English IV Course Guide
Dear student:
In order to access the course, you have to carry out 4 steps which you
can find in the Stating Information environment:
First you have to check the tutorial How to surf in the virtual
classroom. This action will enable the next step, which is the Course
Agenda. Please keep in mind that it is very important to check the agenda
on regular base and to be always informed about the activity deadlines.
After that, you have to reload the course main page and you will be able
to see the Course Introduction, where you will find the general
information about the course. You have to watch the video in order to be
able to access the Course Agreement. Please read the agreement
carefully; it is not enough to only check the agenda, you have to mark I
know and accept the rules and conditions for the development of the
course and save your choice. In the Course Agreement you will find the
rules you will have to follow. Besides, you will find the evaluation criteria
and the percentage weight for every activity you do during the course.
After you complete all the steps, you can see the activities available
according to the course agenda.
The course consists of six Environments:
In the Starting Information environment you will find important
information about this course. Among them, you will find the course latest
news and the general forum, a place where you can share information
about subjects to develop in the course or make comments or technical
support requests. Also you will find detailed information about the course,
methodology and agenda.
The News Forum will display the course latest news related to academic,
methodological and technical aspects. To keep updated with the
information, please visit this link frequently.
In General Forum you can interact with your classmates and tutor, ask
questions, and develop all the subjects proposed by the tutor. During the
development of the course, the course director generally opens three
different forums: one related to Doubts or Technical Support; one for
Academic Discussion, and another called Social Interaction, designed to
interact with your classmates, greet them and introduce yourself.
In Course Agenda you will find the course activities chronological
planning in a very simplified way. This agenda also offers an additional
alarms visual resource classified by colors. This way you can find
available activities in green; soon to be close activities in yellow, and
activities that need to be sent in less than three days, in red. The student
must be checking the agenda regularly.
In the Knowledge Environment you will find more detailed
information about the course and the topics to follow during the course.
This course consists of two Units:
It is very important that you check all the units and do the exercises, in
order to prepare yourselves for the course activities, including the quizzes
and collaborative forums.
In the Glossary you can find the vocabulary you will need during the
course. As this is a resource to assist you during your learning process,
you can visit it anytime you need to.
In the Collaborative Environment you will find activities where you
will have to constantly interact with your partners (group partners) and
tutor. Besides, you will also find the specific guides and rubrics for the
development of these activities.
The first activity you find in collaborative environment is the Activity 1.
In this space you will begin the development of the Recognition Forum
which is an individual activity.
After that, you will begin in this space the development of the Activity 3
Writing Forum, where we will all have the chance of interact; the
student who makes a comment will receive comments from his/her
partners and tutor. These comments will help everyone to make
adjustments and corrections to their work in order to improve it and have
it ready when they have to upload it to be graded.
The next activity in this environment is the Activity 5 Speaking
Assignment. The participation in the speaking forum will be assessed
based on the contributions given by you. Each student has to make a
video, which should include a personal presentation and one of the 3
topics mentioned in the guide.
In this environment you also have the information about the schedules
for course web-conferences and synchronous attention via Skype.
In Practical Learning environment you will find all the activities (in
this case, activity 5 Speaking) where you have to interact with your
tutor constantly. The tutor will give all the instructions the students need
to know in order to participate. You can find these instructions in the guide
and the specific rubrics for the development of the interview which will be
carried out via Skype.
In the Monitoring and Evaluation environment you will have to
upload all the products required in the collaborative environment except
the activity 5 - Speaking, which requires the monitoring of the procedure
explained in its guide and rubric. Also you will find the quizzes (activities
2, 4 and 6, as well as Final Exam), that will measure your progress in
different skills like grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading and writing.
In this same environment you will see two quizzes (activities 7 and 8)
that have been designed for students to make a self-critical reflection of
their performance in course activities.
In the Students Management you will find detailed aspects to take
into account as student.
Important aspect to take into account is the course internal Mail. The
students have to check regularly the mails they receive from their tutor
or course director, as they include information relevant to the course
activities and important indications.
