Welcome!

My name is Belinda Vicars.  I've taught ASL for over ten years and have loved every minute of it.  I'm also a veteran of distance education, having received my bachelors and masters via distance education.  I've gone both routes:  traditional and distance education.  While I love both, I admit I've really enjoyed the freedom of the latter.  It's tricky though.  When taking distance education, we think that - well, we're saving time.  I don't have to drive to school.  Do not be deceived.  Distance education takes more effort, more self-motivation, and more time.  I have found, though, that under my own devices, I've actually learned more than I would have in the traditional classroom and I hope that the same happens to you.

I'm looking forward to a great semester with you, and getting to know each one of you.  There is a lot to cover.  So let's get started.

Communication:
You are welcome to email me with your questions or concerns.  Please do not ever hesitate.  Because we are not in a classroom setting, I will not be able to "read" your body language and see that you might have concerns. In distance education, communication between the teacher and the student can breaks down from lack of communication.  If you're not turning in your assignments because you're in the hospital, I won't know that.  I'll assume that you forgot.  So - email me!

Deadlines:
This is an eight week course - and there are 15 lessons.  This averages to about 2 lessons a week.  Each week, you will be submitting about an average of 6 quizzes:  2 lesson review quizzes, 2 fingerspelling quizzes, and 2 number quizzes.  This is a fast pace course.  The schedule on the homepage is non-negotiable.  The dates are in place for a reason.  They are there to help you stay on task.  If assignments are turned in late, zero points will be awarded.  Respect the deadlines! They are your friends.  The steady flow of quiz submissions will help with your memory retention and increase the likelihood of your passing the exit exams.

Getting the Information You Need:
It is important that you explore each link on the home page.  A lot of the questions that you may have, most likely will be answered among those pages.  The different pages are designed to help you develop different skill sets, all of which are to help you pass the exit exams.

Submitting the Quizzes

Lesson Quizzes:
The lesson quizzes are automated.  These get sent directly to my email box.  However, this is a submission process.  There are 50 multiple choice questions per lesson review quiz (the unit quiz only has 25).  Once you've you've completed the quizzes, you will need to complete the steps:

If you do not check the Ready to Submit box, it won't go through.  Once the quiz has been submitted, the results of your quiz will pop up and it will give you your score.  I highly recommend that you keep an electronic copy of your quiz results in a folder somewhere on your desktop.  Sometimes "glitches" happen and they don't go through.  Whenever you suspect that it didn't, or that you're not sure, feel free to email and I'll check my box.

Fingerspelling and Number Quizzes
The fingerspelling and number quizzes are NOT automated.  You'll have to watch the video and type out the answers in a word doc or notepad.  When you've completed the quiz, you'll need to paste the answers into the body of an email.  NO attachments please!  Make sure your subject heading has your last name, first name:  FS # and NR #.  I have over 120 students.  So your name in the subject heading is vital.  Do not assume that I'll recognize you by your email address.  That's not going to happen.  :-)

Expressive Assignments:
It is important that you follow the instructions listed under the video checklist.  If the quality of your video is bad, that impacts your grade.  I need to be able to see your hands.  If they are blurry or disappear out of the camera's eye, then that makes it harder for me to grade your work.  Put your best effort in the setting up and in the telling of the story.

Getting Proctors:
Please read the info on the exit exams.  Look over the proctor section.  Now is the time to being about who you want to proctor your exam. Make sure that your proctor has a reliable email address.  Some addresses have strong spam filters, thus blocking my attempts to get through. 

That about covers everything that I can think of at this point.  Again, if you have questions, be sure to let me know and I'll try to get back to you within 48 hours.