hello and welcome to English 101
this is English Composition for the
competency-based education program and
my name is el Yarborough and I'm a
professor of English here at Northern
Essex Community College I will be your
instructor for this course to help you
get started I've created this video to
help you navigate the course and to
learn about the course organization
follow along by watching the video and
I'll show you how to navigate our class
once you've watched the video you'll be
able to explore the course on your own
and you'll be able to get started when
you log into the course the first thing
you should see is the announcements page
here are the announcements from the fall
semester right up through last week and
here you will see announcements usually
I really go every two weeks where I try
to give some suggestions and keep you on
track so please always be sure to read
the announcements the announcements do
also go to your n ECC email so once
you've checked out to see if there are
any new announcements the next thing to
do is to click on read B first the read
me first folder has all sorts of very
useful information for you it includes a
short welcome note as well as our
syllabus the pacing chart the outcomes
map and then tools to help you learn to
use blackboard our syllabus goes over
the outcomes and learning objectives for
this course so it's useful to take time
to look at it it will help you to
understand what you'll be mastering by
the time you complete this class the
pacing chart is a recommended chart or
recommended pace to complete our course
I ADEA you'll want to follow along but
you have flexibility so if you need more
time to complete an assignment that's
okay but the pacing chart gives you a
general idea of how you might complete
the course on time
you can check out these different
materials that will help you to learn
how to use blackboard if you're not
familiar with it
once you've reviewed all of these
materials you will be able to begin the
work for the course click on course
content on the left hand side and that
will help you to access the materials
oh I'm sorry there's one other thing if
you click on discussions
you'll see that there's a place where
you can ask questions so that's where
you would want to post any general
questions you have about the course it's
important to remember that in the QA all
of them things that are posted are
public so everyone in our class can see
them so please don't post personal or
private questions if you need to contact
me with something that you don't want to
share with everyone you are always
welcome to email me or you can call me
or text me we only have one required
discussion in our course and it that is
discussion one so to access it you'll
click on discussions and then you'll
click on it
it will open up and you'll be able to
create your own thread and post your
response the rest of your work can all
be found in the course content so you'll
click on course content and each of
these content folders
has materials for the course you'll want
to complete them sequentially starting
with the first the first unit is a bit
short and it just reviews some reading
strategies that will help you to be
successful in English 101 so you'll
click on the course it will open you can
review the outcomes activities and then
you'll click on the sub folder in the
sub folder you will read the lecture
practise the activities and then submit
a short assignment
I believe you'll find the first unit
will take you only a few hours the rest
of the units will begin to take more
time so again to go back you'll click on
course content and then the other units
have essays in them so for example we'll
just open up the short story writing
with sources it will open up to the
content folder the first thing you'll do
is a pre-assessment there's a
pre-assessment in every module except
the first and the last and this is so
that I will have the opportunity to
assess your skills before you begin the
coursework you will earn full credit for
simply completing the assignment I asked
you in each to complete the exercise in
other 1 or 2 hours for this specific
exercise I asked you to complete it in
two hours or less and I mentioned that
the only way you can do it wrong is to
not do it at all otherwise it's just to
try it's just an attempt you're not
expected to do this perfectly it's a pre
assessment to see where you're starting
once you complete that you'll get
feedback from me within 48 hours and
from there you'll be able to move
forward in the course now if you do very
well with this I might recommend that
you just move forward to the assignment
however if you struggle or if there are
areas where you need improvement or can
continue to grow then I will give you
suggestions for resources to review in
addition to the coursework and then I
will suggest that you work your way
through the course work before
submitting your rough draft after your F
draft has been submitted I will respond
with comments within 48 hours you can
use those comments to revise and submit
your final draft or if this draft is
very good I will tell you you do not
need to revise and you are done with
this module and can move forward to the
next that's the basic structure of every
module in the course with the exception
of the first and the last where there is
no pre assessment and there is no draft
only a final assignment I believe that
that is everything you would need to
know to get started again you'll always
want to click on course content oh and
when you have work that you has been
responded to you'll click on my grades
and then you'll click directly on the
grade the cell in the grade book and
you'll be able to see my feedback there
if you have any questions or need any
help please be sure to let me know I
believe you are now ready to explore the
course and to get started I'm excited
that you're here and I look forward to
working with you this semester
thank you