data and/or software, or other adventures. Registered students are also prompted to enter discussion forums and turn in problem sets.
Penn State's course management system. We'll use Canvas's quizzes, discussion boards, and gradebook in this course.
Students who register for this Penn State course gain access to assignments and instructor feedback, and earn academic credit. Only students who are registered for this course will have access to the Canvas space for this course. Information about this course and the online Masters of Education in Earth Sciences is available at http://earth.e-education.psu.edu [1].
Penn State's library hosts the scientific articles we'll read in this course. There's a link to the PSU library site in the Resources drop-down menu on this website. I have also made durable links to each article inside Canvas.
There are eight lessons total that will be completed at a rate of either one or two weeks per lesson. Lesson learning activities will be in the form of background reading and discussion that outlines a current scientific problem in solid Earth sciences, the collection and manipulation of appropriate data, and the assessment of the results of this work. By doing this, you will simultaneously become familiar with the content as well as the practice of science, just like the Next Generation Science Standards wants you to. You will also participate in online discussions about how to teach this content to others. For the last lesson, you will complete a capstone project where you will construct a teaching plan based on the topic of your choice.
The main priorities in Lesson 1 are to learn a bit more about you and your background in Earth science and to get some free practice doing things that you'll have to do later on in the course for a grade. These activities include creating plots electronically and participating in the class discussion of a scientific paper.
You will research the scientist of your choice whose work directly contributed to the plate tectonics revolution or to current knowledge of solid earth geophysics. You'll create a Web page within this course's Canvas space to teach your topic to the rest of your classmates.
In this lesson, we'll discuss the Earth's magnetic field, including simulations of the field, field reversals, and biological interactions with the field.
How big is the core? How hot is the core? What's it made of? How do we know it is there?
Case studies in forensic geology involving mineralogy and murder.
This is another dangerous part of geology.
Is it true that there are more big earthquakes now than there used to be? Where do big earthquakes happen? Can we predict them? Find out in Lesson 7!
Create a lesson plan on the topic of your choice.
In EARTH 520, I will rely upon a variety of methods to assess and evaluate student learning, including:
that require you to collect and interpret datasets.
that will be used to evaluate your knowledge and skills through the production of a learning module that you, in turn, will be able to use to teach course concepts to your own students.
Penn State uses an online course management system to deliver most of its online courses to registered students. Even though the course content for Earth 520 is open, registered students need a secure way to submit assignments, receive grades, and read copyrighted papers from the library. That's why I have to use a separate interface for the parts of the course to which only registered students have access.
When you first logged in to our course space in Canvas, you landed on a home page that included a link to the main course content (here). When you want to turn something in or participate in a discussion, click the "Modules" link and you will be on a page in which all the deliverables for this course are organized by Lesson in same order that they are on this webpage. (I call them "Lessons" but Canvas calls them "Modules" , tomato, tomahto.)
You can continue to access the main course content by following the link from Canvas, or you can always get to the course content directly via this link (bookmark it!): EARTH 520: Plate Tectonics and People [2]
Here are several resources that can help answer common questions and support your use of Canvas throughout this course:
How can I get technical help as a student?
Contact the IT Service Desk [3]
How can I learn more about using Canvas as a student?
Find answers to common questions in the Canvas Student Guide [4]
Where can I see how Canvas compares to ANGEL? (If you never used PSU's old system, ANGEL, you should just ignore this)
View an ANGEL to Canvas Terminology Chart [5]
Before you begin working through the course content, you need to make sure the computer you are using is configured properly for the multimedia that you will encounter. Below are specifications and tests to help make sure everything is in working order.
We have video material for many of the lessons in this course. Chances are pretty good that you already use an app or Web browser that is configured to open these up, but to be safe, here is a "test" file you should try now to ensure you won't have problems later. If this file runs smoothly for you, then you're ready to go. If you can't get it to play on your computer, then please refer to the steps at the bottom of this page to troubleshoot your problem.
a screencast in which I describe the layers of the Earth [6]
How do you define and achieve success in an online course like this one? It depends on your goals and perspective. A 19-year-old undergraduate student who registers for an online course in the hope of earning an easy “A” is unlikely to be successful, no matter how adept he or she may be with information technology. However, Palloff and Pratt observe that “in general, distance education has been applied to and seen as most successful in the arena of adult and continuing education” (Palloff and Pratt, 2001, p. 109).
