Orienting students to Mindquest Academy
Getting students off to a good start in their Mindquest Academy study program begins with the
orientation you provide. We describe a process and materials here that you can use with
learners. Our teachers have developed the process over a three-year period; we recommend
you follow it closely until you become comfortable with the various steps. You can adapt it to fit
your teaching situation once you are familiar with the process.
You may wish to orient students individually or in a small group. Set aside a specific time for this
so you can focus your attention on individual needs and questions.
A four-step process
1.
2.
3.
4.
Assessment and development of MQA learning plan
Introduction to courses
Introduction to FirstClass
Instructor expectations
Assessment and development of MQA learning plan
Screening
Before starting any assessment, it’s a good idea to do some informal screening of prospective
students. This will give you valuable information about your student’s ability to handle the course
material and to work online. It’s helpful also to know if a student needs some computer skills
brush-up before they begin a course.
We have found these three criteria to be good guides to your planning:
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A minimum reading level on the TABE test of 6.0 or higher and/or scoring at or above
235 on the CASAS.
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Basic computer skills: able to copy and paste, create and save files/folders, navigate
between windows, search on the Internet. (After students feel comfortable with
Mindquest courses, they should learn how to send and receive attachments.) You can
assess these skills by sitting with the student at a computer and checking to see what
tasks they can perform. The Mindquest Academy Pre-course Survey will also give you
additional insights into your student’s attitudes about computers and their experience
using technology. You’ll find the survey in the Teachers’ Corner.
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Some keyboarding experience is very helpful.
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Click here to view a check list of computer skills you can use with students. It was
developed by a Mindquest Academy trainer.
As you well know, students who are motivated and want to learn can often accomplish much
more than we expect. Use the screening criteria as a guide and then trust your judgment.
Assessment options
As mentioned above, the TABE/CASAS assessments will give you information about student
reading levels. You should already have access to these assessments.
Other standardized assessments
we’ve found useful are the Accuplacer
and the Learning and Study Strategies
Inventory (LASSI). If you can arrange
with your local community or technical
college to have your students take the
Accuplacer, you’ll learn what
academic skills they need to work on.
Module 3 of the College Planning
course has a section on the
Accuplacer that might be useful to you
and your students.
Both this assessment and the LASSI
are optional. The LASSI was
developed by Claire Weinstein (of Skill
and Will fame) and students like taking
it and seeing their results.
H & H Publishing
www.hhpublishing.com/_assessments/LASSI/index.html
Click here for more information about the LASSI. If you would like to use this inventory with your
students, contact gploetz@comcast.net
We also recommend that you take a look at Module 4 of the College Planning course. You’ll find
a discussion of “assets” that students bring with them to the program. Students are asked to
think about their assets and to write three profiles: academic, career, and personal. The profiles
help students to think about and reflect on their own learning backgrounds, their goals, and
strengths they already have. They give you a wealth of information that can be very helpful as
you work with students on skill development with Mindquest.
Learning plan
Having a Mindquest Academy Learning Plan helps students stay on track, meet timelines, and
understand the scope of their study. It’s a good way for both you and students to see
accomplishments and progress. You may want to introduce the Learning Plan when you’ve
finished the assessment process, or you may want to wait until you’re ready to start students in a
course.
Click here to view the Mindquest Academy Learning Plan. Also, click here to check out the Notes
to Teachers; it gives brief explanations for implementing the plan.
Introduction to courses
Navigating a course
 Use the tutorial that you can access from the first page of every course. Go through the
steps with your student.
 Open a course and explain that a course is organized into five modules, which is another
term for “lessons” or “chapters.” Show how the module titles appear on tabs across the
top of the screen.
 Point out topics listed on the navigation bar. Explain the difference between topics and
sub-topics. Open a topic and show both. Show them how they will need to scroll through
each topic.
 Talk about the course Introduction, the Previews for each module, the Learner Outcomes
on each Preview page, the Tools bar.
 Read through a couple assignments so students see what they’ll be doing.
 Explain how you’ll be working with the assignments they send to you. This might be a
good time to explain that you’ll be asking them to revise the work they do. Tell them why
– stress that this is not a “negative” thing but a way of learning online.

Explain that they’ll send assignments as emails to you and that you will respond by email
also. You can mention that there’s a form they’ll use for sending assignments and that
you’ll show them how to access it when you talk about the communications platform we
use.
