Hello everyone, and welcome to the Online Spring semester 2012.

This is just an introductory message to let you know how we will proceed, to answer a few questions that you might have, and to set up some rules and guidelines. In the interest of time and avoiding confusion on my part, as to which class gets which welcome message, I’m making this a generic welcome message, and posting it outside of Insight on my homepage. We have all semester to get to know each other personally, once we are in Moodle (a.k.a. Insight.)

If you are reading this from inside Insight, then you have successfully logged in. However it is still worth making the crucial point about your e-mail address. Your official e-mail address, created for you by City College, is the only email address used by the college to send you important information. If you do not know your CCSF email address, please login into your web4 account (your personal CCSF information account) and locate it there (web4). In the future, you can click the MYCCSF link on the CCSF homepage. You can forward this CCSF e-mail address to your preferred e-mail address. This is important so we can communicate in the event of technical issues with the online course server, and other matters that arise. If you ever forget your online password, the new password will be sent only to the CCSF e-mail account.

After the first day of class, we will correspond only through the Moodle / Insight online interface e-mail that is provided there. The new name for this e-mail is Walled Garden E-mail. Yeah, I know. Could the name get anymore bizarre?

First, class will begin on January 17, 2012. The exact time is when your names have been added to the online server and I have released the course so you are able to login. This should happen some time on Tuesday morning, and not before. You will click the link at the end of this message to go to the insight page and read the instructions you will find there for obtaining your username and password. If you have used insight before, use the same password. If your forgot the password, click the "I forgot" link on the insight homepage and a new temporary password will be emailed to you. For new students to insight, your username is your student ID (lowercase), and your initial password will be changeme (lowercase). If your ID begins with the @, change it to x

Use lowercase w and x only, followed by the digits. All of this is explained again in detail on the insight home page at insight.ccsf.edu

If you do not receive your username and password in e-mail by the first day of class (check your spam filter), contact the help desk on the Insight home page (link at the end of this message)

The coming week, 1/17, will be week #1 - Orientation. A short week. We follow the school calendar as closely as possible. The first week is designated as ”Orientation”, which for us, is just familiarizing ourselves with the online interface and getting comfortable with the logging in and installing of software and so forth. This is also the time you will begin ordering your textbooks from the internet for best prices. For even less cost, you can use the e-book version from the publisher! Links are provided in this document and in the online course as well.

MABS 67 students will need to get their textbook and a copy of Access 2007 or 2010. MABS 101 stydents will need to get their textbook and a copy of Excel 2007 or 2010.MABS 406 students will need their textbook and a copy of Dreamweaver, the newest version being CS5. If you use CS4 or even CS3, you will just have to be flexible with the instructions.

Be sure to check out http://www.collegesoftware.orgfor the best price on Adobe products as well as Microsoft Office! The price for Dreamweaver CS5, for either Windows or Mac, is currently $124.95! You will only need the stand-alone Dreamweaver, not the entire suite.

For Microsoft Office Enterprise, which includes Access, the price is only $69.00!

Due to the economic crisis, and the fact that students are carrying a heavy burden due to this, I have chosen inexpensive e-books that are a fraction of the cost of the hard copy. You can of course purchase the hard copy if you prefer.

MABS 406 students will use, for Version CS5:

MABS67 students will use:

NEW PERSP.ON MS.OFF.ACCESS 2010,COMP.

MICROSOFT OFFICE EXCEL 2010 COMPLETE

The above textbook images are clickable. You will be directed to the coursesmart.com site for purchasing either the e-book or the hard copy version. You can also search the internet for the best price you can find.

Although these books are the department's official required texts, I do not give

assignments directly from the books. They are supplemental to the online lectures. If you already own what you deem "a substantial textbook" (not a quick reference or a "...for dummies" title), you are welcome to use that book but be aware that you will have to depend heavily on my furnished material!

All students, on the first day of class, go to insight.ccsf.edu and read the quickstart guide to obtain your login and password. Again, you have plenty of time in the first two weeks of class to settle in, install software, and order books while we wait for all the "late adds" and "drops" to be finalized.

Pace yourself.

Online courses have a way of getting out of control if you don’t stay on top of things. I do not expect you to "live" online. You do not have to login everyday. There is no attendance taken, but if you do not login for 3 consecutive weeks or have not submitted any assignments for 3 consecutive weeks without contacting me, I will assume you have moved on to other things and I will disable your access to the course and you may be eventually dropped. Dropping is your responsibility so don't expect,me to do it for you. But beware, there will be no "lurkers" allowed.

Understand that no online course is self-paced. We follow the school calendar very closely. Midterm will be during Week 9 and Final during the last week of the semester. Some weeks starts on a Tuesday if Monday is a holiday etc.

For my own sanity, I try not to login on weekends or ever on holidays. You might want to set a schedule for yourself as well.

To help you pace yourself, I release only one week’s information at a time. The previous weeks stay there and the lectures and assignments accumulate until the midterm. Then we clear the board and start fresh again. So any missing work for the first half of the semester, must be turned in by the midterm.

On Fridays, I usually release the following week’s lecture and assignments so you can get started on it during the weekend if you like. I also release lectures during the holidays so if you choose to work during that time, you can.

There are no on campus meetings. There are labs at the college for those who wish to use them. MABS 406,MABS 101 and MABS 67 labs are in Cloud Hall (C111) or The Downtown Campus 5th Floor lab and at also at the other campuses such as John Adams and Mission.

Whew…well I think I got it all in. Don't forget to click insight.ccsf.edu on Tuesday, January 17th. You won't be able to login until your name has been added to the class list and the course is released. This should happen sometime on Tuesday morning. You will NOT be able to login until then.

Oh, one last thing. Firefox is the recommended browser for insight. Later versions of IE seem to work most of the time, but Safari has some issues with insight.

See you online. Let's have some fun. Let's get the party started in here..

Terry