How Our Mentored Courses Work

Our mentored courses couple the convenience of learning on your own with instructor support and feedback when you need it. Here is a step-by-step description of how a course works from registration to final completion.

Step 1: Registration

Students sign up for a course using the Registration page. During the registration process, if they like, students can elect to receive a CD ROM version of the materials and to receive a paper completion certificate from one of the supporting universitites. All students receive an automatic email notification that lets them know that we have processed their registration.

Step 2: A Few Days Before The Class Begins

Courses always start on a Monday — usually the first Monday of every month. On the Wednesday or Thursday (depending on the timezone) before the course starts, students who have registered, and paid, for the course are automatically sent a logon URL, student id and password. This email can sometimes get intercepted by a SPAM catcher so we always encourage students to check their SPAM folders when it gets close to the start date of their course. Once a student receive their logon credentials, they have access to the course functions via their student locker page. These functions include access to:

• course materials containing readings, quizzes and assignments
• instructor email for sending messages to their instructor
• discussion board for posting messages to the class
• text chat system for attending text chats
• course calendar to check for assignment due dates and chat times
• assignment submission and report card center
• download center to download the course materials

Step 3: First Day Of Class

On the first day of class, instructors post their opening comments. These comments contain general information about the class, assignments, and chat sessions. The comments are updated as the course progresses from week-to-week.

Step 4: Reading and Communicating

At this point, the student will look at the course calendar and see when the assignments are due and when the text or audio chat sessions are scheduled. Our courses are project- or assignment-based so we post assignment due dates in a course calendar. We have opted for this "deadline driven approach" because we have found that most people need deadlines or they just don't bother doing the work.

All courses have between three and five assignments. For each assignment, students are required to read quite a bit of material and then complete an assignment. The first assignment is usually something simple like posting an introduction of yourself to a discussion forum. After that, the assignments become more complex. In our technical writing course, students spend about 8-10 hours per week on readings and assignments. In the rest of our courses, students spend about 6 hours per week.

While completing their readings, students sometimes have questions. We provide several ways for students to get the answers:

Email Communications

Some students like the personal attention of talking to the instructor. At any time, a student can contact the instructor via email for one-on-one assistance. Our instructors are prompt in replying to student inquiries — often within a few hours and always within a day.

Discussion Board Communications

Some students like posing questions to their classmates. At any time, a student can post a question to the class via the discussion board. In some classes, the discussion board is used to post work items so that they can be shared by the class.

Audio or Text Chat Sessions

Students who like to discuss things in real-time are able to attend text or audio chat sessions. Depending on the course, these sessions are held usually every one, two or three weeks. For example, in the Graphic Design course, an audio chat is held every two weeks. And while chat sessions are optional in most cases (see specific course descriptions for details), many students rate them as a valuable part of the learning experience.

Step 5: Submitting Assignments

In order to pass a course, a student has to submit all of the assignments and obtain an overall mark of 75%. The assignments give the student an opportunity to practice and apply the concepts that they have read about in the course materials. In some cases, students will submit or post a rough draft and then a final assignment. Our instructors mark the assignments and provide feedback. They make suggestions on how to improve the final product so that you learn from the experience and can apply the learning to future assignments. We believe that instructor access and assignment feedback are the fundamental value of our courses.

Step 6: Certificate Completion

If a student has requested a certificate, we submit the student information to the appropriate university at the end of every month. Then it takes approximately 8 weeks for the certificate to be processed by the university.

For More Information

For more information, take a quick tour of our learning model. If you have any questions about how our mentored courses work, please feel free to contact us at info@online-learning.com or by calling 613-592-9751.