8/21/10

Hello, All:

You are receiving this message because you are enrolled in the online Section 5 of EDU 349
(Educational Psychology) for the Fall ‘10 term. This section has been set up for students who
are seeking certification in Childhood/Early Childhood/Inclusive Ed (with or without Middle
School Extension).

This memo gives you some basic information about the course requirements and access
information. This is not the Syllabus; you will be able to access that at the start of the course by
logging onto our course ANGEL site. Note that I am also posting this memo to ANGEL for you.

Also please note…as with any course, you learn the ropes as you go along. This memo is just
to kick us off. Do not fear…I am here to help you through the content, as well as the tech!!

PART 1: DATES, TIMES, & VENUES

• The course starts Monday, August 24; module work will end on December 10. Final
course work must be submitted by the last day of Final Exam Week, December 17.

• There are no required times that you must be online with

others all at the same time. And – since this is a totally
online course – there is no time when you must meet
with anyone face-to-face (F2F). So…learning in PJs, on
your porch, or at the beach is AOK!

• There will be both “soft” and “hard” deadlines in the

course. “Soft” deadlines are designed to help you pace
your independent (and sometimes collaborative) work
through the material and requirements; “hard” deadlines
are submission deadlines that you are expected to meet. I
will always tell you what is a soft vs. a hard deadline, as
we move along. Keep reading my points below…

• You will be spending approximately the same amount of time on this course as you would in
any upper-level F2F course. I plan work that will take – on average – 320 minutes/week. At
times, you will spend more, and at other times, less…but this is a solid average (and based
on feedback that I have gotten from prior students’ real time tracking .)

• You will ALWAYS want to grab (that is a familiar term for downloading) the Module Guide for
the week (or sometimes two weeks) at the beginning of the module period. We will plan to
have our modules start on Mondays by 10 AM, and end on Sunday by 11:59 PM. (Note that
these times are adjusted when we have holidays or breaks.) So…even if you do not start
working on the module on Mondays, please DO go to ANGEL and pull the Module Guide
down to your own computer. Read through it to get an idea of what you will need to do,
knowing that it is a very very detailed, step-by-step plan. I encourage you to “breathe,” as
sometimes the length of the Module Guide is a bit daunting. But think…normally, drkg would
be telling me a bunch of this stuff in person, and now she needs to write it all down for me.

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EDU 349 Fall Online Welcome Memo (Gradel)
• If there are days that you cannot spend the time listed as “soft deadlines” in our Module
Guides, you will want to pre-plan to spend the equivalent time on the day(s) before or the
day after.

PART 2: COURSE START-UP

Initial online course materials will become available on our ANGEL site as of 10 AM on
Monday, August 23 at 10 AM. Note that you do NOT need to log on at 10 AM…I am just telling
you when materials will be posted. I will be available for technical assistance as of this
weekend, but am not available 24/7.

Our Module Guides will be on ANGEL. These Guides walk you through every step of what we
will be doing in all parts of the course. You will need to go to the Fredonia home page, click on
the ANGEL button, logon, and then click on this course on your own ANGEL screen. If you are
having problems logging onto ANGEL, please do one or more of the following:
1. Please re-check the GENERAL STUDENT INFORMATION section below and/or on the
information that you received after registering for the course.
2. If #1 doesn’t work, go to the Fredonia home page and click on FredQuest under the E-
SERVICES list on the left bottom of the page. Put in a “Fred Ticket” to request help.
3. Reach drkg, and tell her what your problem is.

Please plan on checking into the course on the first day of the term, as you will have initial
(getting acquainted) work to this week. Also, PLEASE CHECK YOUR FREDONIA EMAIL AND
ANGEL ANNOUNCEMENTS at least on alternate days while enrolled in the course.

In general, we will be using due times of SUNDAYS by 11:59 PM (this is right before midnight)
for “hard deadline” submissions.

PART 3: GENERAL STUDENT INFORMATION

NOTE: If you are a continuing student here at Fredonia, this section
may be irrelevant. However, if you are a new student at FSU or are a
visiting student (registered through SUNY Learning Network), you will
want to use this information to ensure that you are logged onto your
FSU email, ANGEL, and YOUR CONNECTION.

