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Week 1 Orientation for Myth-Folklore and Indian Epics

WELCOME! For many of you, this may be the first time you have taken a fully online course, but don't worry: we will spend the first week of classes doing Orientation Activities to help prepare you for your online activities this semester. Both classes - Myth-Folklore and Indian Epics - have basically the same assignments during this first week.

Ready to get started? Classes begin officially on Tuesday, January 17 - and you have work that is due on Tuesday. The best strategy is to get started early, before things get busy in your other classes, too. The course assignments will be available starting on Tuesday, January 10 so that you can get started a full week ahead of the first deadline. Getting started early is a great way to make sure that you get the first week's work completed on time!

INDIAN EPICS: BOOKS. If you are in the Indian Epics class, there are four paperback books you need to purchase; please make sure you do this now. For  Myth-Folklore, all the readings are online, so there are no required books.

Below you will find a list of the REQUIRED activities for Week One. The total time required to complete these tasks is approximately 6-8 hours, which is the amount of time you can expect to spend on this class every week. You may find it useful to print this page (PDF) so that you can check off the items one by one as you finish them. You must complete ALL these activities, and you must complete them by the deadlines specified. If you do not complete all the Orientation Week activities, you may dropped from the class for non-attendance.

Due dates and deadlines: As you will see, there are items due on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. There are also items due on Friday, but if you want you can complete the Friday items over the weekend, depending on what is most convenient for you. The deadline in parentheses shows the "grace period" that is available the next morning, just in case you fail for some reason to finish an assignment. Remember: assignments are due on the DUE date... the grace period should be for unforeseen emergencies only. So, do the work by the DUE date and use the grace period only if you absolutely have to.

WORKING AHEAD. You do not have to wait for the due date to do an assignment! Please - PLEASE - work ahead, and you will find that everything will go much more smoothly and be much less stressful. If you don't believe me, then read these comments from students who took this class last semester: the #1 piece of advice is to WORK AHEAD.

Accommodations. If you have registered with the Office of Disability Services, they will be sending an email during the first week of classes about special accommodations, and I will let you know if/when I receive that email. Meanwhile, please feel free to contact me with any concerns or questions that you have about accommodations for this class.

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TUESDAY DUE DATE: These assignments are due on Tuesday, January 17 - and it's even better if you can complete them early! If you do not complete them by the end of the day on Tuesday, you have a grace period until Wednesday morning at noon to complete the assignments.

WEDNESDAY DUE DATE: These assignments are due on Wednesday, January 18 - and it's even better if you can complete them early! If you do not complete them by the end of the day on Wednesday, you have a grace period until Thursday morning at noon to complete the assignments.

THURSDAY DUE DATE: These assignments are due on Thursday, January 19 - and it's even better if you can complete them early! If you do not complete them by the end of the day on Thursday, you have a grace period until Friday morning at noon to complete the assignments.

FRIDAY/WEEKEND DUE DATE: These assignments are due on Friday OR over the weekend, if working on Saturday or Sunday is convenient for you. If you do not complete them on Friday or over the weekend, you have a grace period until Monday morning at noon to complete the assignments.