ASTR 120: Fundamentals of Astronomy; William Koch

Getting started

Students log in to Angel dl.jccc.edu and select this course at the start of the semester to access course materials. Instructions specific to the course will be given on the Course Banner. Distance Learning informaton is available here.

On-Campus Class Meetings

No on-campus meetings are required.

Tests

There are four exams and a Final. Exams are taken through Angel from any location. Each exam is made available for a limited window of time and students have on the average 90 minutes to complete them once the student starts the exam. The Final is comprehensive with 2 hours to complete it.

Self-paced or deadlines

The course is arranged in time. Within each unit, students may work at their own pace, but due dates for homework, discussions and exams are in place to keep everyone in sync.

Frequency of course access

Students who are successful access the site at least 3-4 times per week. Students who do not log in and do any work within the first two weeks may be dropped from the course for non-attendance.

Basic online format

There are several required discussion board postings. There are some exercises and there are homework questions for each chapter. Remedials are assigned for students with poor exam performance and extra-credit is available to all students in the form of written reviews of interviews or articles. All work is submited through Angel.

Textbooks

No textbook purchase is required. All text and notes are online and free.

Computer skills required

Students must be able to use a web browser (Firefox is recommended) and Windows Media Player. For the written summaries, students need to be able to do word processing and file manipulation (saving, loading, attaching files, etc).