LCC REDZONE

GETTING STARTED FOR STUDENTS

  To get Started:

Logging into RedZone
Student Tab
          Semester Schedule
          Finding Grades
          Unofficial Transcripts
          Pay Your Bills
Finding Your Courses
What is in an Online Course?
Assignment Formats
Checking Your Grades
Saving Files in RTF format
Survival Tips for Online Classes
Glossary of terms
Asking for Help

 Login to RedZone:

Go to the LCC Homepage www.labette.edu

Click on the RedZone Icon

Username is your LCC ID number
Password is your PIN number (you can get this from IT 620-820-1146)

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Need to change your Personal Information?

Click the words Personal Information next to your name at the top of your screen

The first tab shows you what information about you has been made public (usually your name and email address)

The Password tab allows you to change your password (that Pin #, remember”). If you do, be sure to create an hint for yourself there, and click SAVE

The Photo tab and it allows you to add a photo to your profile. Please use only appropriate pictures and be sure that you have permission to use them (don’t steal images from the web such as cartoons, etc). The smallest size image works best.

The Custom Info Tab, allows you to add a category about yourself, like a special interest or hobby.

The Biographical Information Tab is the important place. From this place you can change your email address, your address, etc. Click the Pencil icon (picture) to edit. Change what you need to, and then click SAVE. Remember, you may not see the changes show up right away- the system has to cycle through to update.

The Permissions tab allows you to select which information about yourself is public. Any time your name shows up in RedZone with the blue exclamation point icon next to it, other people can click on it and see whatever information you have made public. Be careful about what you give permission for everyone to see.

Now , on to your classes!

Student Tab Information

Your Semester  schedule:

To find your schedule, from your student tab, go to:

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What about Finding My Grades at the End of the Semester?

From your student tab, go to:

Unofficial Transcript and Grade Report

Then select View Final Grade Report and the semester you have just finished:

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This gives you the current semester grades. For an unofficial transcript, click the View Unofficial Transcript link. You can print it too! (This is NOT the transcript you send to another school if your transfer. That type is an “official” transcript that you request from the Admissions Office. The cost for official transcripts is $5.00
 

How about Paying your bill to LCC?

The Financial Aid and Account area shows you what you owe and how to pay it.

Then you get to see the bill!

Finding your Courses

TO ACCESS COURSES:

Click the plus sign (+) in front of My Courses

Click on the Course Name

You are now on the main page of your course.

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What is in an Online or Supplemental Course?

Once you click on the name of the course, you are taken to the Main Page of the course.

Main Page of a Course

Use the Navigation Links on the Left or Use the “Bread Crumb Trail” at the Top

DO NOT USE THE BACK BUTTON (it kicks you out!)

What will you find on each screen?

You will see a list on the left hand side of each screen in your course sites, with titles such as:

      Main Page

      Collaboration

      Attendance

      Course Information

      Syllabus

      Coursework, and

      Gradebook.

These are all PAGES.

On each Page, you will find little boxes called “Portlets”. They will contain different kinds of information and some are interactive. For instance, Forum portlets are for discussion, and you can read, post and reply to discussion threads posted by your instructor or other students.

Every class may be a little bit different, because your instructor can use different portlets to put the class together.  It is important to look around, and read everything when you are getting started so that you know where things are. If you aren’t sure-ask questions! Your instructor assumes you understand if you don’t ask, and since this is your grade, you should always ask. Instructors are here to teach, to facilitate, to explain and to answer questions, so don’t be shy online.

Collaboration

This is where Discussion happens in online courses. You will see a Forum ( for “asynchronous”  not-at-the-same-time discussion), a Chat portlet (for real-time chat) and a portlet called Coursemates. Coursemates is the list of all the students in the course. You can send email to the class through that portlet, if you have set up your email account to open.

Attendance: this is where your instructor will record your attendance in on ground classes

Course Information: This includes the course name and number the instructor’s contact information and the course description from the catalogue. This is standard in all courses and cannot be modified.

Syllabus: This is where your instructor MAY post the syllabus (it could also be posted in a Handout portlet on another page instead, if this page is deleted). It can be posted as text or as a document file , which you will open. There may also be a Readings portlet, where your instructor would post page numbers of readings for the course. This portlet might also be found on another page, depending on the instructor.

Coursework

This is where you go to find your assignments, take quizzes and upload documents such as papers and worksheets. If your instructor has given you feed back (comments) on an assignment, you will click on the name of the assignment after it has been graded to read them (rather than in the Gradebook).

You can go back and forth between how you view assignments in Coursework by changing how the display is sorted.

You can sort by Unit, or by Type.

Unit organizes your work into sections, and may show you what is due each week.

Type organizes your work by types of assignments and will show you all the tests grouped together, etc.

