DEP Student Guidelines

The Distance Education Program is based on a continuous progress educational model designed to meet individual student needs as fully as possible. However, DEP students tend to be most successful when they set clear goals for themselves and adopt a regular schedule for working on their course. Students are expected to submit assignments on a regular basis.

Students who are enrolled in DEP are expected to do the following:

Login to their online course at the earliest opportunity
Read the Course Overview and Instructions.
Print a copy of the course Marks Tracking Sheet. (This is usually found in the Course Overview. The student is expected to use it to keep track of his or her progress in the online course and to keep track of the assignments that they have submitted.)

When the student has completed these steps he or she will contact the DEP teacher assigned to them directly via email or in person. The purpose of this email will be to establish initial contact with the instructor, and it is regarded as a first assignment for every course. No student is considered to be registered in his or her course until they have initiated direct email contact. In this email the student will do the following:

Confirm that they have read the Student Guidelines.
Confirm that they have successfully logged into the course, and reviewed the Course Overview.
Confirm that they have printed the course Marks Tracking Sheet.

If the student has any questions or concerns at this point they will express those to the instructor. If there are no questions orconcerns it will be assumed that the student is ready to begin their course and that a first significant assignment will be completed and submitted promptly.

Before beginning work on your course please carefully read the following:

DEP students should have a personal email account for contacting the DEP teacher, for general communication, and for submitting their work. Students who do not have their own email account can get one through any number of WEBMAIL providers such as HOTMAIL or GMAIL at no, or minimal, cost. YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS MUST CONTAIN ENOUGH OF THE NAME UNDER WHICH YOU ARE REGISTERED IN THE OLP THAT YOU CAN BE EASILY IDENTIFIED—skater4@gmail.com is an example of an email address that is not acceptable because it is not possible to identify the student from it. Email sent from this sort of address will not receive a response unless the student’s first and last names appear in the body of the email at the beginning of the message.

*NOTE: Students should NOT USE THE COURSE COMMUNICATIONS TOOL in the online course—IT IS NOT MONITORED. MESSAGES LEFT IN THE COURSE COMMUNICATION TOOL WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE.

Many courses have a certain amount of work that the student is expected to self-mark. Other assignments, quizzes and tests are submitted to the instructor for marking and are used as part of the student’s grade for the course. Some courses, particularly math courses, require the student to self-mark the exercises that they complete for practice, but, in addition, to periodically submit that work in unit or module bundles to be assessed by the instructor for things like neatness, organization, and completeness.

Normally work that must be marked by the instructor should be submitted as it is completed. DO NOT ACCUMULATE LARGE BUNDLES OF WORK AND THEN SEND IT IN TO BE MARKED. It is better for the student to be getting regular feedback on smaller amounts of material they have covered, than irregular feedback on large blocks of work some of which may not have been done satisfactorily and may therefore requires re-doing.

WORK SHOULD BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY VIA EMAIL ATTACHMENT. THE STUDENT SHOULD KEEP A BACK UP COPY OF ALL SUBMITTED WORK UNTIL THEY HAVE BEEN INFORMED OFFICIALY THAT THEY HAVE ACHIEVED A COURSE COMPLETION. The back up copy will normally be a digital file that is kept on your own computer. If the student does work on more than one computer they should purchase an inexpensive “FLASH MEMORY” stick for back up purposes. KEEPING A BACKUP COPY OF ALL WORK SUBMITTED IS VERY IMPORTANT AND IT IS THE STUDENT’S RESPONSIBILITY.

Ensure that all work is well organized and easy to identify. Make sure your name, the name of your school, and the name of your course appear at the beginning of the file. Make sure, also, that the module or unit of the course that the work covers is visible at the beginning of the file. If there are several assignments to be submitted for a particular unit, make sure the assignments are clearly identified by name or number (whichever is appropriate), or by both. Work that is submitted but which cannot be easily identified for marking will be returned unmarked. It will only be marked when it is re-submitted in an appropriate format.

WORK MUST BE SUBMITTED FOR MARKING ON A REGULAR BASIS. THIS IS A CONDITION OF THE STUDENT REMAINING IN THE OLP. A significant assignment must be submitted within fifteen (15) school days of the student receiving registration information and any necessary resources such as textbooks. Subsequently, a significant assignment must be submitted at least every fifteen (15) school days thereafter. If a fifteen (15) school day window passes without a student submitting a significant assignment an email message will be sent to the student or a conversation held to inform the student that he or she has a further fifteen (15) school days to submit a significant assignment. IF THIS DEALINE IS NOT MET THE STUDENT WILL BE WITHDRAWN FROM THE ONLINE COURSE IMMEDIATELY.