Quick Start Guide

All courses have the same basic layout and activities—including lessons, videos, reading assignments, quizzes, and discussion forums—and must be completed in a sequential order. (The course used in the following illustrations may vary slightly from the course you are enrolled in, with different graphics and colors, but the structure is the same. Please keep this in mind as you look at the examples.)

  1. On the main course page, you will see button links to each main section or lesson within the course. To begin, click on the first button. When you return to the course in the future, you can use these buttons to jump directly to the lesson where you left off.
  2. Lesson pages indicate your progress and show what is and is not available to you:
    • An activity is shown as completed with a checked box. A dashed, or broken, box is checked automatically when conditions are met. A solid box can be checked manually such as a notes page.
      Checked checkbox with dashed outline
    • An activity is available but not completed with an unchecked box.
      Unchecked checkbox with dashed outline
    • Unavailable activity − indicated by dimmed text that is not clickable. To “unlock” this activity, you must complete the preceding activity which is listed as part of “Not available unless ...”.
      Dimmed activity, not available until condition is met.
  3. After you have read the lesson summary, click on the first link, which is typically a video.
    Note: Each video title tells you, in parenthesis, how long the video is in minutes and seconds.
    • All activity pages include navigation buttons, which take you forward or backward in the course, to make it easy to proceed in the proper order.
      Back and next buttons.
    • Videos:
      On video pages you will be able to view a video. Often you will also find a transcript and/or notes pages—these open in new windows.
    • Quizzes:
      There is no time limit once you start a quiz, and you are welcome to use your notes as you take the quizzes. When you have completed a quiz, you will be presented with the option to review how you did.
      • You are told what score you need to progress to the next activity in the course.
      • You are given three attempts.
      • Questions are presented one at a time.
      • Occasionally someone may need more than three attempts, but this is very rare. If it happens to you, please use the Request Help link, and the support team will reset an attempt so you can complete the course.
    • Discussion forums:
      • You are required to post at least one reply for each discussion topic before you proceed to the next activity. Your reply can be to the original question or to a previous participant’s response.
      • You can change how the forums are displayed using the drop-down menu with the following options:
        • Display flat, oldest first − This displays with no indentations, and the oldest replies appear first.
        • Display flat, newest first − This displays with no indentations, and the newest replies appear first.
        • Display in threaded form − Only the first post is displayed in its entirety. This is followed by individual links to each of the other replies (see image).
        • Display in nested form − Indentations show the relationships between posts, if participants are replying to other participants.
      • It is recommended to read the best practices for discussion forums, next.