Orientation to FirstClass
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Explain that there are two parts to the Mindquest Academy -- the courses and the
communication platform that provides a “campus” for the courses. The platform is called
FirstClass.
A helpful way we’ve found to describe these two parts is to say that the courses are the
textbook and the FirstClass mailbox is the notebook you write in.
Tell them the courses are on the Web and that they will access them through FC. When
they’re working, they should have FirstClass and the course they’re using open on their
computer so they can go back and forth between the two easily. Depending upon what
the student is working on, he or she may want to have Word open also.
Show students how to access and use the assignment form. You might take the first
assignment in the course they’re going to take and practice filling out the heading (e.g.
Read 1.1) and copying the assignment onto the form. Now it’s ready for the student to
work with.
Show the student how to use the spell check feature and explain that the assignment
form is like a mini-word processing program. You have the ability to format the font,
check the spelling, etc.
Show them how you will “go into” the assignment they send you to give suggestions,
questions to think about, and other instruction. This is a good time to tell them that you’ll
use a colored font so they can distinguish your comments from their writing.
If your students are going to work at home at all, show them how to install FC. Tell them
to do this when they get home or soon after while everything is fresh in their minds. Ask
them to send you a message about how the installation and logging on to FirstClass
went. This should be done within 24 hours.
In the Teachers’ Corner you’ll find a folder labeled Trainings, Dec 6 & 7, Dec 13 & 14. Here
are a number of documents that will help you with Orientation. One of these is “Today’s
Tasks,” a handy sheet to use with your student during Orientation.
Others include:
 FirstClass Training
 Downloading and Installing FirstClass and Logging into FirstClass
 Using FirstClass for Mindquest Academy
 FirstClass Student Orientation – contains checklist of tasks to do with students
 Completing an Assignment form
(All are indispensable aids for orienting students to FirstClass.)
A teacher’s helpful hints!
If you can clearly see that a student can do the assignments on the Task List, you don’t need to
go through the entire list.
Having students get started with the assignments within 24 to 48 hours after the Orientation will
help reinforce what they’ve just learned. If several days or more elapses between the Orientation
and when they begin the tasks, they will likely forget much of what you’ve taught and even drop
out because of frustration.
Remind students to ask for help. If you feel comfortable, give them your phone number at school.
Encourage them to call if they are feeling lost. If they don’t get something from the task list to you
within 24 hours, call and check on them.
If a student is working remotely, meet face to face a few times or provide supervised lab time for
the first few modules. This is important!
General expectations for student work with Mindquest Academy
Make clear the purpose of the learning and the expectations for your course. As an example
of what we mean we’ve included what one teacher developed for her students explaining her
expectations. You may want to adapt it to fit your teaching expectations and then review it with
your students.
“This course is meant to prepare you for taking college level courses. You should be committing at
least 4 to 5 hours per week to working on this course. We recommend that you complete each
module within 2 weeks time. Successful college students work on their coursework several times
per week, rather than “cramming” in one session and going long stretches before reviewing the
material. It’s best to work on the course everyday or every other day, if you can. Email your
instructor often to check-in.
If you are out of town for more than 3 days, please let your instructor know ahead of time. If you
have problems with the FirstClass program, please contact your instructor on their school email
(which instructors need to provide to their students) or call the ABE program’s office to let the
instructor know about the problems.
On a separate form provided by your instructor, keep track of the time you spend working on the
course. Send or give it to your instructor at the end of each module.
If you are working online and have a question, write ‘Question’ as the subject in the email.
Instructors will respond to the ‘question’ emails first in an effort to keep you moving through the
material.
Always use an assignment form for the assignments. Cut and paste the entire assignment into the
form, so the instructor knows what you are responding to.
Remember, when you take an Academy course – and a college course – your PERSISTENCE,
TIME MANAGEMENT, ORGANIZATION, and FOLLOW THROUGH skills are as important as your
academic skills. Our hope is that this course will help you develop both types of skills. Please do
not hesitate to contact your instructor by phone if you are having any questions or challenges. We
are here to help you!”
Ask students to keep a time log of the time they spend working on a course away from you.
The form is in the Teachers’ Corner.
Set goals for module completion. Be specific. If you’re too vague, students may not follow
through.
 A calendar system or weekly goal sheet works well.
 If you think persistence will be a problem for a particular student, break the module
he or she is working on into smaller sections with a timeframe for each part.
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Two weeks per module is probably reasonable for ABE students. (College Prep
classrooms ask for a 9-hour commitment per week.)