What is Biology 110?
Biology 110 is a 3 credit hour anatomy and physiology course with no laboratory component. Biology 110 is taken by Pharmacy Tech and some Allied Health students as part of the core curriculum in their respective programs. Biology 110 is also used a preparatory course for students enrolling in Biology 112 or Biology 210 in subsequent semesters, and transfers as a natural science for some programs in Business and Criminal Justice.
This is not a self-paced course, nor is it easier than the on-campus course.
To be successful in this or any internet course you must be self-motivated,
organized, and have good reading comprehension. In addition you must express
yourself well in writing and be comfortable communicating entirely in a
written format. The bulk of the course will consist of reading the text,
submitting homework assignments, and taking exams. The due dates will be
posted but there will be nobody to remind you of impending deadlines. If
you miss them you miss them. If you can’t keep up with due dates
and maintain a strict schedule you will quickly fall behind. See the syllabus (also
on the course web site) for the due dates for assignments and exams and
other important (and somewhat redundant) information. I would get the syllabus
first before you take the Orientation Quiz because the orientation quiz
has some questions that are answered on the syllabus.
Course Management System
We will be using McGraw-Hill's ARIS ® for course management initially- the only thing we will use the WebCT account and password will be to view this orientation information and get the link to the course site on the ARIS server. If I receive the information to import the course into WebCT and it looks like it will work better in WebCT and I think the transition will be seamless for you we'll change over, but not unless all of the criteria I just listed are met and not before I give you ample warning. In the meantime let's use the e-mail function within WebCT and maybe we'll find some other things useful, like the chat and message board. I will give you the necessary information to log into the class once the orientation is complete and I will give you the information needed to move into WebCT when appropriate but I'll also put a link to the ARIS class site on the WebCT site. Once the MTC "Director of all things WebCT" puts the course up there - it should be BIO 110 I1R. The BIO 110 LY8 is for a 10 week hybrid I'm teaching at Batesburg-Leesville (if anyone registers for it).
Grading
There will be Homework assignments consisting of various types of interactive learning activities, Quizzes for each chapter (Multiple choice and True-False), as well as 6 unit exams (Tests).
All homework assignments will be completed online and must be completed within the time frame indicated. The average score of all Homework assignments will contribute 10% toward your grade.
All quizzes will be taken online. Quizzes are not designed to be open book/open note quizzes. They will not be proctored but they will be timed to force students to be familiar with the material. Students who attempt to use the text or notes during the quiz typically are timed out before they finish and submit the quiz. The grade recorded in the online gradebook for each quiz is the grade received on the first attempt. The average score on all Quizzes will contribute 20% toward your grade. Well, OK, I'll drop the lowest quiz grade. But that's all, just one low quiz grade, and if you missed one you'll have a 0 and that will be the one I drop.
Unit exams (Tests) will be taken online in the Assessment Center on MTC's Airport Campus during the designated time period (usually Wednesday through Saturday of the week the tests are made available). Tests will be proctored but will not be timed, however, you must arrive at the Assessment Center at least one hour before closing. I would suggest you arrive earlier than that to give yourself plenty of time to complete the test. In addition, you will be required to provide a photo I.D. to Assessment Center staff. For students who are out of the area we will set up a testing agreement with the closest available facility (usually another college in the SC Technical College system). The 6 Tests will contribute 70% toward your grade. I will not drop a Test grade but at least the 6th test isn't a comprehensive final, it just covers the last few chapters.
Allow me to reiterate: Requirements for taking Tests in the Assessment Center:
Here is the link to the MTC Assessment Center's web site with the hours for testing: http://www.midlandstech.edu/testcenter/dleihour.html
Others may be different - if you will be testing at an alternate site you'll need to provide that information for me.
The homework assignments, chapter quizzes and unit exams will be recorded in the online gradebook automatically. You will not need to submit them to me. The learning activities required for grading are labled Homework, Quiz, and Test. Other learning activites are suggested to help you master the material but aren't required.
You may miss 13 of the assignments before withdrawal for excessive absence. Missed assignments will be scored with a grade of 0%.
What You Need For The Course
You must have:
If you have a program on your computer that prevents pop-ups, you may need to disable it in order to see quizzes and assignments. If your internet settings have disabled active content you will have to allow blocked content everytime a new page with active content loads. You can change this feature to "prompt" or "enable" in the secrutiy settings found in the internet options menu that drops down from the tools menu in your browser. I can click on the "blocked popups" icon on my browser toolbar and it will allow me to enable popups on the ARIS site.
Click, and there you go, popups enabled.
Bottom Line - How it works
If after all consideration, you decide now or later to stop coming/participating
in this course, then you should quickly go through the withdrawal process
by submitting a withdrawal form at the Records Office on campus. Don’t
just stop participating and assume someone else will do the paper work for
you. The responsibility is yours.
Once you have finished reading the Orientation Page you must go to the Aris website, register, and take the Orientation Quiz on the class website. Again, let me remind you, get the syllabus first, information there as well as here will be on the Orientation Quiz. You must answer 100% of the questions correctly to pass the quiz, at which point I will enable you within the course. Here are the directions for registration:
New Student ARIS Registration:
This Orientation Information is now complete! Go
register and take the quiz and Let's get started!
You may currently access the course at: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/classware/studentCenter.do?isbn=0072945834