We want our online courses to be accessible and convenient. Once registered you can access the course during your lunch break or you could wait until 3:00 AM Sunday morning. You can work at your own pace. Of course you do have to follow the the course schedule and complete your assignments on time. In addition to the Web page course materials, you can communicate with the instructor via e-mail by telephone and with some courses use a class discussion forum.
If this is your first time with an online course we suggest that you complete the Self-Assessment Survey - Are Online Courses For Me? before registering. You can register online, but you must contact the instructor via e-mail after registering for specific instructions to access your course. Most online courses start and end on the traditional semester schedule. Some courses are open-entry meaning that you can start shortly after your registration is complete but you still must complete the course work in 15 weeks or less.
Each instructor does things a little differently. Please contact the instructor promptly and read the course syllabus and all course instructions carefully.
You will need to set time aside each week for logging-in to access the course materials, check your e-mail and to surf the World Wide Web as necessary for the class.
You will need time to read, think, write and to reflect on the material and ideas at hand. Block out an appropriate amount of time to complete your course assignments on time. Most online courses require a weekly time commitment equal to or greater than that required for a face-to-face class. Schedule your time with family, work, school, and other activities so that you have adequate time to work on your online class. If you have children at home you may find it easier to work on your online class when the children are sleeping, at day care or at school. Perhaps a friend, relative or neighbor can help to watch the children while you work on your coursework or are taking an online test. It can be difficult to concentrate and stay on track if there are repeated interruptions. Many online exams are timed and you only have a certain amount of time to complete the exam.
Don't get behind in your online courses. It is usually difficult to catch up. Most instructors will not accept late assignments, nor allow you to take an exam after the due date. Contact your instructor by e-mail or by phone if you have any questions about the course or your assignments or if you are having technical problems. You can call the college toll-free at 1-888-466-4222 or 423-1264 locally.
Honesty and integrity - You are expected to be honest, not to cheat, to do your own work and not to plagiarize. Most instructors have severe penalties if you are caught or suspected of cheating or plagiarizing - which is a violation of the Student Conduct Code (See the College Catalog and Student Handbook).
NIACC
uses the ANGEL Learning Management System for online
courses. This easy to use online course management system allows students to
access the online content for their courses, to view multi-media
materials in the course, participate in online discussion forums, upload
assignments electronically to the instructor and take online quizzes and
exams.
The recommended web browsers are Internet Explorer 7 or Mozilla Firefox 3. Internet Explorer 6 is not supported because Microsoft is dropping support for this browser. You are advised to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 or use Firefox. Macintosh users should use the Firefox web browser as there are some things that don't work properly with Safari.
Logging in to NIACC eLearning courses using ANGEL uses the same login username and password as used for NIACC lab computers or NIACC e-mail.
Some NIACC Online courses require an Access Code to access an eLearning Resource Pack (e-Pack), which is an online course in ANGEL containing publisher content. These are required by the textbook publisher and are purchased along with your textbook for the course. Sometimes they are packaged in the textbook or they may be bundled and purchased separately. It is a one-time use code. You will enter it in when prompted the first time that you access your course. It can not be reused.
If required, you must purchase the Access Code with the book from the NIACC NIACC BookZone.
Most NIACC instructors will require that you use your NIACC Internet e-mail for all class communications. All NIACC students have a NIACC Internet e-mail account. The same username and password is used for NIACC e-mail, ANGEL online courses and logging on to the computers in a NIACC computer lab. In most cases your NIACC username is your first initial, middle initial and entire last name. For instance, John B. Smith would have a username of JBSMITH and his e-mail address is jbsmith@niacc.edu. In some cases a random number may be added on the end. For instance Jeff B. Smith may have a username of JBSMITH216.
You can get to your NIACC student e-mail by going to the NIACC homepage at www.niacc.edu and clicking on "NIACC E-mail" in the upper right corner.
NIACC also uses the student e-mail to send announcements to all students and to communicate information to each student about registration, financial aid, information about your course and more. It is important to check your NIACC e-mail regularly even if you are not taking an online course.
ANGEL E-mail - The ANGEL online course management system also has built-in course e-mail. This is only in the ANGEL system and does not normally go to your NIACC Internet e-mail account. If you are taking a course that uses ANGEL you may need to check your ANGEL e-mail as well as your NIACC email account.
What's a listserve? Briefly, a listserve is an e-mail distribution list. Our listserve is basically a one-way communication for you to receive information from the college. One of the lists is for the college to send e-mail messages and newsletters to all students. The Subject or From line of the e-mail will include "STUDENT-L"
Many courses use the "Discussion Forum" built in to ANGEL. Once the course starts, you can receive discussion "postings" made by the instructor and other students--and you can post to them. A posting to the discussion forum is viewable by the instructor and all students in the class. It is similar to holding a discussion in a traditional class with the advantage that you will have an opportunity to read and respond to every question or comment if you so choose or ask a question of anyone in the class. You always have an opportunity to participate in a discussion. No special software is required to access the discussion forum other than your web browser. You may find the discussion forum is your best resource for information on a topic--you might even meet a new pen-pal! Not all NIACC Online classes use the ANGEL discussion forum.
