• S1: Profile
• S2: Syllabus
• S3: APA Sytle
• S4: C-Overview
• Summary

	Welcome!

Â	Step 1: Update Your Profile and Contact Your Instructor

In this first step, you will update your profile with your information and email your instructor to set up an appointment by phone. This appointment request must include your contact information, such as your personal email and a current phone number, so the instructor will be able to contact you. This will provide an opportunity to clear up any questions you may have about the course.

Watch this video on how to update your profile, contact information, and user settings:

Canvas LMS (Producer). (2015). 111 – User settings & profile picture [Video file].

Available at https://vimeo.com/74243735

In addition to contacting your instructor by these means, you will also be required to attend a live virtual session with your other classmates, where you can address any other questions and discuss key concepts to help strengthen the knowledge you have gained. Your instructor will specify the time and date of the sessions under Announcements on your course homepage.

	Step 2: Study and Discuss the Syllabus

The syllabus contains important information that is vital to your successful completion of this course. To view your course syllabus, go to the Syllabus link in the main course menu, where you will also find the course calendar and activities. Read it over carefully and refer to the Announcements section or the Conference button, where your instructor will schedule a live virtual session to discuss the syllabus. If you are unable to participate in this conference, you can access the recording of the session to obtain the information your instructor discussed.

To access your course syllabus (online & PDF format), go to the course menu and press the Syllabus link.

Â	Step 3: Academic Integrity and APA Style

At Florida Technical College (FTC), we seek to equip our students both for academic as well as professional success. Maintaining academic integrity is an essential component to achieve this goal. In this step, you will review best practices for academic integrity and avoiding plagiarism, as well as applying the correct format for citing sources, providing references, and writing papers according to the APA Style Manual.

For examples of how to reference different types of sources in APA format, you can use this APA Style Quick Guide, which will provide you with a quick and easy reference to the basic standards of APA writing style for our institutions, regarding the structure and organization of written works, the different types of citations, and the reference list. It contains examples of references for resources such as books, articles, theses, videos, images, software, and other electronic sources.

For more detailed information and tutorials on APA style, you can visit the following APA Style websites.

American Psychological Association. (2016). The basics of APA style.

American Psychological Association. (2016). APA style central.

American Psychological Association. (2016). APA style blog.

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). (2017). APA style.

	Step 4: Course Content Overview

Each FTC course is divided into four weeks that may contain discussion forums, out-of-class work, a midterm, and a final exam or project. Depending on the nature and topic of your course, you might have to submit additional quizzes, labs, and projects. You will also find an assessment task worth 10 % of your final grade in Week 3. Here is an example of an evaluation criteria table similar to the one you will find in your course.

Groups	% of Total	Activity #	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	TOTAL
Assignments/Tasks/Discussion Boards	25 %						Â
Out-of-Class Work	20 %						Â
Labs and Quizzes	15 %						Â
Assessment Task	10 %						Â
Midterm Exam	10 %						Â
Final Exam/Portfolio/Project	20 %	Â	Â	Â	Â	Â	Â
Final Grade	100%

The activities from each evaluation criteria group are measured through specific rubrics.  It is important to examine the criteria used to evaluate your work in the rubric provided for each assignment before you begin. This way, you will know how to obtain the most points for your assignments and successfully complete your course.

	Summary:

Now that you have completed these initial steps, you are more familiar with the platform and have a good idea of what to expect in the course. At this point, you can move on to the specific subject matter activities with a clear understanding of your responsibilities, the grading system, and the ground rules for this online course. You are now ready to begin Week 1.