All assignments may not be visible at the beginning of the semester-your instructor will make them available according to when they are due.

ORGANIZED BY UNITS:

Units can be actual units, chapters, or sections (depending on how your instructor groups your information)

ORGANIZED BY TYPE:

TESTS, DISCUSSION, PAPERS, PROJECTS, ETC (Types of assignments)

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ASSIGNMENT FORMATS

When you see an assignment listed in Coursework, the icon (picture) will help you know what type of assignment it is.

      OFFLINE

o   Majority of assignments for Face-to-Face courses

o   In class quizzes, papers, homework assignments, etc.

o   Icon (picture) is a piece of chalk

      FILE EXCHANGE

o   Students can download a file and also submit assignments electronically by uploading on  RedZone.

o   Instructor can re-upload document with comments after grading

o   Icon (Picture) is two arrows (black and white)

o   Unless your teacher specifies another format, you should save all your files in RTF (Rich Text Format) so that they can be easily opened or shared with your instructor.

      Online

o   Mostly for online or hybrid courses

o   This assignment is to be completed through RedZone. Tests and quizzes are examples. These may be graded automatically in the system if your instructor has put in the correct answers to the questions. Be aware that if you spell or type it differently, your answer may be counted wrong, but your instructor will check your answers to be sure you get credit.

o   Icon (Picture) is a computer mouse.

Checking your Grades during the semester:

Gradebook : This is where you will go to check your weekly grades. Your final grade for the course will be posted in the Student area of Redzone.

To check your grades, click on Gradebook.

You will see only your grades for the course.                     

There is a printer-friendly button at the top upper right. Click that to print a grade sheet if you need to turn one in for athletics, etc.

SAVING FILES IN RTF FORMAT

RTF files can be opened by most word processing programs regardless of which one created it. This means that we don’t all have to have the same word processing program in order to share documents.

This is important for students and for teachers.

Here’s what to do:

      Create your document on the computer as you normally would.

      When you get ready to save it, find your save menu

      Instead of selecting “Save” , choose “Save As” from your menu

      Look through your options-you may have to choose “other options” depending on your program

      Locate Rich Text Format and select it

      Be sure you have named your file in the way you want to

      Select where you want to save your file (Desktop, My Documents, a Flash drive, etc)

      Click Save

Now when you are ready to upload your document , either into your online course, or attach it to an email, you can relax knowing the person at the other end can open it.

That was easy!

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Survival Tips for Online Classes

1.PARTICIPATE, PARTICIPATE: Log-in frequently (at least three-four  times a week) and budget your time -- work on things a little bit at a time during the week. Also, to truly take part in the online discussions (and to get full points!) you need to check and leave messages throughout the week. Missing even a couple of days of discussion can create a daunting amount of reading to catch up on.

2. SCROLL DOWN: If you think you have finished reading a message, be sure to check the "scroll bar" on the right. If it is not all the way down the slot it means you need to scroll down to see the rest of the text. (And don't let difficult technical words like "slot" get you down, you will get used to it!)

3. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Always check the Announcements first when you login. If you have not been in class for a day or so, be sure to check the archived announcements, which are at the top of the Announcements page.

4. DON’T LOOK BACK: Hitting the back button or the return key will likely throw you out of the class and back to the student page. To navigate within your course, use the Breadcrumb trail or the icons. Don’t use the refresh button on your browser-that also reload, and may require you to log back in. Doing that during a test may lock you out of your best attempt.

5. BE PATIENT: Wait for pages to load. Don’t double click. Watch the loading bar at the bottom of the screen and watch the green blocks moving to load the page. If you get impatient and click again, you may find that you have been ejected from the system and now have to log back in (see, it doesn’t make things go faster).

6.  CUTTING AND PASTING TEXT: You will almost certainly use this skill a lot, for example if you want to write an essay in Word and than copy and paste it into a discussion forum. You do this by highlighting the text you wish to copy and hitting ctrl C. Then go the place you wish to paste the text and hit ctrl V. Doing this will strip the extra hidden characters that word puts in and give you a “clean” copy. If you don’t do this, you may not be able to fit all of the text into the text box, even though it looks like you should be able to . Those hidden characters take up space. If you just “copy” and “paste” (not using Control C and Control V) you won’t get a clean copy without extra hidden characters.

7. Q&A FORUM: If you have a question about the subject matter, you should first ask your instructor. There may be a discussion forum in your class for asking questions, and that is always a good place to start. If you post your question there, the instructor only has to answer once, and everyone gets the answer!
Obviously, some questions should be asked in private, or your question may be something that you are sure does not affect anyone else -- in which case you should email or call the instructor according to their policies. If you have a question about RedZone, contact the Regena Lance (during the day on campus 820-1241) or evening and weekends (620-215-2060) or by email: regenal@labette.edu

Our policy for instructors allows a 24 hour grace period to answer questions, but most of us answer faster if we can!

