Title: Welcome Announcement
Course: RITA MC - ITNW 1354

Hello and Welcome to ITNW-1354.

My name is Donnie Willis and I will be your facilitator during these weeks of class. I look forward to our journey. I have a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Masters Degree in Information System Management. I have been teaching Information Technology classes for over nine years. I started out as an Adjunct Instructor with Tarrant County College District (TCCD) working in the Computer Science Department and have taught varying subjects during my career with TCCD. I have taught Introduction to Physics, Biology, College Algebra, and Robotics.

Every good student strives to make an "A" in every class. And if you're one of those students, you won't have a problem achieving success in this course! That is, as long as you can abide by my guidelines for success, which are simple.

1. Read! Read! Read! You cannot be successful in this class if you are not committed to logging in on a regular basis and reading all announcements, lessons, assignments, etc. Students have been known to bypass reading lessons, announcements, and emails and then complain that they did not "see" or "know" certain information after deadlines have passed. I offer no recourse for students who do not take the time to read the contents of the classroom and emails I send to the class. So, please, please, please make it a point to be diligent in your reading for the class.
2. Print out the Course Calendar (click link in left margin). This document summarizes all of the lessons, assignments, and exams scheduled for the class and their respective due dates. This document should serve as your guideline for every assignment, lab, etc. assigned and due throughout the semester.
3. Always be mindful of due dates - typically Sunday nights by 11:00 pm (unless otherwise indicated on the Course Calendar). Please note that lessons & assignments disappear from view or are no longer accessible after due dates have passed.

SPECIAL NOTE

While assignments have a due date (again, typically on Sunday nights by 11:00p), some assignments have parts that must be completed before the assignment is due. For example, because the discussion board assignments require several posts that must be made before the assignment can be considered complete, these assignments contain a deadline by which the initial post must be made. If the first post is not made by that deadline, a grade of zero will be given for the assignment. Seems unnecessary? I thought so too. However, there are those students who will wait until the last minute (and I do mean last minute) to make their initial post, thereby upsetting the process of having other students make their necessary posts according the instructions. Because this happened far too many times, I added the extra deadline to ensure that other students do not suffer the consequences of procrastinators.

So this lengthy special note is to admonish you to read all assignments soon after they're posted - even if you will wait to complete them - to ensure that you are aware of all deadlines, including those posted within the assignment instructions.

1. Refuse to wait until the "last minute" to complete assignments or ask questions/voice concerns about assignments. While your excuses may be legitimate, I generally do not accept them as a reason for a late assignment submission, as I always endeavor to be fair to the class and to those students who completed the assignment on time. So please make every effort to turn in assignments on time, otherwise, I cannot - will not - accept them at all.
2. Follow assignment instructions implicitly - I will deduct points on assignments that are not completed according to the instructions. So if you have a question about what is expected on an assignment, do not hesitate to contact me for clarification.
3. Spend a bit of extra time working with the Microsoft Online Lab software program and tutorials/training.
4. This one is a Biggy - be sure to be prepared to purchase your MOAC software with a valid debit/credit card during the scheduled MOAC Setup Assignment. Please note that not having your MOAC Software in time to complete the Microsoft Online Access Code (MOAC) Setup assignments and any other MOAC assignments is not an acceptable excuse for not completing the assignment(s) on time.
5. Keep in mind that you will have two exams in this course: a Midterm Exam and a Final Exam. Half of each exam will test your knowledge of concepts/terminology that are covered in your class lessons. The concepts portion of each exam will be taken using the Tests/Quizzes Manager in the virtual classroom. The other half of these exams will test your lab skills using MOAC. Again, there are two parts to each exam - one part will be accessible in the online classroom and the other is hands-on.

1. Note the dishonesty/cheating policy (below) and do not copy or share work:

For each assignment, students must complete the entire lesson on their own. Students are never allowed to use anyone’s file or MOAC account but their own. Students should never lend their file to another student, nor should a student have any other student’s work in their possession for any reason. If a student uses another student’s files or shares his/her work with another student, both students are considered guilty of cheating and will receive a grade of 0 on the assignment and automatically have his/her course grade lowered by at least one whole grade (i.e., from a B to a C). If there is a second incident of cheating/dishonesty, he/she will fail the course.

That's pretty much it!  Do these things and you'll more than likely get that "A" I'm sure you're seeking!

Your next step is to click "Here" and it will take you to the starting point of the next thing to do.

I look forward to our semester together.

Professor Willis