Orientation Week: Success Strategies and Course Contract

This assignment has THREE parts.

PART ONE: Success Strategies and Time Management. Please read this list of suggested strategies for success in this online course. Please find at least two or three of these strategies that you think will help you to succeed in this class.

You also need to think about your work schedule for this class. The biggest single problem anyone faces in an online course is time management. So, in addition to choosing some strategies for success, you should also think about what will be the best way for you to schedule your time in this course:

• Weekend Block: If you will be doing most of your work on the weekends, you can use the "weekend block" strategy. So, for example, on the weekend of Week 1 (January 23-24), you will finish up the Week 1 Friday/weekend assignments and also finish the Week 2 Tuesday-Thursday assignments. Then, you won't have to do any work until the weekend of Week 2 (January 30-31), when you will finish up the Week 2 Friday/weekend assignments and also do the Week 3 Tuesday-Thursday assignments.
• MWF Schedule: If you have more time available on MWF than other days of the week, you can organize your work that way. For example, on Monday of each week, you can complete the assignments that are due on Tuesday; then, on Wednesday, you can complete the Wednesday/Thursday assignments, and then on Friday, you can complete the Friday/weekend assignments. The MWF is a good schedule, because it means you are completing all the assignments at least one day ahead of the deadline, which gives you time to accommodate any kind of emergency tha tmight come up and prevent you from doing the work. It also means you don't have to worry about this course over the weekend!
• TTh/weekend Schedule: If you have more time available on T-Th that on other days of the week, you can also organize your work that way. On Tuesday, you should do the Tuesday/Wednesday assignments. On Thursday, you should do the Thursday assignments. Then, over the weekend, you can do the Friday/weekend assignments. The problem with this schedule is that on Thursday you are doing a lot of work on the same day that it is due - which is always a big risk! If you are going to do a Tuesday-Thursday work schedule for this class, I would STRONGLY recommend that you work a full week in advance, just to make sure you don't end up running out of time to complete your Thursday assignments.
• Other Schedule. Of course, you can come up with some other schedule for when you will do the work for this class - and you can even work ahead, do an alernating "week on / week off" schedule. It's up to you! Just make sure you have a schedule in mind so that you can get your assignments done for this class every week in advance of the assignment deadlines.

When you have reviewed the success strategy suggestions and come up with your tentative time schedule for the class, send me an email in which you list the two or three strategies you want to focus on and in which you identify your tentative work schedule for this class (Weekend, or MWF, or TTH, or some other schedule). This is also a good time to let me know if you have any special accommodation needs that I should know about.

If you are in the Myth-Folklore class, make sure your email has the Subject Line MythFolklore Strategies. If you are in Indian Epics, use the Subject Line Indian Epics Strategies. If you are in World Literature, use the Subject Line, World Lit Strategies.

PART THREE: Course Contract. After you have sent this email, you can log on to Desire2Learn and complete the Course Contract which takes the form of a Gradebook Declaration. If you have any questions about the Course Contract, or if you cannot agree to every item here, please get in touch with me first, before you complete the Declaration. If you complete the Declaration, it means you are agreeing to the terms specified here in the Contract.