Spanish 3 – Getting Started

Welcome to this Spanish 3 Online demonstration to help you get started in the course.

I am going to go down the checklist on the orientation handout and show you what each step looks like on the computer. If you don’t have the orientation handout, you can download it from the instructor’s Web page.

Read the Course Information on the instructor’s web page. You can access my Web page by going to the Cabrillo home page. Click on A-Z Index, click on S, click on Stucker, Nancy, then click on myHome Page link. There is a link to the Course Information page and to the Orientation Handout. Also refer to links under Accents on the Spanish page if you need help writing accents on your computer. That is something you need to learn during the first week of the course.

You will also want to buy your materials.You need the hard copy of the 3rd edition of Conexiones and the book key for the onlineConexiones Student Activities Manual.

Next, go to Blackboard, Cabrillo’s online course management system. Go to online.cabrillo.edu. When you get to this page, complete the browser check if you haven’t yet. If you have pop-ups disabled in your browser, you’ll need to enable pop-ups for the Blackboard site. To enable pop-ups in Firefox, you go to Tools > Options > Content > Deselect “Block pop-up window” > OK. Other browsers, like Safari or Internet Explorer, will have slightly different processes to unblock pop-ups. You can do a Google search about how to enable pop-ups in your particular browser, if you need help.

The first time you log in to Blackboard, click “look up your user name and create a password”. Follow the instructions. Cabrillo assigns you a user name, but you will create your own password. Write both of these down, in case you forget them. You will use them every time you log in to our course.

Once you have logged in with your user name and password, the first page you see is the My Blackboard page. Here you will see SPAN 3 and SPAN 50L and any other online courses you are taking this semester. Here you see all of my online courses from this semester and last.

Before we enter our courses, let’s make one adjustment. Click My SettingsMy Tools Optionsand scroll down and changePagingfrom the default (10) to 999 items per page. This change will allow a long list of items to appear in Blackboard on one page, instead of only 10. Click on My Blackboard to return to that page.

Click on Spanish 3 in your course list on the My Blackboard page. We are now inside the course. (I’m going to change from the Instructor view to the Student view.) At the beginning of every week, you should read the information on this first page, which Blackboard calls Course Content. The week begins on Monday in our class. So every Monday you should log in to Blackboard and read the information on the Course Content page and view or read the text of the video I will post.

Next, click on Syllabus in the left-hand menu and read it carefully. Notice under Materials that you need the hard copy of the textbook plus the access code or book key to give you access to the online Student Activities Manual. The Video CD-ROM that comes bundled with the text at the Cabrillo Bookstore is optional. Unless the publisher has updated it, it does not work with the Vista operating system.

I recommend you have a Spanish/English dictionary and you can also use online dictionaries. I like wordreference.com. However, you are not allowed to use translation Web sites or software in this course. You may also want to get a grammar reference book. Directo al grano is one example.

Notice also the technical requirements for this course which include telephone access to the 831 area code and the ability to record your voice on your computer. We will use a Web site called Voice Thread to record some of our weekly discussions. If you don’t have a microphone integrated into your computer, you can buy an inexpensive headset to use with your computer; you can use a computer and headset at Cabrillo; or borrow a friend’s computer just for those assignments. You can use the telephone with Voice Thread, but there is a $10 fee once you pass 3 minutes of recorded time.

Under Instructor Contact Information, you will see my office hours at Cabrillo. I will also schedule online office hours at different times during the course in an attempt to accommodate students with different schedules.

Notice that we will use the Discussions area of Blackboard for general questions. The discussion Foro general is where you “raise your hand” and ask a general question. I will answer these questions in the discussion, so that everyone can benefit from seeing the answer. If you have a personal matter you would like to discuss with me, contact me privately through the Mail section of Blackboard.

Be sure to read the Syllabuscarefully. It is long, but it has essential information about this course.

Now let’s click on Learning Modules. Next click on Información del curso. You can open and print a course calendar here. There are two versions: a chart that shows the semester on one page or an outline format that gives you a checklist of all the assignments throughout the course.