8. NETIQUETTE:

When you are in the discussion forum, you should be honest and direct, remember that in the written form comments can seem "rude" even when that is not the author's intent. Before posting a message or response, ask yourself, "Would I say this to a person face-to-face?"

Using all-capital letters is "shouting" when used in email or Internet discussions. However, due to format limitations of most discussion software programs use of all-caps is acceptable for use as subheadings or occasional emphasis. An entire email or post is not acceptable in all caps.

9. EMAIL PROTOCOL: When you send an email, always identify yourself by putting your name at the end of the email. We don’t know you by your email address!  If the recipient does not recognize your email address they may not know who is sending the message. Please put the name of the course in the subject line, unless your instructor directors you to do something else. If you leave the subject line blank, some email may get sent to the Junk file and be deleted. Don’t let your important message go to the trash! Many of our online instructors teach several courses or sections per semester, so it is helps us to identify you and the course you are in quickly if you give us the chance.

10. DON’T PANIC: This also means don’t wait to ask for help. We want you to have a good online experience and to get the most out of your classes. This means that you have to ask your questions when they come up-don’t worry about looking silly, not knowing something, or being embarrassed. We have ALL been where you are- and that’s why you are in school-to get the answers. Give us the opportunity to help you by not waiting until the night your big assignment is due to admit that you cant find the instructions or don’t understand how to upload a document.

11. SAVE YOUR WORK: It is good practice  to always save a copy of anything you submit. Keep a copy on your computer, so that if you have a problem, you haven’t lost your only copy. Don’t assume that you can just email assignments to your instructor if you don’t know how to upload them- we want to keep all the coursework contained in the online course site, not in your instructors email inbox.

ASK QUESTIONS. REALLY.

Glossary of Terms

Browser: A Web browser is a software program that interprets the coding language of the World Wide Web in graphic form, displaying the translation rather than the coding. This allows anyone to “browse the Web” by simple point and click navigation, bypassing the need to know commands used in software languages. Examples of Browsers are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

Default : A particular setting or value for a variable that is assigned automatically by an operating system and remains in effect unless canceled or overridden by the operator. In other words, this is the factory setting until you change it. A default setting is the setting which you start with.

Desktop: The background image of a display screen, on which windows, icons, and other graphical items appear. In other words, the screen and what you see.

Forum: A public meeting place for open discussion. In online classes, this is only “public” for the members of the class. This is where your graded discussion takes place.

ISP:  (Internet service provider), a business providing its customers with connection to the Internet and other related services. Your ISP is the company that provides you with internet service.

Operating system: a set of system software programs in a computer that regulate the ways application software programs use the computer hardware the and the ways that users control the computer. Your operating system might be Vista, Windows XP, OS10, etc.

Reply: In a discussion forum, a reply is the written response to a post by an instructor or another student.

RTF: The Rich Text Format (often abbreviated RTF) is a proprietary document file format with published specification developed by Microsoft Corporation in 1987 for Microsoft products and for cross platform document interchange. Most word processors are able to read and write some versions of RTF. This means that if you save a document using in RTF format, it can usually be opened by someone else, even if they don’t have the same word processing software installed that you have on your computer.

Syllabus:  An outline and summary of topics to be covered in a college course. It is usually given to each student during the first class session so that the objectives and the means of obtaining them are clear. A Syllabus usually contains specific information about the course , such as information on how, where and when to contact the instructor, an outline of what will be covered in the course, a schedule of test dates and the due dates for assignments, the grading policy for the courses, specific classroom rules; etc.

Thread: a discussion thread can be defined as one topic under discussion by a group. The thread is a single focused topic, in most cases, and all comments concerning the topic are listed with it.

Upload: Uploading and downloading are two terms used in computing to refer to data transfer. In brief, files are considered uploaded when they are transferred from a computer to a central server. (You upload your files to the course web site). Files are downloaded when they are transferred from a server to a smaller peripheral unit.(You download the course files to your computer). When data is being transferred from one system to another, it is either being uploaded or downloaded, depending on the circumstance.

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FOR QUESTIONS AND/OR ASSISTANCE

    FIRST READ THE HELP RESOURCES LISTED IN REDZONE

     CONTACT Regena Lance

    Main Campus office M207C

    regenal@labette.edu

    620-820-1241(office)

    Cell # 620-215-2060 (Text messages are fine)

ALSO REMEMBER:

·         STUDENTS LOGIN USING THEIR STUDENT ID # AS THEIR USERNAME

·         STUDENTS USE THEIR PIN# AS THEIR PASSWORD

·         THE IT DEPARTMENT IS THE ONLY PLACE STUDENTS GET PIN NUMBERS 620-820-1146

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© Labette Community College 2004