How to take our Online Law Classes
Read these first (see link at http://welcome.pbwiki.com)
Our Law Home page
How do I get Started
How our online classes work
FAQ
Costs & Curriculum
Syllabus
contact our Paralegal tutor Kelly S. for help with moodle - phone - 818-264-7600 ext. 4129, or email him at
Introduction to the Paralegal Program
You Tube Video
West Business Law - 11th edition now required
Our paralegal program is now moving over to the 11th edition of West Business Law starting Spring 2009.. If you use the 10th edition or the 9th editions, you do so at your own risk.
We now have two versions customized for our students. If you are just taking Business Law I as a business student and do not intend on taking the remainder of the law classes in the Paralegal Studies Program, then order WBL 11th edition - customized version - ISBN # 1424058570 - You can order this at our College Bookstore at http://www.lamissionbookstore.com/ and they will send it to you by mail.
If you are taking the entire Paralegal Studies Program and Certificate with all 12 law classes then order the complete customized version and that is ISBN # 142405897X - Again you can order that from the College Bookstore at http://www.lamissionbookstore.com/
You will save money ordering the customized versions of both textbooks over purchasing the book online.
Our Semesters & Sessions
Our Fall semester (15 weeks) runs from the first week of September until the 2nd week of December, our late start classes start a few weeks after the semester starts and run for 12 weeks instead of 15 weeks - and they are the same content and classes as our full length (15 week semester classes), Winter session are 5 weeks and are accelerated, and cover the same content and materials of a 15 week class (do not take more than two (2) classes during a 5 week session - 2 classes in a 5 week class are equivalent 4 classes in a 15 week semester), our Spring semester (15 weeks) runs from the second week of February until the second week of June, our Summer Sessions, normally has two sessions - Session A - (5 weeks) from the second week of June to the third week of July, and Session B - (5 weeks) from the second week of July to the third week of August. We try to offer all 12 of the law classes required for the certificate during the Summer Session.
Logging in and Enrollment Keys for each class
Students first must sign up for a moodle account. Then once you have an moodle account you may login to your class. Your moodle class will not be available to login until a few days before classes start. Each law class has an enrollment key. This enrollment key is needed to login to your law class. We do this so only registered students for each law class login to their moodle classrooms. Each law class has a different enrollment key. You will receive an email a few days before class starts at the email address you used to register when you first enrolled at Mission. If you do not receive an email then email your online law faculty for the enrollment key. Make sure you go to the Student Information System and update your email to your current one to ensure you receive emails from the program and your instructor.
Order of Taking the Classes
You should take Law 1, and 10 first, and you should wait until the end of the program to take Law 16,17, and 34. That is because 16,17, and 34 are more difficult and build upon what you learn in the other classes. Other than that order you can take the classes in any order. It is not like Math where you must take the classes in a sequence otherwise you will not understand the later courses.
Syllabus & Textbooks
Read the Syllabus-General for all law classes in our program. Then you can find the Syllabus for your class at http://missionlaw.pbwiki.com/syllabus. The textbooks for the class can be found at http://lamission.edu/law/textbooks
Moodle Classrooms - READ ABOUT MOODLE
We started using a a new course management system called "Moodle" starting in Summer 2007. The moodle classroom is where you will submit your online course assignments and quizzes. First you need to sign up in Moodle. Go to http://moodle.lamission.edu/login/signup.php and type in a username and password, and a real email address - Please also use your real name to get credit for your work.
You may decide to not make your email avaiable to anyone (if you would like to maintain your privacy). You can do this once you have logged into moodle, under "edit profile" on the left side. We would recommend allowing other students in class to see your email so that you can form online study groups, or communicate with others in class. You can get a free email account at yahoo.com or hotmail.com just for your moodle classroom and then configure that email to forward emails to your home account. That way you only have one email account, your home email to check for emails
To complete your sign up process for moodle, you will receive a confirming email at the email address you gave, and you need to click on it to complete your registration process. Once you have registered with Moodle, then you may login and enroll in your online classes. Please make sure you are registered for the online class before joining the moodle classroom. If you are not registered for the class by the first day of class, you will be excluded from the Moodle classroom until you can get registered. If you need more information on moodle look at http://1moodle.pbwiki.com .
