Personal Growth and Development

ALHE 2100-Online/Hybrid

Online Orientation

Welcome!  You have navigated your way to the Personal Growth and Development Online Orientation page.  Here is some information that you will need to get started in class:

Contacting the Instructor:

Elaine H. Blankenship

Phone:  (229) 317-6972

Email:  elaine.blankenship@darton.edu

Fax:  (229) 317-6682

Office:  Darton College, J-130

Helpdesk:  Local (229) 317-6923 Long Distance 1-800-861-8318

ALHE 2100 Online Overview:
Personal Growth and Development is an experiential course designed to enable the student to become aware of effectively utilizing self as an agent of therapeutic change.  Emphasis is to help each student identify personal values, assets and weaknesses and understand how these influence his/her decisions and interactions with others in a helping relationship.  The dynamics of professional burnout will be explored, and each student will develop an individual plan for self care.

Required Texts:

Patient Practitioner Interaction:  An Experiential Manual for Developing the Art of Health Care, 4th Edition, Carol M. Davis, Slack Publishers, 2006.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:  Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, Stephen R, Covey, Simon and Schuster, 1989.

Technical Support:
Darton College provides free technical support for online learners. If you experience technical difficulties with any WebCT Vista course component contact the WebHelp Desk, (229-317-6923), at Darton College for technical assistance. You may also submit a tech support request online at: http://online.darton.edu/forms/webhelp.htm 

A word of caution:  if you are using AOL as your internet browser, you will need to select another browser before you go online.  AOL does not work well with WebCT Vista.  It treats the screen changes as pop-ups and will block you from entering or cut you off.  This is very important to know because as will be explained later, when you are taking a test, you will be allowed only one attempt.  Once you have started a test you can not stop and leave it.  If AOL interrupts you while you are taking a test, WebCT will not allow you to re-enter a test after you are "kicked-off" by AOL.  NOTE: It is your responsibility to maintain connectivity to WebCT.

Browser Tune Up: 
Before you begin your online course, please take a few minutes to become acquainted with the Browser Tune Up.  You will find this under Browser Settings on the WebCT Home Page in the column to the left marked WebCT Quick Help.  Doing this will save you a lot of headaches later.

Accessing the Course/Material:

1. On the first day of Darton scheduled classes, (May 22, 2007), you may log on to WEBCT using the Log-on Instructions.  Please contact WebHelp, if you are unable to log on to the course.
2. On the Course homepage, explore each icon and become familiar with its contents.  The syllabus is found under Syllabus, grades can be viewed under My Grades, and course material for each chapter can be found under the Course Content icon.  Discussions can be accessed or posted under the Discussion Forum icon, and e-mail may be sent and viewed under the E-mail icon.
3. Once you log into the course-thoroughly read the online syllabus.
4. Please note that the instructor may post important messages/reminders on the home page frequently.  Please check the home page on a daily if not weekly basis. 

Course Work:
Students are encouraged to follow the schedule for completing the coursework. The syllabus will be the guide for this course.  It lists pre-requisite and co-requisite courses, textbook information, course objectives, evaluation methods, grading scale, and class policies on assignments and exams/quizzes and honesty, test dates, required on campus dates, and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Discussion Topics:
This icon will link you to the Discussion page.  Think of this as a classroom setting and the discussion will be much like the discussion that you would expect in a traditional classroom setting.  (If you post to the Discussion page, the information will be viewed by all class members).

E-mail:
E-mail is private correspondence.  Remember, please do not post a question or address an issue with the instructor on the Discussion page, unless you want the information/response to be viewed by the entire class.

My Grades:
Each student has a link that will reveal individual grades. 

Please feel free to contact the instructor regarding questions or comments.