A proctor is an individual who agrees to receive the tests from the student’s instructor, administer them in an approved environment, and return them to the instructor. The proctor must verify the student completed the test according to the specific instructions provided by the instructor. Read more...
For the most part, bigger and faster is better. Computer speed is measured by the size of the CPU (Central Processing Unit) in Megahertz (MHz) or Gigahertz (GHz) such as 1.8 GHz or 3.0 Ghz. Requirements change quickly as the Web changes. For the most part, if you have a computer that is less than three years old, you should have a machine that is fast enough to manage the web content.
Another measure of a computer's ability to perform quickly when browsing the Web is the amount of memory or RAM (measured in Megabytes or MB). Your computer will perform much better with the online course applications if you have at least 512MB of RAM. 1 GB or more is even better. If you Windows VISTA operating system you will need at least 2 GB. Many new computer have 2-4GB of RAM (I don't think you can have too much RAM).
The third measure of speed would be your modem speed and type of Internet connection. If you have dial-up Internet access through your phone company a 28.8 modem will likely be very slow or not work at all. A 33.6 or 56K modem is better, but will still be slow for most content. If you live in a community in which your cable TV company provides cable Internet access (such as MCHSI or @home) it is about 10 times faster than a dial-up modem. In some communities DSL or ADSL is now available from your phone company. This also provides very fast connection speeds with only one phone line for both voice and Internet connection at the same time. Wireless connections to the Internet are faster than dial-up and also available in some communities.
If you're reading this page right now, you're probably most of the way there. You need to have access to the Internet, with a Web browser and e-mail. To take the online quizzes, your browser must be at least HTML-4 compliant. That means your Web browser needs to be able to read languages we use called JAVA and JavaScript.
NIACC currently uses the ANGEL Learning Management
System for online courses. We recommend
Internet Explorer 7 or
Mozilla Firefox 3 
. Other browsers such as Netscape or AOL are not compatible with ANGEL. (Older versions such as
Internet Explorer 6, Netscape 4, and
Netscape 6 will not work properly). The current version of ANGEL will not
support Internet Explorer 6 because Microsoft is dropping support for this
browser. You are advised to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 or use Firefox 3. They are free and
easy to download and install. It is okay to have more than one web browser on
your computer, such as both Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox, but you can not
have more than one version of Internet Explorer (If you have Internet Explorer
you can install Firefox in
addition to Internet Explorer).
What about Internet Explorer 8? It does work with ANGEL, but you may need to run it in the compatibility mode.
It is very important that you do not turn off or disable the JAVA or Javascript (Active Scripting) features, and that your Web browser is set up to send e-mail or you may not be able to take the online tests
Pop-Up Blockers - If you have a program installed on your computer or your browser settings are set to not allow "pop-up windows" to display you will not be able to take the ANGEL quizzes and tests. Pop-up blockers are sometimes used to prevent unwanted advertisements from appearing in a "pop-up window". You must disable pop-up blockers when you are using ANGEL or configure the pop-up blocker to allow pop-ups from angel.niacc.edu. You may have several pop-up blockers which need to be modified. For instance they may be turned on in your web browser, the Yahoo toolbar, the Google toolbar, the MSN toolbar and more.
Many courses utilize files or documents in a format called Adobe Portable Document File (.PDF) or Acrobat Reader files (or Adobe Reader files). To read .PDF files, you will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available for both Windows and Macintosh. If you use the Web much, you'll find many sites which use .PDF files. There are some nice features, like the ability to search the document for text. You can read it from your computer screen (while online or off-line) or even print the .PDF file in its original format.
RealPlayer is a media player for many types of audio and video files. RealPlayer may be required for some courses. You can download it for free from Real.com. Read each page carefully and download the Free Basic version, not the version for which you have to pay. You may already have RealPlayer. It installs automatically with some web browsers.
Some courses require the Adobe Flash Player, a browser plug-in, available for free. This is to view video content.
Some courses require the QuickTime player, a browser plug in available for free from www.apple.com/quicktime/.
Some courses require Windows Media Player. You can download it free from Microsoft.
File Transfer Protocol or FTP applications allow you to move files (download) from another computer system or file server to your own computer or vise versa (upload). Several shareware or freeware FTP applications are available such as WS-FTP and Cute FTP for Windows, or Fetch for Macintosh. Most NIACC Online classes will not require you to use FTP. Your instructor will notify you if this is required.
Some courses have special requirements including some of those listed above. Read the course information provided by each instructor. Contact your instructor immediately by e-mail or by phone if you are having technical problems accessing the course. You can call toll free 1-888-GO NIACC (1-888-466-4222).
Congratulations if you've made it this far. There is a lot of information on this page. You may need to come back and read it again. If this is your first time with an online course we suggest that you complete the Self-Assessment Survey - Are Online Courses For Me?
If you are having technical difficulties accessing a course, or have forgotten your password you can contact NIACC's Web Support staff by filling out the online WebSupport form. The Web Support staff can reset your password to the original setting if you so request. It is important that other connection issues with Internet Service Providers, different types of hardware, and software configurations are dealt with in the appropriate way.
Initially, technical support will be provided through course instructors. Be prepared to provide information on :
Revised 08/16/2009
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North Iowa Area Community College, 500
College Drive, Mason City, IA 50401
641-423-1264 or 1-888-GO NIACC
www.niacc.edu