English Composition 1
Welcome!
Welcome to English Composition 1 Online at Illinois Valley Community College! Whether you have taken online courses before or are new to online learning, I hope that you find the course a rewarding experience. My name is Randy Rambo, and I am the instructor of this course. I have been a full-time English instructor at IVCC for about 15 years, and I have taught online courses for about 10 years. In fact, I designed and taught the first online course at IVCC. That course is this one: English Composition 1 Online. The longevity of the course has allowed me to make many modifications to it over the years, and I hope that those changes have improved the course. I have also been a student in online courses. I know from personal experience that taking an online course can be a challenging but rewarding learning experience.
While you will need to log in to the class Blackboard every day and probably will need to work on assignments for the class every day, there are no specific times when students must work and interact online in this course, and we do not have any class meetings on campus. These features of the course make it especially convenient for students whose busy schedules prevent them from attending classes during regular times on campus. The class meets whenever and wherever you sit down in front of a computer. The course does not require special computer skills, but students enrolling in English Composition 1 Online should enter the course with basic computer skills. These skills include the ability to use a Web browser (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), familiarity with using a word-processing program, and experience communicating via e-mail.
Learning online is different from learning in the traditional classroom. The course does not include any lectures in the traditional sense, so the course instead involves a lot of reading, including reading of comments posted in our discussion forum, and we probably will have more student-to-student interaction in this course that what occurs in many on-campus courses. Students likely to succeed in online courses tend to be highly responsible, self-motivated, and self-disciplined, the kind of students who take charge of their own learning and have no problem completing assignments even when the instructor is not there in person to remind them of the work to be completed.
The content and course work is the same for students in English Composition 1 Online as for students who take English Composition 1 on campus. The focus of the course is on writing essays, and students should gain a better understanding of the principles of effective expository prose and should gain the ability to apply these principles to their own writing. English Composition 1 Online is not a correspondence course, an independent study course, or a self-paced course. Students contribute to the class and interact with the instructor and other students on a regular basis. There are opportunities for such interaction every week. In addition, all assignments have specified due dates, and English Composition 1 Online follows the same semester timeline as courses taught on campus.
Please do not misinterpret the flexibility and convenience of the course as an indication that completing this online version of the course is any easier than completing an English Composition 1 course on campus. It is probably an accurate generalization to say that online courses tend to be more challenging and require more of a time commitment than do courses taught on campus.
During the regular 16-week spring and fall semesters, the college advises students that they should be able to devote a total of at least 6 to 9 hours a week to the course. The summer semester is only 8 weeks long, so during the summer semester, we must cover the same course material in only half the time. This means that a student taking English Composition 1 Online should expect to spend at least 12 to 18 hours a week to the course. Yes, that is an average of about two hours a day, every day. Of course, before you begin the course, it is important to make sure that you will be able to devote the necessary time to it.
I hope you find the course to be an engaging and enjoyable learning experience, and I look forward to helping you do well in the course!
Again, welcome to English Composition 1 Online at Illinois Valley Community College!