New Student Guide - OL

New Student Guide

Organizational Leadership

Contents

Introduction

Administrative Information

Advising

Financial Aid

Blackboard

TopNet

Other Miscellaneous Information.

Introduction

Organizational Leadership, as an academic unit within the School of Professional Studies, exists to prepare students for the leadership and life challenges that lie ahead. We see our first responsibility to our students as being role models where we align our actions with our values.

Our values are the foundation of all we do and provide the basis for our vision. Our vision guides us toward the future. Our mission statement guides the daily actions we take to achieve our vision. We will relentlessly pursue our vision based on our values through our mission statement while always maintaining a focus on our students.

Values: Organizational Leadership staff and faculty are committed to the following values:

1) Student Focused. We put our students first. We will do whatever is possible for our students to help them succeed. We will stop whatever we are doing to help a student. We will respond to student questions within 24 hours at the minimum; our goal is to respond to students within 12 hours--every day, all year to include weekends, holidays and university breaks.

2) Ensuring the Success of our Faculty. Our students are our highest priority with our faculty as a very close second. We understand that we live in a resource-constrained environment, but will do what we can, given our limited resources, to support and professionally develop our faculty so they can further enhance the learning experience of our students and also succeed.

3) Practical, Skills and Competency-Based Curriculum. If our students cannot apply what we teach, we should adjust our curriculum to ensure they can. We understand that theory is important and serves as the thread that runs through our curriculum, but we focus our curriculum on practical versus theoretical teachings.

4) Transparency, Honesty and Hard Work.

Vision: Based on our values, Organizational Leadership exists to create educational pathways for people to gain the knowledge and earn the credentials they need to succeed in life.

Mission Statement:Organizational Leadership provides practical, applied experiential educational instruction for our students to prepare them for the leadership challenges they will experience as they pursue their professional pathway.

Administrative Information

Organizational Leadership: (270) 745-8973

Tate Page Hall, University College

1906 College Heights Blvd #21067

Bowling Green, KY 42101-1067

Dr. John Baker: (270) 745-5149; ; TPH 224; course director for LEAD 330, 440, 500, 525, 540 and 597.

Dr. Kristie Guffey: (270) 745-3966; ; TPH 223; course director for LEAD 300, 395, 450 and 550.

Dr. Ron Mitchell: (270) 780-2535; ; TPH 225; course director for LEAD 200, 325, 400 and 600.

Fallon Willoughby: (270) 745-5137; ; TPH 226; Academic Advisor for Organizational Leadership, School of Professional Studies.

Linda Brumit: Office Associate; (270) 745-8973; ; TPH 218; Linda can answer most questions regarding our programs.

Information Technology:(270) 745-7000 Please call WKU’s Information Technology if you experience any issues with Blackboard, TOPNET, or any other information technology aspect of our curriculum.

Advising

Please watch this short 14-minute video to gain an overview of the Masters of Arts in Organizational Leadership:

Our master’s program consists of six core and four elective classes. The core classes provide a foundation in organizational leadership while the electives allow you to focus in a specific area or take courses that best fit your professional goals. The Graduate School requires each student to file a Program Form at the beginning of your studies and will place a registration hold on accounts that do not have Program Forms on file. To preclude the registration hold, we have students file a Program Form knowing we will have to change this form. During your final semester, we will update your Program Form to match the courses that you actually took.

Werecommendyou take LEAD 500 first. You are not required to take the courses in a specific order, but we do advise that you identify early which electives you would like to take, so you can take them as they are offered.

If you have any advising questions, please contact either Fallon Willoughby or Dr. John Baker.

Advising for the graduate Certificate is the same as above with students required to take LEAD 500, LEAD 600, and two electives, usually from their master’s program, with approval from the Organizational Leadership Advisors.

For a certificate or undergraduate advising, please contact your undergraduate advisor.

Financial Aid

Student Financial Assistance 317 Potter Hall
Western Kentucky University
1906 College Heights Blvd. #11018
Bowling Green, KY 42101-1018
Phone: 270-745-2755 Fax: 270-745-6586

Email:

We understand that financial aid is important. For the best and most up to date information, we recommend contacting the Financial Aid office with any issues you encounter or questions that you may have. Your financial aid details (loan amount offered, accepting loans, tuition/fee charges, etc.) can be found on TopNet, and how to see that is covered in the TopNet section of this guide.

