Dr Tom Kerns

 

Getting Started

 

Welcome to PHIL 106, Introduction to Logic

By now you have probably received your postcard from the Distance Learning Office and that means you are registered in the online Introduction to Logic course.

Your first step will be to login to our Angel classroom.

This is a fully online class, so that means most of it will take place in an online classroom using Angel. We will also be using a few other online resources. So the first step will be to learn how to login 1) to our Angel classroom, 2) to our textbook’s iLrn site for doing exercises, and 3) to the Tarski’s World site.

Below are instructions for logging in to each of these locations. It will be important to learn right now, well before formal instruction begins, how to login to each of these sites. Below are instructions for how to login to each site.

How to login to our Angel classroom

Class discussions about the assignments and exercises will all happen in our Angel classroom, so you will want to login and learn to navigate the classroom right away. Here's how to login to our classroom:

• go to: http://northseattle.angellearning.com (or simply click on the Angel Class Login in the links bar over there on your left)

• on that page you will enter your username and password
• your username is: your full 9 digit Student ID number
• your password is:  your full 9 digit Student ID number
• as soon as you are logged in you’ll want to go to the Preferences section and enter your email address.
  
• Notes:
• The Angel folks suggest that you download the free version of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.  Angel tells us that at this time the Safari browser is not supported. (I use it, though, and it seems to work fairly well most of the time). If you have loaded a special software tool bar such as the Google or Yahoo toolbar into your browser, this may interfere with your courseware and cause it to not work properly.
  
• It is very important when you log into your Angel account for the first time that you update your email address. Once logged in, click on the “Preferences” button on the left side of the page. Then choose “Personal Information." In the "User Profile Editor" you need to enter a current email address under the "Contact Settings". Remember to click “SAVE” at the bottom of the page. This will insure that auto tech support will be able to reach you.
  
• A Student Essentials Guide about how to use Angel is available here. Click the plus (+) sign in the left column to see features in Angel you can get help with, then click the plus (+) sign next to those features to see more. The “Common Tasks” feature may be a good place to start.
• You can also get help by clicking on the question mark button on the left side of the Angel classroom page, once you're logged in.

How to login to iLrn

iLrn is the website associated with our large textbook, A Concise Introduction to Logic, Tenth edition, by Patrick Hurley. Many of the exercises you will do this quarter will be done on the iLrn website, so you’ll want to learn right away how to login to and navigate the iLrn site.

How to login to iLrn

• go to: http://www.ilrn.com
• click on Create an Account
• On the next page, select Washington from the dropdown menu
• type North Seattle Community College into the School name blank, and click Search
• on the next page select the radio button for North Seattle Community College
• click continue
• the far right option says “CourseKey and Content Access Code” – choose that option
• type in the Course Key from your instructor and the Content Access code from the iLrn access card that came bundled with your text
• click continue
• type in your personal information
• confirm and submit for registration

Suggestion: copy and paste your CourseKey into the field (it’s easy for typos to occur which will prevent it from going through).

iLrn Tech Support

Once you're logged into iLrn they do provide some tech support services. To access those services, go to: http://cengage.com/support

In the "Select a product" dropdown menu under the Student section, select "CengageNOW," then click Go.

That takes you to a page that has the following tech support options:

• a phone number (1-800-354-9706 Option 5, then Option 2)
• a link to a 24/7 online tech support chat service, and
• a link for submitting questions via email

The Learning Logic program

The Learning Logic program is an additional optional learning aid that comes on the DVD bundled in with your Hurley textbook. To access this program simply insert the DVD in your computer's DVD drive and click on MacMain (if you're using a Mac) or on MAIN.SWF (if you're using a PC).

The same Learning Logic program is also available on the iLrn site. To access it there, simply login to iLrn (using the instructions above) and [add instructions here]

How to login to Tarski’s World and the Submit application

A little later in the quarter you will be doing exercises in the book Tarski's World, by Dave Barker-Plummer, Jon Barwise & John Etchemendy. Those exercises will be automatically checked by an an online service. You login to that service by means of a little application called "Submit." Both applications, Tarski's World and Submit, are included on the DVD included with your Tarski's World book.

Here's how you login to that site:

• launch the Submit application from the DVD that came with your Tarski's World book
• fill in the registration ID that came with your Tarski's World book
• enter your name and email address, and your instructor's name and email address
• then save, and you'll be ready to go.

Your books:

The books for our course are available at the NSCC bookstore, or from most online booksellers, or from local bookstores. A few of our readings will be available in full text editions online and you will be able to access those via the internet. As we get into the course I will let you know which readings will be available online. If you wish to contact the NSCC bookstore they can be reached at 206-527-3637. Their hours can be found on the North Seattle website.

If you do not have access to a computer at home, an online course such as this may be a real challenge for you. Still, there are open computer labs on campus that are available to all enrolled students.

Open computer labs:

There are two open computer labs available to all North students.The labs are located in the Instructional Building (IB) room 3303 (this lab has both PC's and Macs) and in the High Tech Learning Center (HT) room 1845B (all PC's). North's open computer labs have the widest variety of software on the campus and are open for walk-in use. The hours vary each quarter so please check either the NSCC homepage or the doors outside the labs for specific lab hours. Policies and procedures for the labs are posted in the labs and the lab staff are very good about being available for help.

For help:

A reminder: You can always ask fellow students for help, or you can ask the support staff in any of the computer labs on campus for help.

The Distance Learning Office at North Seattle is also prepared to answer your questions. Call or email for help. You may email the Distance Learning Office or phone them at 206-527-3738.

You may want to print out this message if it isn't comfortable to read on your screen. Some folks find that if a page is more than one screen long it is sometimes easier to just print it out and read it away from the computer. You may also want to do this for some of the online readings you'll be reading this quarter. You may also want to print the class schedule (though I'll be adding to it periodically), just so you have a printed version of when things are due.

A preliminary requirement:

You'll need to write a short biography about yourself, maybe a page or so long, or as long as you like. You'll post this in our classroom in the folder titled "Bios." Simplest way to do this is to first open up that Bio folder. Click on "new message." Write your bio however you like. If you can put a photo of yourself in your biography, that would be great. (In fact, maybe what we'll do here is just give 623 extra credit points to every person who puts a photo in their biography sometime in the first week or two of the course.) The photos help make our classroom community a bit more personable, and the more personable the better in these online environments. Then send your message to the class. By clicking send, it will place your message (bio) in the Bio folder. In that folder you'll see the biographies of all of the class members.

Please have your biography posted as soon as possible, but at least before Wednesday afternoon.

After submitting your bio, your next assignment will be to choose the "HomeGroup" you'd like to join for the quarter.