Orientation: Education and Various Learning Tools

The Student Orientation is an informative guide that helps accustom students to the online learning experience offered by the Desire 2 Learn website. This orientation gives newcomers an overview of what to expect from an online course and how to utilize the various learning tools within the D2L website. After thoroughly completing the student orientation course I have come to realize that while online learning may seem like a great way to fit college courses into a busy lifestyle, it takes a tremendous amount of self-discipline and dedication to succeed in the online learning process. Organization, time management and communication skills are essential to mastering online learning. I am taking four online courses this semester therefore it has been vital for me to properly learn to navigate through the D2L website beforehand and to figure out ways that I can use the various learning tools to my advantage.
Each course opens up the the course homepage where the course news feed is located, along with a section for course updates, bookmarks and user links. The course navigation bar has links to Course Home, Classlist, Checklist, Content, Discussions, Dropbox, Grades, Quizzes and Course Tools. Primarily all professors will use the content area to post lectures, assignments, resources and other course activity in different modules. Some professors will set a deadline on certain modules so it important to manage your time wisely. The professor posts lectures, modules, assignments and other course activity in the content area. The content map to the left of the content viewer will give students an overview on the topics within a module. The discussion area is where the professor and students will post and reply to various topics throughout the course. The dropbox is an essential tool students will use to submit course assignments.