Week 0: induction activities
As soon as you have access to the course site in Brookes Virtual you can start these induction tasks. The better you know your way around the online environment, the easier you will find it to engage fully in the scheduled activities. Below are some suggested activities to familiarise yourself with the course materials and learning environment. By the time you've worked your way through these you should be able to:
- Navigate your way around the different course areas, read discussion messages and post a message to the appropriate area. The Guide to Brookes Virtual document included in your welcome pack, and linked here, should help you with this.
- Navigate your way around the course materials and resources so that you can quickly find information related to the scheduled course activity and your own areas of interest.
- Begin to record/journal your learning as you work through the course, making particular notes to support your planned learning activity design for the final week. You might keep this in a Word document or a blog; at certain points during the course you may like to extract from this to share with the class. Read more about the Learning log.
1. Announce your arrival
- Purpose - to confirm arrival on course.
- Skills - negotiation and use of online discussion facility in the course on Brookes Virtual.
- Read a tutor's message in the Arrivals Lounge and post your own message in reply to it to let us know that you have arrived safely and are able to use the discussion forum.
- To do this: You will find the Arrivals Lounge within the Week 0 Induction Activities block, or select it from the menu on the left.
2. Plan your time
Do the quiz on Managing your time. This is designed to help you think through how to engage effectively with this course over the next four weeks. Select it from the Week 0 Induction Activities block, or select it from the menu on the left.
3. Introduce yourself
The next task is to build your profile so that others on the course know a little bit about you.
You should show information that you wish to present about yourself; your work or interests, or your motivation or expectations related to this course. Click on the 'My profile' link in the course menu on the left, or on your name in the top right hand corner, and then choose 'Edit profile' from the 'Settings' block on the left hand side, and add information about yourself into the editing window that opens up, and maybe a photo (which doesn't necessarily have to be a picture of your face). Make sure you save your work! More information about creating your profile is in the Creating your Moodle profile document in your welcome pack, and linked her.
4. Browse course materials
Browse the contents of the weekly activities modules on the course homepage. Materials and resources are arranged by week (Week 1, Week 2 etc). Weekly materials are 'drip' fed into the learning activities on Mondays one week in advance so that you can plan ahead. So, during week 2, for example, you will find that you can access the week 3 activities and resources but not those of week 4.
As well as the online content, you will have received a copy of Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age. Read the introduction and start to familiarise yourself with the rest of the contents.
5. Want to do more?
If you find that you have completed the induction activities and are eager to get started on something more substantial before Monday, why not start on some of the more individual tasks which are scheduled for Week 1. You might read more of the textbook, or start to formulate in your personal learning log the aims and outcomes of your own activity design.
