Guide 4cg

To reach each one of the students enrolled in the course and offer them appropriate guidance and supervision, the tutor regularly uses messaging (e-mail only for students enrolled in the course) and then sends out a personal invitation to each of them to participate in the chat room.

These personal messages are sent every three or four weeks for various reasons: Students are continually added to the group and others seem somehow to forget about the chat room. Also, certain students never go to the chat rooms, but still need the proactive support of their tutor in order to persevere in their learning.

This guidance via Messaging requires the ongoing supervision of each student’s progress:
Has he read the last message I sent him?
Is he participating in the chat room?
Is he working on the course site?
Is he sending me his assignments?

To facilitate this ongoing supervision, the tutor saves various messages on her workstation and then transmits them, as needed. It is these messages that follow.

Welcome!

Hello,

I received your enrollment form in the Mathematics 103 course. To know your group, visit the INTRODUCTION CHAT ROOM. To get acquainted, introduce yourself in this chat room, we are waiting to hear from you. It’s important to open your messaging on the site every week. That’s my only way of communicating with you…

Paula

Revision of notions acquired in high school

Hello,

Cégep@distance offers mathematics modules on the Internet.
You will find these modules at the following address…

Paula

Referring to a document on the course site

Hello!

Some of you have not discovered, on the site, the explanations for the textbook exercises and information about the self-evaluations.

They are in PEDAGOGICAL HELP.

How to access them?
Click on…
All the best in your work!

Paula

Understanding more complex notions

EXPONENTS AND FACTORING

Students who are having trouble with EXPONENTS AND FACTORING are invited to read the wording and examples on the subject at the following address…

Have a good start!
Paula

Work method

HOW TO SEARCH IN THE CHAT ROOM?

It’s possible to do searches in the Pedagogy chat room without scrolling all the pages.
Open a chat room (example chapters 1 and 2 Chat room).
On the menu bar (1st line), scroll down the “EDIT” or “CHANGE” menu, until “FIND” or “SEARCH.”
In the frame that appears, write in the subject of your search.
Example: Zero
The program selects “zero” at a write date in this chat room.
Scroll down “Continue search” to read other information (text) on zeros.
The program selects the word “zero”, six or more times.
You can also search for exercise pages.
Example in the chat room: Undetermined.
The program selects the word “undetermined” 13 times.

Paula

Time management

Hello!

On the course site, in the INTRODUCTION AND INSTRUCTIONS document, a calendar can help you plan your time.
Check the deadline for finishing the first assignment; remember: SLOW AND SURE WINS THE RACE.

Paula

Where to ask a question? Messaging or chat room?

Hello!

Are you having difficulty solving problems? I invite you to ask your mathematics questions in the Pedagogy chat room. Your question and the answer will surely help other students.
Are you worried about something?
Write to me. Messaging is a good way. Do not hesitate to use messaging and go to the chat rooms.

Paula

From messaging to chat room

Hello Patrick,

The question you asked in messaging is interesting.
I’m bringing it up in the chat room to help the whole group…

Paula

Belonging to the group

Hello,

You are part of a group of 56 students; your group was opened in July… This number is large enough for all of us to communicate. You are kind of quiet these days. Go ahead and express yourself.
Dominic finished his assignments and getting ready for his exam. I’ll ask him to pass his comments on to you.
Ten of the students have done close to half the course work (they are starting Chapter 5, and they will be sending in their third assignment soon).
You can help one another in the chat rooms. Ask your questions and also answer questions if you know the answers.
Catherine wrote: “By answering others’ questions, you remember the notions learned before, which really helps during review…”

Keep up the good work. Talk to you soon.
Paula

Note: The tutor has access to a counter indicating the number of times a student visits the course site so that she can make personalized comments. She can also see if the student is participating in the chat rooms.

Results of assignment 1

Example 1

Hello!
Result: 70 %
You still have some things to learn in these chapters.
Do the reading and interactive exercises on the site again, plus the exercises in the textbook. You can get help in the HELP section.
Paula

Example 2

Hello!
Result: 38 %
It seems like you haven’t learned much of the subject matter in these chapters.
Somehow, I don’t think you’ve done all the recommended exercises in the workbook on this course site.
Actually, I can see that you don’t do any work at all on the site. Is there something wrong? It’s not too late to change your way of working so that you can do much better.
Do the reading and interactive exercises on the site again, plus the exercises in the textbook. You can get help in the HELP section.
Paula

Example 3

Hello,
Good start: 84 %
You can still benefit from going to the chat rooms and asking questions.
I see, on my computer, that you don’t do any work on the site. Are you having technical difficulties?
Keep up the good work!
Paula

Example 4

Hi,
Excellent start: 91 %
Keep up the good work and don’t hesitate to ask questions in the chat rooms.
Paula

Registration for the final exam

Hello!

Some students among you are finishing their learning and will soon be writing the final examination. The college has to receive your mark on the last assignment before you can register for the final examination. Read the information concerning the exam and refer to the list of dates and locations in the INTRODUCTION AND INSTRUCTIONS section of this site.

Paula

Decreasing the stress related to the exam

Hello,

To keep you from stressing out about the exam, I am sending you comments made by Sophie and Matthew. “I really liked doing this course. But sometimes, it got pretty hard. Good thing I could ask questions in the chat room and you answered quickly and very clearly. I thought the exam was kinda easy because it had things that I really understood well and the assignments were really a lot harder so I was well prepared for the final exam.” (Sophie)

“The exam was easy and I thought that was okay because distance courses are a lot harder than the courses they normally give at the CEGEP! You gotta be much more disciplined when it’s on-line.
Tks for everything, CU!” (Matthew)

Paula