A Few Tips:

Check your WKU Topper e-mail account regularly for your studentbilling statements and other important messages. They will be sent to your topper account automatically, and it is the easiest way to make sure you are up to date on your information.
Failureto receive an e-bill does not relieve the student of the obligation to pay tuition and fees by the due date.
Be sure to log into TopNet and pay your account on time to avoid late charges.
Add a Billing e-mail addressto your student account.You can have your billing statementsent directly to theindividual whopays your tuition; allowing the payment to be made in a timely manner to avoid late charges. This can be done on TopNet.
Register for your classes onor before the first day of the semesterto avoid late registration fees.
Be certain to makechanges to your schedule during the grace period allowed. After the grace period is over you will be charged a $50 ScheduleChange Feefor each class dropped or added.

You can access current tuition fees and schedules here:

For payment plan options, visit this webpage:

For further information regarding either tuition fees and schedules or the option for payment plans please contact the Office of the Bursar, located in Potter Hall, Room 208. For phone numbers, please see the specific departments:

New Student Guide - OL

Billings and Receivables

Phone: (270) 745-6381
Fax: (270) 745-6584
E-Mail:

Cashiers
Phone: (270) 745-5368
Fax: (270) 745-6584
E-Mail:

Perkins Loan Office
Phone: (270) 745-2986
Fax: (270) 745-8809
E-Mail:

WKU Debit Card
Phone: (270) 745-5551
Fax: (270) 745-8809

New Student Guide - OL

E-Mail:

Blackboard

Everyone who takes an online course must knowhow to utilize Blackboard. Most face-to-face courses will also use Blackboard.To complete the Blackboard training, go to the WKU home page: then click on “Students” at the top, and “Blackboard. Log into Blackboard with your netID and password.

If you experience issues or do not know your login information, call (270) 745-7000, the IT Help Desk. As long as you have your WKU ID number (800 number) they can assist you with logging on.

Once in Blackboard, go tothe top right menu bar and select “IT Training” then select “IT: Blackboard and ADA Student User Training.” This will register you for the online course that is very helpful in understanding Blackboard.

Helpful Blackboard web sites:

1) - this is the Blackboard Support web site.

This site has video tutorials that explain most of Blackboard’s functions. There are many tutorials on this web site, but the most important for students include:

a) Blackboard (click on the work). Under this heading, the functions students will use the most include:

1) Assignments - Submitting an Assignment and Submitting a Group

Assignment;

2) Course Tools - Using Email as a Student;

3) Grade Center - Checking Your Grades;

4) Groups - Using Group Features as a Student;

5) SafeAssign - How to Use SafeAssign.

There are other useful tutorials not associated with Blackboard on this site. All of our Blackboard course sites appear the same (see next page).

The menu buttons along the left side are the same for each course. To best understand our Blackboard sites, READ AND STUDY the course syllabus and Assignment Schedule, both found in the “Administrative” folder. If you have a question regarding the conduct of your course after reading these documents, please contact your instructor. You can contact your instructor through email, or by using blackboard.

TopNet

TopNet is the Registrar’s database of student records for WKU. Students will use TopNet to register for courses, lookup classes being offered, accept loans, check student records, receive tuition bills and many other administrative functions. To access TopNet, go to the WKU home page and click on “Students” along the top menu bar of the webpage. Then you will click on “TopNet,” under current. You can log in with either your NetID and password, or your WKU ID (800#) and pin.

If you have issues logging in, please call the IT Help Desk. If you are having issues with your NetID, click on the “What is my NetID” link from the TopNet login page to look it up, or reset it and your password.

After logging in, an introductory page will appear with announcements. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “Continue”. The following page will appear:

Click on the “Student Services” tab to gain access to the above and many other administrative student functions.

The “Financial Aid” tab will be where you look at what loan amounts have been awarded, scholarships, and more.

Make sure that your personal information is always up to date, whether that be your primary email address, your phone number or emergency contacts. You can also sign up for emergency text alerts here, for weather alerts and other emergencies involving campus locations.

Other Miscellaneous Information.

a. Academic Affairs maintains an academic calendar that is available at:

b. The Registrar’s Office publishes a schedule of when students can register for classes and provides other useful information. This schedule and other information is available at the following web site: This site can answer many of your questions. If you still have questions, please contact your advisor.

c. WKU provides a very in-depth Online Learner Orientation that provides information primarily for online students new to WKU: .