Hello ACCT131DL Students:
I am Huian Tian, and I am delighted to have the opportunity of being your instructor for
this online class in Winter Quarter.
In addition to welcoming you to our ACCT131DL QuickBooks class, this letter serves as
an online orientation and provides information needed to navigate the course as well as
other important information. Please take the time to carefully read this letter and refer to
it in the future as needed. The course is generally the fourth course in the accounting
sequence. It provides students with the fundamental tools needed to successfully take
other more advanced accounting courses like intermediate Accounting I & II. More
important, this course is designed to help students master what we refer to as the building
blocks of accounting - debits and credits, recognizing accounting transactions, recording
in the general journal and posting, completing the accounting process and preparing basic
financial statements... the Income statement, Retained Earnings, Balance sheet, and Cash
Flow. The course also covers the basic accounting treatment of a merchandising based
business and services based business. Students also learn how to prepare a bank
reconciliation statement, adjusting entries, and closing procedure.
Online learning can be an incredibly rewarding and exciting adventure. It provides
flexibility and an opportunity for students who might not otherwise be able to take
advantage of a college curriculum; however, it also can be challenging; you should be
aware that self-discipline, self-motivation, and attention to details are required to
complete the course successfully in this format. Students must be committed to meet
deadlines for readings and homework assignments in addition to participating in the
discussion forums when required.
Many students mistakenly believe that they can learn accounting simply by reading the
textbook. We strongly suggest that if you are of this opinion, you consider modifying
your study habits for this course. The concepts and skills need to have a meaningful and
practical understanding of accounting requires you to both read the textbook and hands
on, at a minimum, the assigned homework. You can of course do more than the assigned
homework and expect that we will provide you assistance with it. Due to the extensive
list of topics covered, the volume of readings, and the required homework in this course,
the time you need to successfully complete this course is quite significant. You should be
prepared to commit yourself to a regular and defined time span that you can commit to
this course. We suggest that you plan on committing at 8-10 hours per week for this
course. The time you spend will of course vary with your level of reading, prior
preparation and established study habits.
There are no on campus meetings to be required for this class. The course will be taken
entirely online. Read this orientation carefully and contact me should you have any
questions. You should also read the College catalogue and quarter schedule to ensure
that you are familiar with campus deadlines (e.g. adding/dropping courses), the College
code of conduct, along with additional guidelines and procedures.
Some of you may have never taken an online course and are somewhat apprehensive
about the endeavor. Let’s start by discussing what you should know and how you should
prepare yourself before starting this course.
You should first start with a good positive attitude about learning and either a
proactive appreciation or curiosity for taking an on-line course.
You should have a basic level of computer literacy that will permit you to perform
tasks such as using a word processing program, Excel, and a web browser. Your email
account will be automatically assigned in the ANGEL platform. You should also be able
to send and open documents with attachments and use PowerPoint to view online
presentations. You must have regular access to a computer with Microsoft Word,
Microsoft Excel, and an internet browser such as Internet Explore. Or, you must have a
computer with programs compatible with these systems. Remember you as the student
are responsible for having the equipment necessary to navigate this course. No
attempt will be made to modify the delivery of this course or its content beyond the
current delivery mode.
You should have QB software installed in your computer. Please be aware that QB
software is not compatible with Mac operating system. You need to have the minimal
requirements in your computer before installing your QB.
You are asked to respect the rules and guidelines for professional communication using
the internet or class discussion boards. Students abusing their use of communication
privileges via the internet and email will be cut off and dropped from the class. Examples
of abusing internet communication privileges in this class include but are not limited to, a
pattern of out right disrespect for another student’s views and opinion, using profanity or
inappropriate language, intimidating or threatening another student, disrespecting gender,
ethnic and cultural differences, using the ANGEL communication features to promote
political, religious, or personal business interest, and using the class platform
communication features to discuss personal issues or garner group support for issues
related to this class. You should consult your student handbook for more information
and rules regarding using school email.
The experience of taking an online course is quite different from that of taking a
traditional in-the- physical-classroom course. Instead of attending a regular classroom,
you will be “attending” a virtual classroom (web site). You are expected to log onto the
web site on a regular basis to read lecture materials and class notes and to participate in
online class discussions. You will also use the web site to obtain assignments, read
announcements, and communicate with the instructor and fellow classmates. You will
not normally be communicating with the instructor in real time as you would in a
traditional classroom setting; however, an advantage of an online course is that you can
attend class when it is most convenient for you (e.g. before or after work, during your
lunch hour, before retiring for the evening, etc.) Be advised that you do not have total
flexibility in attending the virtual classroom. We have provided you with parameters
(time frames) within which you need to log in and read certain lecture materials,
complete online assignments, quiz and take exams. For example, you may be required to
log on at times to take exams or participate in planned class discussion and activities.
You might be required to click on the bulletin board after logging on to the web site and
type in responses to posted questions. Class “participation” is important and
participating in online postings like this, substitutes in part for traditional class
discussion. From time-to-time I will review student online participation and a record is
maintained of the level of participation for each person taking the course. You should not
expect that we will respond to every issue or threaded discussion posted to the board or
that we will try to provide a “definitive” response to all discussions. If there are
concepts, principles and facts that might occasionally need to be clarified then we will
make every attempt to do so through my intervention in the discussion boards. Often we
will use the discussion board to respond to questions and comments from students that we
think affects the entire class. Therefore, please take the use of the discussion board
seriously and plan on checking it regularly (at least once a day). Please see the course
syllabus for how on-line participation factors into your grade.
Exercise patients when awaiting a response from me. I will make every effort to respond
to your inquiries within 24 hours, or sooner which is the case most of the time. It is
possible that my schedule might prevent me from responding as soon as we’d like to.
Nevertheless, being there for you is important and I’ll make every attempt to keep our
communication channels effective.
As mentioned earlier, this is a FULLY online course. All of the work and activities for
this course will be conducted online, including exams. You will need to log onto the
course website at the first day of the class. If you do not log on by the first day and
participate by the third day of our class, you might find yourself behind in the course
already.
If you have not had a class using this platform, you will need to review the North Seattle
Community College Distance Learning online orientation. If you have used the platform
before, then you may need a reminder for your user name and password. This reminder is
located at the online orientation site. The virtual classroom door for this class will be
open by the first day of class. It is sometimes open before that date. Either way, you
can access to this site by following the instructions.
The textbook with CD software is available in our campus bookstore or online through
various vendors. Many students experience unreasonable delays when ordering their
books online through sources other than the college bookstore. We have ordered
sufficient copies of textbooks which are stocked in our college bookstore. If you elect to
use other sources to purchase your books please take note of the fact that you are
responsible for having your book and CD software by the first day of class and no
exceptions will be made for students who do not have their textbooks by the start of
class. I ordered one set textbook with software CD and student data files CD and stored
it in our library for your use.
After this class starts, for the first week of this class only you may contact me at
huian.tian@seattlecolleges.edu to get further information regarding the course. After Jan.
6, 2013, please communicate with me and your classmates about this class via your
course platform.
I sincerely appreciate you taking this course and look forward to a good and productive
quarter.
Kind regards,
Huian Tian