Student Guide to Online PW Courses

How to Prepare for Your Online Course

Every class starts on the first day of the given semester. Each student will receive an email message from the instructor about a week before the start of the semester directing them to this page for initial instructions and general information about the course. This is not your course homepage. Students will not be able to register on their course website until a few days before the semester starts. Watch for a second email from your instructor that lets you know where your course site is and when you may sign-on for an account. If you do not receive an expected email, you should contact your instructor first, then Continuing Education. Some distance courses are run through Brightspace or Canvas that will add you automatically to the site, but others are run through other platforms (e.g., WordPress) where you may be given instructions to sign up for the course site. Follow whatever instructions come from your instructor.

Make sure you are visiting the right website or course section for your class. You should see your section number and instructor listed.

English 420Y and 421Y never meet face-to-face. Students must be comfortable working online because all communication for the classes will occur electronically. In fact, the online communication in these courses models professional communication and should not be considered incidental or routine, but a major aspect of course content.

It is the student’s responsibility to check their email and the class website daily. During group projects, students will likely need to check email more than once a day.

Instructors will provide some guidance for students as they learn to use the course website, but students should already be proficient with email, word processing, and Internet applications.

Online classes require more individual work than in face-to-face classes. ENGL 420Y and 421Y make up for the absent face-to-face time with reading and responding on the course website. Students should expect to read and write at least a couple of hours a week more than they would in the equivalent face-to-face version of this class. In summer courses, which are compressed, the number of time students spend per week will be about double what it would be for the courses during the fall or spring semesters.

Successful students in online classes are typically self-motivated and eager to ask questions as they come up. They are good at working and accomplishing tasks on their own. They are comfortable reading and digesting textual information without the auditory feedback that face-to-face classes provide. If you need one-on-one, face-to-face contact with an instructor, consider taking ENGL 420 or ENGL 421 on campus.

You are responsible for regular access to a computer and the Internet. You should make sure that your Web browser (for example Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome, or Internet Explorer) is up-to-date and functions properly. (We recommend Firefox or Safari.) You will also need to have access to your email, through Purdue’s system or another, that allows you to send and receive attachments reliably and conveys a professional ethos.

By midnight on the first scheduled day of your class, you should sign up for a new account and complete registration on the course website. Follow the “Getting Started” links that usually appear with a welcome message on your course website.

Other readings for ENGL 420Y and ENGL 421Y are either available on the course website or freely available elsewhere on the Internet. They will be listed on the course calendar.

Once students have registered on their course website, they should read the course’s description and calendar carefully. Then follow the Week 1 link. It may take a while to get comfortable with the course site layout and the interactive software.