Going back to the main Learning Modules page, you also see here our first lesson: Semana 1 – Lección Preliminar. You should click on this lesson and follow its step-by-step instructions during the first week of class. Here is the list of what you’ll do during Week 1 that will be graded:

  • Post your introduction in DiscussionsSem 1 – Conociéndonos
  • Post two replies to classmates in DiscussionsSem 1 – Conociéndonos
  • Complete the AssignmentSem 1 - Verificar su trabajo
  • Take the AssessmentPrueba – Orientación al curso

Let’s look at the Assignment first. Click on Assignments then click on Sem 1 – Verificar su trabajo. In this assignment you will learn to use the Spanish language spellcheck and grammarcheck tool in Microsoft Word. You see at the top of the page that the assignment is due Sept. 13 – it’s a Week 1 assignment, but I have made the due date Sept. 13 to allow you a little extra time to get familiarized with the course. The assignment is worth 3 points. The instructions tell you to open and read the attached document, “el documento adjunto”. You have to open the attached document to read the instructions. Follow these instructions and use your grammarcheck and spellcheck in Spanish to find and correct the errors in the paragraph titled “México – La conquista española”. You are welcome to use a dictionary to doublecheck your work. Just as with the English spellcheck, the Spanish version will not always find all the errors; you need to use your knowledge of Spanish or use a dictionary to verify your work. Once you have corrected the paragraph, copy it and paste it into the Submission box on the assignment. Then click Submit. After you click Submit, I can read and grade your work.

Next, click on Assessments to see where the tests in the course are located.Prueba – Orientación al curso is our first quiz. It is worth 2 points of extra credit and it’s basically a practice test to help you get used to the way tests are given in Blackboard. You can take this practice test as many times as you like until 11:59PM on September 13. You may take the chapter tests during the course only twice. You should not refer to outside materials when you take a test. However, you may study your results before you retake the test. If you have grammar questions between attempts, please contact me.

Let’s move on to the co-requisite for Spanish 3: Spanish 50L, the online language laboratory. For this class you will complete 7 chapters in the online Student Activities Manual that accompanies the Conexiones textbook. If you go back to My Blackboard and click on SPAN 50L, it takes us to the description of the lab course. Click on Syllabus to read the grading criteria. Click on Course Content to return to the homepage. There is a link to Quia on the homepage. Quia is the third-party Web site that hosts the online Student Activities Manual. You need a book key to access the Student Activities Manual. The book key comes with the bundle of materials sold at the Cabrillo Bookstore. It can also be purchased separately with a credit card through the Quia site by clicking on Bookstore, searching for Conexiones, and click Buy to the right of the correct item. Continue following the instructions after that point.

Let’s look at Quia for a moment. You need to create an account in Quia. You choose your username and password. Please write them down, in case you forget them. Once you have access to the Student Activities Manual, you will see the icon for that book every time you log in. Click on Open Book to do your work. Select the chapter you want to work on and click Go. Lección P refers to the first chapter, Lección Preliminar. This chapter in Quia is a review, it does not correspond to Lección Preliminar in the textbook. But starting with Lección 1, the Quia work will correspond to the textbook content for each chapter.

After you click Go, you will see Workbook and Lab Manual. You must do all the selected activities in both sections. Click on Workbook and you see the names of all the activities. You only have to complete the activities that have a double circle next to them. Click on the name of an activity, complete the activity, then click Submit. You may repeat any activity in Quia as many times as you like. Quia will take the highest score on each activity to calculate your percentage.

You need an overall average of 85% on a Quia chapter to receive 10 points. If you want to see if you have 85% go back to Student Workstation. Then click on My Results. Notice the chapter name in the window. It says Lección P (Workbook) and I have 100%. But I need to select Lección P (ALL) to see if I have at least 85% for the entire Lección P. When I click Go I see I only have 76%. That’s because I only did the activities in the Workbook and I haven’t done the activities in the Lab Manual yet. Remember you need 85% by the due date to receive full credit for a Quia chapter. You need 6 chapter out of 7 of full credit to pass SPAN 50L.

On the other side of your orientation handout are some reminders like:

Read all course information carefully.

Read the weekly summary every Monday on the course homepage.

Be sure to read all of these reminders carefully.

I hope this demo of the Spanish 3, Spanish 50L and Quia was useful. If you have any questions, write a message in Foro general.

¡Nos vemos en Blackboard!

¡Hasta pronto!