Dear Student,

Welcome to the course!

Online learning can be very different from learning in a classroom, offering its
own unique challenges and opportunities for growth. While in any new situation
some anxiety is inevitable, it can be kept to a minimum. What follows is meant to
help you get off to a good start, avoiding confusions and unnecessary chaos.
Please note: There is an orientation to online at the top (see tabs) of the
home page of Blackboard that can be helpful for first time on-liners.

Below outlines our first class session and subsequent sessions. For more
information about the course see the Course Outline. Read carefully and if you
have any questions do not hesitate to email me.

Book:

On the first class we shall start on our books:

Dubrin, A. J. (2004). Leadership: Research findings, practice and skills (4 th ed.).

Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Thompson, L. (2005). The mind and heart of the negotiator (3 rd ed.). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Do what you can to have it by then. (Please don’t contact me on this because on
this matter I can offer little assistance.)

Chat sessions:

The chat sessions are once a week starting at 7 PM and lasting until 8:30 PM
(Pacific Time).

The first chat will allow for questions about the course expectations and Course
Outline, then a discussion of the first chapters.

Please read the chapters as the rest of the chat session incorporates a dialogue
about the concepts and topics covered in the reading and the application,
importance, and analysis in the workplace. Note: participation points are given to
actively participating in the discussion, not just logging on.

Each subsequent chat session will include time at the beginning and end to ask
questions regarding the reading, assignments, paper, or other items related to
the course.

Your paper:
Think about a topic for your paper. Look to the books (Table of Contents) to
spark some ideas. You can discuss ideas with other members of the class and
you can e-mail me an outline for review for my input. Please see the rubrics
related to the paper to understand what constitutes an A, B, C paper.

Homework – Threaded Discussions/Responses – Quizzes - Due Dates &

Grading:

All this information is located in your course outline. Please review to answer
these questions, if you still need clarification or question – don’t hesitate to e-mail
me at michelle.ross@natuniv.edu. Please allow a 24 hour period for response,
although I try to respond as soon as possible.

Offline? It can happen to any of us, including faculty, that they are knocked offline
by an internet server. Just log back in as soon as possible. Contact the help desk
if you are unable to reconnect. If it happens to me continue on with the
discussion while I log back on. Make the best of the situation until I manage to
return online.

I hope this information is helpful.

Best wishes, I look forward to meeting you in class.

Michelle T. Ross