IACSP :: Tutorial: Completing The Course

Once you have enrolled in a program and you are ready to take the course, log in and scroll down the page to the section titled "My Transcript". You will see a table displaying all courses that you have enrolled in. To launch a course, click the title of the course you would like to open.

Once you open a course, you are first brought to the course launch page. If this is the first time you have opened the program, review the course instructions.

Below the instructions is a table displaying links to the course lessons, lesson ID numbers, video presentation time, and links for the lesson notebooks. Before launching the first lesson, download and print the first lesson notebook in Acrobat PDF format. The lesson notebook is a reference document displaying all of the slides in the lesson with areas for recording notes. The layout of the lesson notebook is similar to a MS PowerPoint handout.

Next, click the title of the first lesson. This opens a new window and loads the lesson player application.

Lesson Interface

Below is a diagram explaining the features of the S2 lesson interface.

Controls and Navigation Below the instructor video are the player controls. You can pause the video and resume play by clicking the Play/Pause Button. To return to the beginning of the video, press the Jump to Start Button.

Above the Play/Pause Button is the Video Scrub Bar. You can navigate to other sections in the video by dragging the scrub bar slider to a new point. Once you set the scrub bar slider to a new point, there will be a delay of 5-30 seconds as the player changes the slide and begins buffering the video from the new point. (see TIP for more details)

Sometimes a student may need to rehear what an instructor said a few moments earlier. In these situations, dragging the scrub bar slider backward will usually move the video playhead back too far. It is often difficult to navigate with the scrub bar in increments less than three to five minutes. To go back in the presentation one minute, click the Back One Minute Button located below the Play/Pause Button.

If you are unable to finish the lesson in one session, bookmark your place in the video before you quit. You can set a lesson bookmark by clicking the Set Bookmark button located to the right of the Back One Minute Button. When you return later to resume the lesson, you can click the Go To Bookmark button to jump the video to the point where you last ended your session. Once the video begins to play from your bookmarked point, the slide will update to the proper location in synchronization with the video.

TIP

When navigating to different points in the video by using the Scrub Bar, Go To Bookmark Button, or Section Buttons, there will be a delay as the lesson player communicates with our server and the video begins streaming from a new point. This delay can take as long as 45 seconds depending on the size of the video file, how far you wanted to jump, and the speed of your Internet connection.

If you experience a lag time when navigating, do not press any other navigation buttons or move the slider again. Sending more navigation requests to our server can aggravate the delay. Wait until the video has started playing again before pressing any more buttons or moving the slider. If the delay exceeds 60 seconds, close the lesson and open the lesson again.

To navigate to different sections in the presentation, use the Lesson Section Buttons located below the player controls. Pressing a button will jump the video to the beginning of a different section and automatically update the slide.

Completing the Lesson

When a lesson is first launched, the instructor video on the upper left side of the window begins to buffer and play. As the presentation video plays, the text and image slides located on the right side of the window change automatically in synchronization with the instructor video. In most lessons, there is nothing that the student needs to do but watch the presentation and take notes.

In some lessons there are student exercises or supplementary videos at different points in the lesson. When the presentation reaches a point where there is an exercise or supplementary video, the main instructor presentation pauses automatically. View the supplementary video or complete the exercise and when finished, click the Continue Button to resume the main presentation. You can also resume the presentation by clicking the Play Button on the main video control bar located below the instructor video.

When the lesson is finished, click the Quit Button to close the lesson window.

Completing the Course

We recommend that you view each lesson presentation in sequence, starting with Lesson One. Presentation time for lessons can vary anywhere between 15 minutes and 3 hours. If possible, view each lesson without interruption until the lesson is complete. If this is not possible, bookmark your position by clicking the Set Bookmark Button. When you return to complete the lesson, you can click the Go To Bookmark Button to return to the exact position where you left off. If you forget to bookmark your position before you exit the lesson, use the section navigation buttons or the video control slide bar to return to the point where you left off.

Successful completion of online independent-study courses requires discipline. For most online students, it is not practical to block out two or three days of time to complete all lessons back-to-back as one would if enrolled in a classroom seminar. In this case, we recommend that you establish a personal study schedule to ensure that all lessons are completed in a timely fashion. For example, you may decide that each day you will devote your lunch break to completing sections of various lessons or you may decide that every Saturday and Sunday morning you will devote three hours to online study. Regardless of how you allocate your time, maintaining a strict personal study schedule will keep you on track in completing all lessons before the 30-day time period expires.

Once you have completed all lessons, you should be ready to take the final examination.

Testing & Certification

Once you have completed all lessons, you should be ready to take the final examination. From the course home page, click the link titled "Final Examination." This link will first direct you to the course evaluation form. Your feedback is important to us and critical in our effort to perfect our distance learning programs. Please take a few minutes to complete this form and provide us with your opinions of the course and suggestions for future improvement. Once you complete the feedback form, click the "Continue" button to submit your evaluation and proceed to the Final Examination.

The final examination is composed of multiple-choice and true/false questions. Proceed question-by-question and mark your choices by checking the radio buttons that best describe the correct answers. The number of questions in the final examination varies between courses and is determined by the volume of information contained in each course.

Once you have selected an answer for each exam question, click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the exam page. Next, our server will automatically grade your exam and provide you with instant notification of your exam score. Your course transcript will also be automatically updated.

In accordance with S2 Institute policy, the minimum passing grade for a distance learning program is 80%. If you scored less than 80%, you will have one opportunity to retest. We recommend that you review the course material to bolster your knowledge of any topics that you had difficulty with on the first exam before taking the examination a second time. When you are ready to retest, simply click the link for the final examination again and complete the new test as you did previously.

To discourage test cheating, the questions in our distance learning examinations are generated randomly and no two examinations are ever the same. Although some questions may appear identical to questions included in the first exam, the answer options may be ordered differently from the original exam, or the questions may include entirely unique answers. Be sure to treat the second examination as a completely new test.

Certificate of Training

Once you have passed the course, a Certificate of Training is automatically generated in Acrobat PDF format. You can download and print this certificate directly from the "My Transcript" table.

If you would like us to mail you a framed copy of your Certificate of Training, click the link titled "Purchase Framed Certificate" under the link for the PDF certificate. This will take you to a shopping cart item for purchasing a framed Certificate of Training. Choose the appropriate options for framing, and complete your payment through our secure payment system.