• Student Identification Number: Your unique student ID number

(FID) is FXXXXXXXX. You will use it as the UserID when logging
into the “Your Connection” portal. Treat it as being confidential; please keep it in a safe
place, or memorize it as you would your social security number.

• E-Services username and password: A unique “e-Services” username and password is

provided to every student for logging into electronic resources, such as the ANGEL Learning
Management System, the campus network, library resources, and your Fredonia e-mail
account. The “e-Services” username and password are secured for your reference within
the “Your Connection” portal on the SUNY Fredonia Home page at http://www.fredonia.edu,
which is located on the left side, near the bottom of the page. To get started, please follow
these steps to locate your “e-Services” login credentials:
1. Log into “Your Connection” using the student ID number (FID) listed above as the
User ID and your date of birth in MMDDYY format as the initial PIN.
2. Once logged into “Your Connection,” click the View Your UserIDs and Passwords
link (located under the Personal Information link).

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 3. Your initial “e-Services” ID and password are listed. You can also find out how to
change it and reset it if you've forgotten it. For detailed login instructions, please visit
http://www.fredonia.edu/helpdesk/procedures/logininstructions.asp.

• ANGEL: The ANGEL Learning Management System will be one of our resource areas; you
will log onto it by clicking on ANGEL from the Fredonia home page. We will not “live” on
ANGEL, but it will store electronic files for your access. ANGEL will also be where I will post
generic announcements for you. PLEASE CHECK ANGEL AT LEAST ON ALTERNATE
DAYS.

• Fredonia E-mail: The Fredonia e-mail system is used for communication with instructors as
well as with administrative offices. To access it, click on the Outlook Webmail button
located on the bottom left of the Fredonia home page. It is critical that you use your
Fredonia e-mail for all campus communication – alternate e-mail systems are not
recommended. I will be corresponding to you via your FREDONIA email.

PART 4: REQUIRED TEXT

Our text is as follows:
Woolfolk, A. (2010). Educational psychology (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education, Inc. (Note that this version is packaged with MyEducationLab.)
The ISBN for this package is: ISBN 978-0-558-50412-0

No other versions of these materials will work for the course. Please do not get confused
by the text requirements for other sections of this course. This text is available ONLY through
the Fredonia BookStore. I have chosen this format because it significantly reduces the cost of
the text for you.

NOTE: If you are enrolled as a distance learning student (i.e., you attend another
university or college), you will need to purchase the text through the Fredonia
BookStore; use this URL to get to it:
http://www.sunyfredoniabookstore.com/buy_book_detail.asp?mscssid=F3A95143FEB246
35B0047E3660884855&pf_id=10628874).

I will also be furnishing information about how to access JUST an electronic version of the text,
as soon as I receive it from the publisher. Hold tight 

PART 5: CORE REQUIRED FREE ELECTRONIC RESOURCES/SOFTWARE

Note that you do NOT need to have all of the materials/access assembled by the START of the
course. BUT it is important that you begin to get your online tools ready and in-place by the
second week of class. Also, note that all of the software is available on most campus
computers, for those of you who will be local.

FOR WEEK 1, you will need:

1. The Firefox web browser. You MUST use the Mozilla Firefox browser, whether you
are on a Mac or a Windows-based PC. It is downloadable FREE from:
http://www.downloadfirefoxbrowser.com/

2. ANGEL

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 3. Adobe® Reader v. 7 or above (note that Readers is now in its 9.x version):
http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/

FROM WEEK 2 on:

Drkg will be introducing you to various tools during the course. The following are “must-
haves;” other tools will be staggered in, and drkg will give you tons of guidance on using
them.

