OdysseyWare Orientation What is OdysseyWare? ODYSSEYWARE provides innovative eLearning solutions to schools nationwide. With more than thirty years of experience behind them, they offer 21st century learning opportunities for today's students.

Submit Assignments in OdysseyWare: Your grades will be based upon the questions you answer at the end of each lesson and the projects you complete. We do not use the Quiz and Test option.

If you need help, please click on the “Help” button BUT be sure to write a specific question. This will assist the Instructor in answering your question more quickly. Please understand, your instructor may be assisting students in another school or class when you ask for “Help” or send a message. If it’s something urgent, please tell your VLL Assistant so they can either send a text or make a phone call to the instructor. Your instructor will respond to your messages as soon as possible.

Teacher Notes: If you are having difficulty with a lesson, your Instructor may choose to send you a Teacher Note. This Teacher Note will “pop up” when you re-enter your lesson.

Here’s an example of a Teacher Note in a lesson.

To begin each lesson: STEP 1: Within Blackboard, click on the Launchpad: OdysseyWare button on the left menu which will open a new window in Mozilla Firefox and take you to a sign in page.

STEP 2: Type in your 6 digit student number for your username and password and hit login.

STEP 3: Look at the section Actions and click on the lesson at the bottom of the list. (If there is only one lesson listed, click on that lesson). The lesson will open in a new tab in Mozilla Firefox. If you want to go back to Blackboard you need to click on the Blackboard tab.

Below is an example of the Odysseyware home page. Please take some time to review the “bubble” below.

STEP 4: When class time is close to the end, log out of Odysseyware and log out of Blackboard.

Using the message system in OdysseyWare: There may be times when you need to send a Message to your Instructor or your Instructor has sent a Message to you – It’s very easy and you’ll find it to be an important tool for you once you begin working in Odysseyware.

Look for the Messages tab to the right of the My Courses tab. When you click the Messages tab, your Inbox automatically displays. Notice across the top row there are several drop-down menus and buttons. Let’s briefly walk through each.

• Inbox – click this drop-down menu to display your Sent items or Archived items. • All Messages – clicking this drop-down menu allows you to filter your Inbox to display only messages you have already read or ones you have not read yet. • New Message – click this button to open a new message screen • Mark as Read – click the box in the far right column of a row with an unread message and click this button to mark it as read. • Mark as Unread – click the box in the far right column of a row with a message you have read and click this button to mark it as unread. • Archive – click the box in the far right column of a row with a message and click this button to move the message out of your inbox and into the archive folder.

Inbox Each message appears in a row of your Inbox. To simply read the message, double-click the row containing the above information. Each row offers information about the message: • Selection column – click the checkbox () in the first column to select the message. Use this column to quickly perform the same action to multiple messages, for example, move several messages to the archive folder.

• New Message Indicator – displays a dot as a new message indicator (). If the column is blank, this is message has already been viewed. • Date: the date the message was received (Notice the arrowheads to the right of Date? This indicates you can sort your inbox in ascending or descending order based on the date the message was received.) • From: Tells you who sent the message. • Subject: Title of the message sent • Preview: Gives you the first few words of the message. • Actions: Click one of the three links, Reply, Forward, or Archive to handle the message.

Sent The Sent Messages page contains a list of each message you have sent. Again, as with the Inbox, each message appears on a separate row. The columns are the same. There are a few differences: 1. The only link in the Actions column allows you to forward the message to someone else within the system. 2. New Message is the only button available

Essay/Short Answer Questions – requirements, suggestions & tips You Must:

• Read questions to make sure you understand the requirements. If you’re unsure then most likely you did not complete all of the interactives and/or did not read the lesson in its entirety;

• Write in complete sentences; • Use proper grammar and capitalization; • Answer the question based on what you learned from the

lesson NOT from your opinion. There are cases where you are asked to “tell about a time when …”, or “what could you have done differently”, but seldom will you be asked to write about what you “feel”.

