Let's take a look at the main components of the class website.

Links

Left Menu Bar:
The left menu bar contains the substance of the class, and it is where you will spend most of your time.

• Announcements: I will leave periodical updates about the class, words of encouragement, etc, in this link.  Check every time you log in to see if there's a new announcment.
• Questions: This forum is for posting general questions about the class. Please feel free to answer one another's questions!
• Sandbox: This is an open forum for you to use as you wish.  Post photos of yourself, your family, your pets, or anything else that means something to you or gives us a sense of who you are.  Post your favorite links.  Chat with a classmate about stuff unrelated to the course.
• Course Description and Weekly Schedule : In these links you'll find an overview of the class and the daily class schedule, including due dates and links to the individual assignments. Check this link to review instructions for assignments, and to plan for upcoming due dates.
• Extra Credit Opportunities: There are several ways to earn extra credit in this class, and posting to one of these forums is an option throughout the semester.
  
• Modules: These links contains the reading material for each unit and a list of assignments and due dates. The modules are introductions to different strategies for literary analysis.  You will read about the general principles of each approach, apply the principles to the chose texts, and write a series of responses to the material.

Right Menu Bar:

• People: This link takes you to the profiles of the people in the class.
• Activities: This is a general list of all the written assignments, reading assignments, and discussion assignments.
• Messages: You can use this link to send and read private messages to your classmates and your instructor.
• Navigation: Use this link to navigate to other areas of your iLearn, including other online classes.

You will quickly discover that there's a pattern to the class. Written assignments are generally due at midnight every Monday, with a few exceptions as noted in the schedule. Forum discussions run for one week; initial posts are due on Mondays, and then you'll have at least a week to add your responses to other students' posts. As always, check the weekly schedule frequently, as there will be a few exceptions to the pattern.

Assignments: When you see an icon with a hand holding a piece of paper, it means that this link is a written assignment. When you submit an assignment, only I can see it.

Forums: The icon featuring two people face to face indicates that this link is a discussion, or forum link. When you post something to one of these links, the entire class can read it. All the social action takes place in the forum; it is the equivalent of a group discussion in a face-to-face class. Here is where you post your forum responses, read the posts of other students, and responsd to them.

Resources: This icon signifies a reading assignment. Reading assignments usually have at least one written assignment and one forum discussion attached to them.
Take your time and explore each link until you understand its contents, and how the class is organized overall. You'll get familiar with these areas of the website as you navigate through them.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.