English Composition 1 Online
Welcome to English Composition 1 Online!
Hello! According to the class roster, you are enrolled in the summer 2008 session of ENG 1001-100, the online section of English Composition 1 at Illinois Valley Community College. We do not have class meetings for this online course. Instead, our class is conducted via the Internet.
My name is Randy Rambo, and I am the instructor of English Composition 1 Online. I would like to welcome you to the class, and I look forward to working with you this semester.
You can find the course home page at http://www.ivcc.edu/eng1001. The home page includes a link to the college Blackboard system, which we use for our interaction. You can also access the home page of English Composition 1 Online from my home page, at http://www.ivcc.edu/rambo. It may take you a little while to become familiar with the technology and with the setup of the course, but most students catch on quickly. You just need an Internet connection, a Web browser, and any word processor.
The course begins Wednesday, June 11, 2008, and the first assignments are due shortly after this time. Please wait until Wednesday, June 11, before accessing the class material and before logging in to the class Blackboard (as explained below). The course will not be updated for us until this date.
If you have questions or concerns about the course, please do not hesitate to contact me. The best way to contact me is through e-mail. My e-mail address is randy_rambo@ivcc.edu. My office on campus is room A-313, and my office phone number is (815) 224-0338, but I do not have office hours on campus this summer and will not be in my office much (like you, I will be doing most of my work with my home computer), so please use e-mail to contact me.
Getting Started with Blackboard
We use the online course system called Blackboard. It is quite popular, so you might have used it before. Even if you have never used Blackboard, you should find it easy to get started with it.
There are links to Blackboard at the home page for ENG 1001 Online (at http://www.ivcc.edu/eng1001) and at the home page of Illinois Valley Community College (at http://www.ivcc.edu). After you click the link to Blackboard, you will see a "login" button. Clicking the "login" button will take you to a screen where you enter your username and password.
Blackboard Username and Password
Your Blackboard username is the first three letters of your last name and the last
four digits of your Social Security Number, and your password is
the first three digits of your Social Security Number.
Example
Student name: John Smith
Social Security Number: 123-45-6789
John's username is smi6789, and his password is 123.
Self-Enrolling in Blackboard for ENG 1001 Online
Many IVCC courses use Blackboard. For some courses, the instructor enrolls
students in Blackboard. For other courses, students must enroll themselves after logging
in to Blackboard. This is called "self-enrolling," and for English Composition 1 Online, students must self-enroll.
Self-enrolling is a simple process. Just follow the instructions below.
- Log in to Blackboard at http://ivcc.blackboard.com
- Click the "Courses" tab near the top of the screen
- Click "Summer 2008 Classes" under "Course Catalog" on the right side of the screen
- In the "Search for a course" box, type ENG 1001 and click "Go"
- From the list of courses, find your class section (which is ENG-1001-100 for Summer 2008).
- Click "Enroll" to the right of your class
- Click "Submit" at the next screen
That's it! After you complete the steps above, you will be able to join our class in Blackboard. But remember that you should self-enroll in our class Blackboard only on or just after Wednnesday, June 11.
Instructions for self-enrolling also appear on the college's "Blackboard Self Enrollment for Students" Web page, which you can find linked at http://www.ivcc.edu/its/blackboard/index.html).
Prerequisites
To take English Composition 1 at IVCC, students must be placed in ENG 1001 based on IVCC’s English placement exam, or must have an ACT English score of at least 22 with proper documentation submitted to the college, or must successfully complete ENG 0900. Shortly after the semester begins, I will receive notification of students who have not met the requirements for enrolling in the course. Students who have enrolled in this course through a college other than IVCC must meet the enrollment requirements for ENG 1001 as established by their college. Just contact me if you have questions about the requirements for enrolling in the course.
In addition, students must complete IVCC's Distance Learning Orientation before beginning the course. You can read about the orientation at the Web page at http://www.ivcc.edu/dl/Orientation/about.html.
To Begin the Course
To begin the course, simply log in to Blackboard and self-enroll in the class (as explained above) on Wednesday, June 11. Then click "Course Information" and "Assignments" on the left side of the Blackboard screen to read about the class and to see our first set of assignments. Again, the class begins Wednesday, June 11, 2008. We follow the same semester timeline as courses on campus, so it is important that you join us as soon as the class starts.
Welcome to the class, and I look forward to an enjoyable semester with you!
Sincerely,
Randy Rambo
Illinois Valley Community College
815 N. Orlando Smith Ave.
Oglesby, IL 61348
Office: A-313
Telephone: 815-224-0338
E-mail: randy_rambo@ivcc.edu