• Avoid using slang, “text talk”, and abbreviations; • Avoid using words such as stupid, dumb, duh, “idk”, etc.; • Avoid attempts at being funny, witty, or cute; • Avoid using emoticons and exclamation marks; • Proofread your answer for mistakes before you submit it; • Avoid copying and pasting answers from the lesson – this is

plagiarism.

Tips:

• Take notes while reading the lesson and completing the activities. This will reinforce the information and many times help you to gain a better understanding of the topic.

• Always answer the short answer question. If you leave it blank you lose valuable points which can mean the difference between a letter grade at the end of the grading period.

• The content in this course is extremely relevant to today’s workforce and can help you greatly in gaining a basic understanding of how to behave, navigate, and interact in an office environment to achieve the respect of your boss, peers and prospective employers. The suggestion here is to take the course VERY seriously.

Steps to Consider When Composing an Awesome Short Answer –

Step 1: Analyze and Plan. Identify all parts of the question. Plan your answer – jot down notes and organize them.

Step 2: Write your Answer. Restate the question as part of the introduction to your answer.

Step 3: Review and Revise your Answer. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Did I follow the directions of the question and read ALL the parts?

• Did I provide enough detail, reasons and examples to support my answer?

3 BrainPop Projects There are 3 BrainPop videos you will be assigned to watch and then take the corresponding graded quiz. Specific instructions are embedded with Odysseyware - make sure to read and follow all the instructions. The mistake most students make is failing to click “email results”. In order for your Instructor to give you credit for completing this assignment , you MUST email the results of the quiz to your Instructor. The Final Lesson – Discovery Education Video Project The final lesson in Odysseyware is an assignment to watch career videos within Discovery Education. Specific instructions are included to guide you. You must answer the assigned questions within the Odysseyware answer box. To assist you in your notetaking, please go to the Resources tab and save the Note Taking Guide for Discovery Education Career Video Project sheet to your computer. Frequently Asked Questions Q: I’ve never taken an online course. Is this going to be hard for me?

A: This online course will be the first one taken by many of your classmates – so if it’s new to you, you’re not alone! As with anything new, there may be a little worry or uncertainty. The good news is the Odysseyware course has many help features and you also have a support system – your VLL Assistant and your Instructor. The “help” button and Message Center is always available for you to use. You will enjoy the activities and gain an understanding of many important aspects of both computers and the business world. It’s an awesome opportunity – enjoy

Q :I submitted a lesson but now I have to complete it again – why? A: Odysseyware lessons are automatically set up to be reassigned to a student if the student receives a grade below 70%. Students are given the opportunity to complete a lesson 3 times before being allowed to have a recorded lesson grade below 70%. It is up to the Instructor to decide if you will be given additional grace or assistance on a specific lesson. Each lesson and student situation is handled on a case-by-case basis. Please note: make every attempt to answer each question based on information from the lesson versus “guess-work” or inserting “IDK” – the answers ARE in the lessons. It is more time-consuming for you to have to complete a lesson 3 times (and possibly still have a grade of a D or lower) rather than take time to search out answers within the lesson and learn the material. Q: I submitted a lesson but it isn’t graded. Why are some lessons graded automatically and others are not? A: Lessons including a short answer question require for the Instructor to review the student’s response and grade the short answer response. If there are no “written” responses required for the lesson, just matching, true/false, and/or multiple choice, your lesson will be graded once you click the final “Submit” button. Q: The overall grade on Odysseyware for the lessons I’ve completed is an 80% but I’m behind on lessons. Is this a problem? A: You want to make sure you stay up to date on your lessons. If you do fall behind, each lesson that is due but has not been completed is similar to a “0”, so your “true” grade would be less than what is stated in Odysseyware.

If you are just 1 or 2 lessons behind, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to catch up. Make sure you don’t make a habit of “falling behind.” If you do “fall behind”, you are responsible to make arrangements to make-up the work by treating the “late lessons” as homework. If you do not have Internet access or a working computer at home, please check with your VLL Assistant to see if there are alternatives at your home school, such as coming in early, getting a pass to the Media Center, etc.

The entire Odysseyware student help manual is located at a link found in your Resource tab on the left menu in Blackboard