Hello and welcome to the Online Student Orientation for Principia Lifelong Learning online courses. We're excited to have you as a student in an online course!
This orientation site is designed to help you understand how our online courses work—before you start your class. That way, when the course gets underway, you will be ready to access your course materials in our BlackBoard course management system and enter your virtual classroom using our Adobe Connect Virtual Classroom system. Going through orientation in advance keeps students from having to spend valuable class time on the basics of online learning.
With both Blackboard and Adobe Connect, you’ll be able to access your course materials and virtual classroom from any computer, anytime, anywhere—as long as you have a compatible browser and a broadband connection to the Internet.
The links above comprise your orientation to Principia’s online courses. After verifying that your computer is ready (the first link), please go through the others in order, starting with "Accessing Your Course." Once you’ve finished going through each link and have received your Blackboard username and password from Principia, you are ready to access your course.
We want to be sure you have the best experience possible with Principia’s online courses. Yet we understand that online learning may not be right for everyone. To get the most out of your course, you need to be comfortable using your computer to watch videos, Skyping with friends, and navigating websites. If that describes you, you’ll have a great online course experience. If, on the other hand, you feel unsure or uncomfortable as you go through this Online Student Orientation, you may want to consider whether an online course is right for you at this time.
All of us involved in offering Principia Lifelong Learning online courses are glad you’re here. We hope you find your online course experience rewarding as well as great fun!
