ORIENTATION GUIDE (READING)

ENGLISH IV COURSE ENVIRONMENT

90170

INITIAL INFORMATION

In this space you will find important information about this course. Among this important information you will find the course latest news and the general forum, a place where you will be able to share information about subjects to develop in the course or where you can make comments or technical support requests. Also you will find detailed information about the course, methodology, agenda and the syllabus or subjects to study.

COURSE NEWS: This space will display the course latest news related to academic, methodological and technical aspects. To keep updated with the information, please visit this link frequently.

GENERAL FORUM: You will find here a space where you will be able to interact with your classmates and tutor, ask questions, and develop all the subjects proposed by the tutor. When writing the heading please take into account two aspects: the name and the subject, it is important to be very clear so people will know who you are sending the message and what your participation is about. During the development of the course each tutor usually opens three different forums: one related to Doubts or Technical Support; one for Academic Discussion, and another called: Social Forum, designed to interact with your classmates, greet them and introduce yourself.

COURSE PRESENTATION: This space is designed to inform you about the general aspects of the course and also to show the students important aspects to take into account to accomplish the course successfully. It usually goes with visual or audiovisual resources that show the above aspects in a more interactive way.

COURSE PRESENTATION VIDEO: This space talks about the important aspects of the course.

COURSE AGENDA: In this space you will find the course activities’ chronological planning in a very simplified way. This agenda also offers an additional alarm’s visual resource classified by colors. This way you can find available activities in green; soon to be close activities in yellow, and activities that need to be sent in less than three days, in red. The student must be checking the agenda regularly. If there is any change in the agenda, it will be informed in the Course News Forum.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: Here you will find the rules you will have to follow. In the initial paragraph you can find a terms document that you have to read, sign and share. When signing it you are acquiring the commitment to respect the norms that are demanded from you as a student, not only in this course but in all of the courses of this curriculum. Besides, you will also find the evaluation criteria and the percentage weight for every activity you do during the course. This is done for you to have - from the beginning of the course - all the information about the amount of activities and its evaluation weight. Reading these documents will allow you to assume the responsibilities you acquired as a student in a more conscious way.

GLOSSARY: Here you will find the vocabulary you will need during the course. As this is a resource to assist you during your learning process, you can visit it anytime you need to.

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

You will find in this environment more detailed information about the course, the topics to follow during the course and the rubrics that will be used to evaluate your performance in each of the activities. In addition, you will find a bibliography list suggested to enrich your search for information and to help you with it.

COURSE SYLLABUS: Here you will find a breakdown of the topics to be studied during the course. Each syllabus has the content, methodology, the time given for the development of every topic and the suggested activities to address each of it.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITIES GUIDE: Here you will find the work guide(s). Every student must read it completely in order to know, not only the content, but the methodological aspects of the work they have to develop; also to know the learning strategies to have into account when studying, and the requirements of each of the products that must be delivered by the students to be evaluated.

ANALITIC RUBRIC: This space is provided for all aspects/parameters that will be taken into account in the evaluation of each of the products delivered by the students. The student must compare the aspects developed in their product, with what is required in the rubric; this way the student will be able to know, ahead of time, what the score of a specific task could be.

ONLINE CONTENT: You will find in this space all the topics to be developed during the course, a general review, exercises, and review of each topic. It is responsibility of the student to browse this content and interact with this space to strengthen the knowledge of the topics. In order to support this process every work team (course director and tutor’s network) will plan the development of web conferences to address the topics as well as the online content.

REQUIRED BIBLIOGRAPHY: You will find in this space all the bibliographical references proposed for the students to make an easier and more productive consultation of the topics. It is the student’s responsibility to access these resources and to review its content.

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY: You will find in this space some additional bibliographical resources that will serve as a support for your searches.

COLABORATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

In this environment you will find activities where you will have to constantly interact with your partners (group partners) and tutor. Besides, you will also find the specific guides and rubrics for the development of these activities.

ACT. 1: In this space you will begin the development of the number 1 activity where we will all have the chance to interact; the student who makes a comment will receive comments from his/her partners and tutor. These comments will help everyone to make adjustments and corrections to their work in order to improve it and have it ready when they have to upload it to be graded.

ACT. 6: You will begin in this space de development of the number 6 activity where we will all have the chance of interact; the student who makes a comment will receive comments from his/her partners and tutor. These comments will help everyone to make adjustments and corrections to their work in order to improve it and have it ready when they have to upload it to be graded.

PRACTICAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

In this environment you will find all the activities where you have to interact with your tutor constantly. The tutor will give all the instructions the students need to know in order to participate. You can find these instructions in the guide and the specific rubrics for the development of the activity. Also, you will find a Virtual Learning Object (VLO) which will be very useful to the work.

ACT. 5: You will begin in this space the development of the number 5 activity. The student need to follow exactly what the guide and evaluation rubric of this activity proposes; as this is a speaking activity all the production will have to meet the requirements proposed in those two elements.

SOUND OF AMERICAN: You will find in this space different audios to support your studies so you can start working on your pronunciation. These resources have audios that will allow you to listen to the sounds of English phonemes which you will need to make a good speaking interview.

VLO: These are additional resources that support the topics that are being reviewed in the course. You can access to it every time you need to.

EVALUATION AND MONITORING AND ENVIRONMENT

In this environment you will have to upload all the products required in the collaborative environment except the activity 5 (Speaking) which require the monitoring of the procedure explained in its guide and rubric.

ACT. 2: In this space you will find a test that will measure your progress in different skills like grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading and writing. It consists of 25 questions to be solved in 60 minutes, with only one possibility of execution.

ACT. 3-4: In this space you will find a test that will measure your progress in different skills like grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading and writing. It consists of 25 questions to be solved in 60 minutes, with only one possibility of execution.

ACT. 7: In this space you will find the final evaluation that will measure your progress in different skills like grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading and writing. It consists of 25 questions to be solved in 60 minutes, with only one possibility of execution.

SELFASSESMENT: In this space you will find a questionnaire that you will have to complete according to your personal process throughout the course; you will need to write about your strengths and difficulties. In order to have a good result of this process you will have to be very honest with yourself about your development during your learning process.

COASSESMENT: In this space you will find a questionnaire that you will have to complete about your partner’s process throughout the course; you will need to write about their strengths and difficulties. In order to have a good result of this process you will have to be very honest about the development during their learning process.

STUDENT MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENT

You will find in this environment detailed aspects to take into account as student. One of these aspects is the use of the netiquette; this one is very important because -as you must remember- one of the principles on which the methodology of UNAD functions is the collaborative work. Another aspect into consideration are the against plagiarism policies that the university supports, which aims that all the students make their own productions or, quote the author, when they use resources created by other authors.