4. Text electronic support materials including – but not exclusive to – (a) electronic
resources referenced in the text (see the text); (b) MyEducationLab, accessible via a
code that wrapped with the text (MyEducationLab; (c) podcasts produced by our text
author, Anita Woolfolk (available at http://anitatalks.wordpress.com; and (d) additional
resources accessible through links from course modules and ANGEL (to be announced).
(NOTE: You will not need an MP3 player to access the course’s podcasts, but you will
need a computer that can access MP3 or MP4 files; most Windows and Mac systems
have pre-installed software to do this. If not, I will be giving you information on where to
grab free media software online.)

5. We will be using a course Wiki (free) for some of our collaborative work; that
information will be supplied in the Syllabus.

6. The course’s iTunes University portion of our ANGEL site.

7. Quicktime (free): http://www.apple.com/downloads/

8. iTunes (free): http://www.apple.com/downloads/

9. We will be using free online tools called Zoho Writer, Notebook, and Show. In the
past, 100% of my students have never used these tools. However, they ALL have
reported – by the end of the course – that these tools helped them keep their materials
together and “on the same page” with both me and their colleagues. These are Internet-
based tools that you will NOT need to download to your computers. HOWEVER, you
may choose to also use the Microsoft® Office suite, Open Office, or a word processing
program of your choice, but – because of Zoho – you may choose to do little in other
applications. To register, you may go directly here:
https://accounts.zoho.com/register?serviceurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zoho.com%2F
(note that – if you have one – you can use your Google, Google Apps, Yahoo, or
Facebook ID to register). To get a quick intro to Zoho, you may wish to visit the FAQ
(Frequently-asked Questions) file at: http://www.zoho.com/faq.html (DO NOT SWEAT…I
will be walking you step-by-step through our use of these cool tools.)

PART 6: HELP
First and foremost, please each drkg @ gradel@fredonia.edu. If face-to-
face or telephone contact is necessary, you will need to make prior
arrangements with me, to set up these arrangements. It will also be possible
to step into an online “meeting room,” to get assistance, as needed; this,
too, will require advance planning.

I will be available for technical assistance as of today, 6/21. It is possible

that – at times – you may need to wait 24 hours for a response. However, it
is more likely that you will get a return email within minutes or a few hours. I

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will alert you to times when I will be offline for a whole day during the time that the course is
running; this will happen infrequently. Note that I am not always available on the weekends, but
I try to touch base with questions that arise over the weekends at least a few times on
Saturdays and Sundays.

I am planning online office hours (immediate access via email) 7 to 9 PM, Wednesday evenings
each week. Please DO NOT WAIT to reach me at these times, if you have a concern or
question beforehand. Email works for most questions. Plus there will be lots of other supports
available to you, as we move ahead in the course.

PART 7: UNIVERSITY DATES OF POTENTIAL INTEREST (and for your files)

Some dates from the FSU Registrar’s office may be relevant to some of you, as follows:

August 23: First day of classes

August 24: Final day to make schedule changes via "Your Connection"
August 27: Final Day to DROP full semester courses
August 31: Final day to ADD full semester courses
September 3: Final day to elect PASS/FAIL Option (for full semester courses)
September 6: No Classes-Labor Day (NOTE that module materials will become available on
Tuesday Scepter 7, to honor Labor Day)
Oct 7-8: No classes (Fall break)
Oct 25-29: Advising Week for Spring 2011
Oct 29: Final Day to WITHDRAW from Courses*
Nov. 1: Undergraduate Registration for Spring 2011 Begins
Nov. 22-26: No Classes - Thanksgiving Break
Nov. 29: Last Day to Withdraw from the University
Dec. 10: Last Day of Classes
Dec. 13-17: Final Exams

Finally, I am looking forward to our work together this semester! In the interim, I hope that you
have a safe end of the summer!

Dr. Kathleen Gradel (drkg)

Associate Professor
Language, Learning, and Leadership Department
College of Education, SUNY Fredonia
Office location: THO E276
FON: 716.673.4681

Image sources:
Computer dude: http://www.wizardofdraws.com/pages/compbum1.html
Computer on the phone image: http://www.jenkinscomputers.com/
Hit any key to continue: No source available.

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EDU 349 Fall Online Welcome Memo (Gradel)