Much of the research done on successful students in distance education programs suggests that students who are attracted to this form of education share certain characteristics, including that they are voluntarily seeking further education, are motivated, have higher expectations, and are more self-disciplined. They tend to be older than the average student and to have a more serious attitude toward their courses, education, and learning. They are what most would consider to be nontraditional students. (Palloff and Pratt, 2001, p. 109)
This is not to say that younger students can’t succeed in online classes. Indeed, “most [undergraduate] students today are older, are working, and need more flexible schedules” (Palloff and Pratt, 2001, p. 109). The question is, assuming that a student is motivated to get the most out of an online class, and that the class is well-designed and led by attentive instructors, which attitudes and behaviors increase the student’s chance of having a satisfactory experience?
Swan and colleagues (2000) surveyed approximately 3,800 students enrolled in 264 online courses through the SUNY Learning Network. Of the 1,406 responses received, the researchers analyzed data associated with 73 courses for which there was a 40 percent response rate or greater. Among their findings were statistically significant correlations between student satisfaction and (a) perceived learning gains; (b) interaction with instructors; and (c) interaction with fellow students. Additionally, respondents who rated their own level of activity in online classes as high also tended to report higher levels of satisfaction.
Research results like these, along with lessons learned in our more than ten years of experience in distance learning, lead us recommend the following three study habits that will maximize your chances for success in your online class:
Bransford, J. D. et al. (Eds.) (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, and Experience. Washington, DC: National Research Council.
Chickering, A. W.,& Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7) pp.3-7.
Gibbs, G. (1999). Planning Your Students’ Learning Activities. In McKeachie, W.J. (Ed.) McKeachie’s Teaching Tips, (10th Ed.) Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 20-33.
Palloff, R. M.& Pratt, K. (2001). Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Swan, K. et al. (2000). Course Design Factors Inflouencing the Success of ONline Learning. Proceedings, WebNet 2000 World Conference on the WWW and Internet. San Antonio, TX. October 30-November 4.
Meaningful interactions among students and instructors are the hallmark of a successful online class. The learning environments used in this Penn State course support several kinds of communication, as described below.
The World Campus and Penn State will both use your PSU email account (e.g. abc123@psu.edu [9]) for official communications. If you want to have your PSU email forwarded to another email account, please visit http://work.psu.edu [10].
You can e-mail me directly if you need to talk about something you don't want the whole class to know (eliza@psu.edu [11]). If you have a question about how to proceed on a problem set, or you want clarification of due dates, or something like that, it is better to post that to the Questions? Discussion Forum because then the whole class can profit from finding out the answer.
There are many ways to get the help you need. See the Help! link in the "Resources" menu to learn more about the people and resources available to you.
I'd like to get to know you...and help you get to know each other!
We will use a discussion forum to post, and read, self-introductions. To access the discussion forum:
By now you 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 Syllabus Quiz and pass it with a score of 90% or better. You can take the quiz as many times as you need to until you obtain at least 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. (To access Lesson 1, use the link in the "Course Outline" menu.)
If you have anything you'd like to comment on, or add to the Course Orientation materials, feel free to post your thoughts in the Questions? or Random Thoughts Discussion Board in Canvas.
Links
[1] http://earth.e-education.psu.edu
[2] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth520
[3] http://itservicedesk.psu.edu/canvassupport
[4] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-4121
[5] https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/lms-migration/blog/2015/05/09/angel-to-canvas-comparison-sheet-for-faculty
[6] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth520/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.earth520/files/flash/earth_interior/2009-02-25_1448.mov
[7] http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html
[8] http://student.worldcampus.psu.edu/student-services/helpdesk
[9] mailto:abc123@psu.edu
[10] http://work.psu.edu/
[11] mailto:eliza@psu.edu
[12] https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1870354