Bethany Schaarschmidt
bschaarschmidt@shastacollege.edu
Getting Started Exercises
A tutorial for students in Online, Hybrid, & Web-Enhanced classes
Rationale: Students taking classes which utilize an online component for the first time are generally at a
disadvantage because of their unfamiliarity of how to use the Learning Management System. This
“Getting Started Module” provides them with an easy, quick tutorial allowing them to not only see what
tools I’ll be using in the class, but also to “practice” using the tools with very little penalty until they get
it right. I use this activity in all my classes – web-enhanced, hybrid, and online, and have very little
problems from students who “cannot” complete a given assignment throughout the semester.
Materials: Computer, internet access.
Description: The Getting Started exercises were designed to be used in online classes, but I’ve since
adapted them to use in all my classes (my face-to-face classes are all web-enhanced). There are 7
“lessons” where the student is introduced to an element in the Learning Management System, and they
complete several required activities associated with them. The basic components are as follows:
 Start Here! Gives them an overview of the online class, what to expect, why the exercises are
important, the point value for each activity, and some “housekeeping”, where they learn about
resources available for Shasta College Online students. This includes an important message
about System Requirements.
 Lesson 1: About the Syllabus
 Lesson 2: Communicating with the Instructor and your Classmates
o This assignment has an activity associated with it (1 point). Students must send an email
to their instructor.
 Lesson 3: Discussion Forums
o This assignment has an activity, where the student reads a document provided on the
homepage, “Tips for Being a Successful Online Student”, and participates in an
“Introductions Discussion Forum”.
 Lesson 4: Assessments/Quizzes
o This assignment has an activity where the student takes a quiz on the syllabus, which
they learned how to find and print in Lesson 1.
 Lesson 5: Upload a Document
o This lesson has an activity where a student takes a survey (Online Readiness), creates a
word document, saves it in Rich Text Format, and uploads it in the upload area.
 Lesson 6: Access Your Grades
 Lesson 7: Update your information
Tips & Variations: All faculty who have been trained in Moodle have access to these modules on the
Moodle Users Group. You can use all or some of the modules, and they can be modified to match your
own class.
Delivery and Grading: The first thing a student sees when logging into my class is a “Welcome to the
Class” announcement, explaining that the Getting Started Exercises are required for ALL students, and
announces the due date. These exercises are all student sees for the first week of class.
The only activity that is a bit time-consuming to grade is the email assignment: I print my roster from
MyShasta, and keep it on my desk – I check off each student as they send me an email and I reply to it
with something like this:
Hi Ashely,
Congratulations on successfully using the email tool.
Good question! We will be addressing this topic this semester, so please stay tuned!
Welcome to the class,
-Mrs. S.
A grade item for this activity must be manually created in the grade book, and the grades manually
entered. I wait until the due date, and then enter them all at once. Each of the other assignments is
graded inside the assignment itself.
Here is a view of my grade book: