Hi Everyone,
Just a few reminders:

• The Excel Capstone Project is due tonight!
• Please respond to the Doodle poll at https://doodle.com/poll/xp7abdu4sg863rkd about your choice of topic for Unit 5. If you don't respond, do the Adobe option.

And announcements:

• The Final Project will be posted in Blackboard tonight. Be sure to read it entirely before you begin. The due date is firm: Monday, 6/18, 11:59 pm. Late submissions won't be accepted due to grading constraints.
• I'll be in and out of town for these last couple of weeks, so office hours are cancelled. Please email me if you have any problems, and we can arrange to meet if necessary.
• After posting the syllabus, I decided to remove an assignment from Unit 4. As a result, I redistributed the weights of the unit scores, so you may see a unit average in Blackboard that is slightly different than an earlier one. It shouldn't have a large impact on your final score, but feel free to contact me if you have any concerns about that.

Review the email I sent Friday if you aren't sure about the Unit 5 options.
Have a great week!

Happy Friday Everyone!
Many of you are working ahead, and that's great, so I'm sending out next week's information early.

After the spreadsheets unit, there is a short unit about creating professional presentations. Modules 1 and 2 cover Microsoft PowerPoint. Although most of you have used it, you may not know about its more advanced features. Hopefully, you will find some new tools and techniques with PowerPoint that you weren't already aware of. These two modules are like the other Office modules with reading, a SAM Path and a quiz. The PowerPoint SAM Paths are slightly longer that the others (~40 tasks) so plan accordingly:

• Module 1 reading, quiz, SAM Path are due Tuesday, 6/5
• Module 2 reading, quiz, SAM Path are due Wednesday, 6/6
• The Capstone Project is shorter than the other two and is due Thursday, 6/7.
• Module 3 of this unit introduces you to a free Adobe product called Spark. In the Unit 4/Module 3 folder, you will see a web link to a complete tutorial about Adobe Spark. The tutorial is viewed in a browser. Just scroll down to see all of it. You’ll find links to videos and other information about using Spark. One of the videos is about Copyright Law and Creative Commons licensing. There is a short quiz in the same MindTap folder regarding that material. Like the other MindTap quizzes, you have 3 attempts per question. This quiz is due next Friday 6/8. And, in case you are wondering, you are being introduced to Adobe Spark because it is the tool you will use for the final project. (Details will be available soon.)

Looking ahead to Unit 5, you can select what you study. Your choices are:

1. Advanced Excel: this will contain the next four modules of the Excel MindTap material. It covers Pivot tables/charts, macros, advanced functions, and Excel applications. The format will be the same as the other MindTap units: 4 modules with reading, quiz, SAM Path followed by one a Capstone Project at the end.
2. Introduction to Programming: This option will make use of another MindTap to teach you some beginning programming techniques using the Python language. Instead of SAM Paths, there are 1-3 coding exercises for each of the four modules along with quizzes and a Capstone Project at the end.
3. Adobe Creative Cloud: Did you know that UNCW students are now licensed to use Adobe products for free? This option will introduce you to Adobe Acrobat DC, Illustrator, and Photoshop. This is not a MindTap module. It consists of videos and tutorials which walk you through how to create various assets in the application. The Capstone Project for this unit is a tutorial about InDesign.

You only need to complete ONE of these.

For the Advanced Excel and programming options, you will be provided with a new MindTap code. You do NOT need to purchase a new one! Cengage will provide us with these codes. If you want to get started, just use the grace period for the MindTap as at the beginning of the semester.

For me to get enough codes, please respond to this Doodle poll by the end of the day Monday, 6/4 indicating which topic you choose:
https://doodle.com/poll/xp7abdu4sg863rkd. If you do not select a topic, do the Adobe module.

Have a great weekend, and please don’t hesitate to ask questions if any of this is confusing!
Mrs. Ferner

Good Morning!
I hope you enjoyed the long weekend in spite of all the rain.

This week, you'll begin Unit 3 and learning about spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel. It is a widely-used, and powerful tool, for working with numbers and charts. The format is the same. There is reading, a SAM Path, and a quiz for each of the four units followed by a Capstone Project. Remember that a SAM Path is just a customized tutorial, and that your SAM Path score is the sum of the pre and post tests. So, if you aren't familiar with Excel, it is perfectly fine to open the pretest, submit it, and go straight to the training. The four Excel modules are due today through Friday: one each day. The Excel Capstone project is due Monday.

Unit 2 scores and current course average are available now in Blackboard. Let me know if anything looks incorrect or is missing. Remember, you are able to complete any missed work, or any assignment on which you scored less than 80% for late credit (80% being the maximum grade available for late work.) If you are unable to access the assignment because you started it and now find it closed, please send me an email. I can remove the attempt so you can work on it again, and you will get the higher of the original grade or the newer grade with the 20% late penalty applied.

I'll be out of town Thursday and Friday of this week, so office hours on Thursday are cancelled. I should be able to help or answer questions via email.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Ferner

Good Morning!
This week we cover Unit 2: word processing using Microsoft Word. You may already be familiar with Word, but hopefully you will discover lots of new tools you didn't know about or learn how to do familiar things a better (i.e. the "right") way. These modules are a little bit longer than the Unit 1 modules, so there is one module due each day this week: Modules 1-4 due today-Thursday respectively. Each module is a reading, a SAM Path, and a quiz. These do not require the actual Office program. They are done entirely in SAM/MindTap through a browser. Remember, the pre-test score is added to the post-test score to get the SAM Path score, so your pre-test score by itself doesn't matter as long as you do the training and post-test. Refer back to the syllabus if you need to review how SAM Paths are scored.

The Word Capstone project is due Friday. It must be done using the actual Microsoft Office 2016 program which is available for free through the University. These projects give you a chance to apply what you learned in the previous modules without step-by-step guidance. The basic idea is to download a starter file, the instructions, and sometimes some other supplementary files. You then complete the tasks described in the instructions using Microsoft Word and upload it to SAM for scoring. Once it is scored (in less than a minute), you can generate a detailed report showing what, if anything, you missed, along with links to review the specific skill. You can then make corrections if necessary and resubmit up to four more times. The idea here is to get immediate feedback, interpret any error reports, revise your work and resubmit it. Sometimes just one typo or minor error will deduct a lot of points. Don’t panic. Review the report, revise the original document, and submit again for regrading. Because this is computer graded, it is essential that your text matches exactly what is expected. It’s not picky - there's just no such thing as “close” to a computer. It either matches or it doesn’t. This is why you have multiple attempts. Beginning this project sooner rather than later would be a really good idea.

Unit 1 averages are now available in Blackboard. I removed late penalties from last week's work. If you missed anything or scored below 80%, you may still do it for a 20% late penalty. If you need anything reset, send me an email.

That's it for this week. Enjoy the upcoming holiday weekend!
Mrs. Ferner

Good Morning!
Your course is ready and open for you to begin. To get started, go into Blackboard and complete the items in the "Day One Tasks" list. Note the link to Cengage Technical Support as well. They can quickly help you resolve any issues you may be having. I have had the most success using the Firefox Browser (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/). Chrome and Safari should work as well, but don't use Internet Explorer or Edge.

Once you've completed the "Day One Tasks", proceed to the Syllabus Quiz. That is the only thing due today.

The rest of this week's work, Unit 1, contains introductory material to get you familiar with technology basics and MindTap.

Due Tomorrow:

• Module 1: File Management. This had a reading, a quiz, and a SAM Path.
• Module 2: Internet Essentials and Information Literacy. It consists of a reading, a quiz, and a SAM Path.

Due Friday:

• Module 3: Essential Concepts. This one is just a reading and a quiz. There is no SAM Path for this unit.
• Module 4: Information about other Office 365 apps and a tutorial about OneNote. There is just one SAM Path for this Module - no quiz.

For assignments having both a quiz and a SAM Path, you may do them in either order, but I have put them in the order that I recommend for the specific module. Feel free to work ahead as you have time.

Please don't hesitate to ask questions if you are confused or need help. There is a lot to take in at the beginning, but once you get familiar with how everything works, it gets easier. Also note a change to my original office hours which are now Monday & Thursday 2-4.
Mrs. Ferner

Hello and Welcome!!
You are receiving this message because you are currently registered to take CSC 105 during Summer I. I am very excited to have you on board. This material has been updated to better enhance the technology skills you will need for success in college and in your future careers.

The course will be open and ready for you to begin working in Blackboard on Wednesday. Meanwhile, please go to my web page at http://people.uncw.edu/mferner/CSC105OL/CSC105.htm and read the material there carefully, particularly the course syllabus which contains lots of important information.

This course is fully online. There are no scheduled meetings, although I'm happy to meet with you during office hours or any other mutually agreeable time. I send out a weekly email to remind you what is due that week, but you can always check the calendar on the course website or in Blackboard.

Please check your UNCW email regularly for important announcements and reminders. Summer courses are short but intense, so be prepared to work hard and stay on top of things.  Work ahead when you can.  I hope this will be a great course for you, and please don't hesitate to ask me questions at any time!

Best regards,
Mrs. Ferner