Please contact our Paralegal tutor - Kelly at 818-364-7600 - ext. 4129 to receive training in how to navigate your moodle classroom.
Logging in during first week of class is mandatory
It is mandatory to login to your online moodle classrooms during the first week of class. Thereafter, enrollment will be locked, and you will not be able to add yourself to the moodle classroom. You must then contact the Director of the Program, Prof J. and only after providing a valid reason for "not logging" in during the first week, will you be allowed to enter the classroom.
Duedates
Print out your duedates for each class - http://duedates.pbwiki.com/. The Due Dates are equivalent to your "Assignments" If there is a difference between the dates under "due dates" and your moodle classroom, the dates under the moodle classroom are more accurate and apply. Do contact Prof. J. (the webmaster) to correct any difference in dates between the Due Dates and the Moodle classroom dates for work.
Posting your Introduction to class, "How to Study Law", "Good Legal Writing", "The Uses of Argument", Analytic Thinking and The Six Pillars of Character
The first thing to do in each class is to post your introduction, "How to Study Law" and "Good Legal Writing", etc. (this does not apply to the Law 2 class taught by Prof. Morinaka). We require this in each one of your online classes. If you are taking more than one online class you can use the same posting for each in each class you take. To post click on the discussion link, then click under "post your discussion here" and then click on "reply" - in lower right corner. Feel free to comment on each others postings under the discussion forums. This is your "class participation". The discussion forums constitute 10% of your grade. Individual discussions are not graded. You will receive a "one time" grade at the end of the semester or session for your class participation.
The posting of all of your work, assignments, quizzes is done under our moodle classrooms - located at www.moodle.lamission.edu - You cannot start work for any semester or session until a few days before the session or semester. Please learn more about moodle by reading information at http://1moodle.pbwiki.com - Also set up an appointment with our Paralegal Tutor Kelly at 818-364-7600 ex. 4129 or email him and you can either receive personal "one on one" tutoring on campus or on the phone on how to navigate the moodle classroom.
Please note that all weekly assignments during each session are due on Sunday evenings at 11:55 pm (Law 2 may be different - check that class for its due dates). Please no late work. Late work is not pemitted.
Word Processing
Some students encounter problems when "copying and pasting" from their word processors (MS Word or Word Perfect) into the moodle "submission" of assignments box. The moodle program is not really set up to maintain complicated formatting from a word processor. We focus primarily on "content" in our law classes. if formatting is important or required, you will be notified in the particular assignment. It is recommended that you use a simple word processor, such as "wordpad" which is found under "start/accessories/wordpad" in your windows program. Using this simple word processor will allow a simple "copy and paste" into the moodle posting "boxes" under assignments, under "submit" or "save changes".
Computer Crashes
In our online classes it is essential that students have a "working computer" to submit their work. From time to time computers "crash", lock-up, or have problems. The moodle program is very solid and most problems are with either the students' computers or their internet connection. It is the sole responsibility of the student to ensure prompt and timely submission of their assignments even when there is a computer crash or bad internet connection. Students should not procrastinate and attempt to submit work five minutes before it is due. Here are three hints to avoid this problem. One, make sure you have a backup computer resource, either a friend, family, or outside source that you can use at the last minute. Two, do a tuneup of your computer. Many of the computer connection problems can be resolved by downloading the new firefox browser, since many of the problems arise with the browser connection to the internet and moodle. Another problem is your computer set up with cookies, your cache, java, etc. so make sure you have set your computer up correctly, including "tuning up" your computer. Finally if none of these work, you can email yourself a copy of your assignments, answer to quizzes, etc. and as long as you do it prior to the expiration of the deadlines, you will preserve a record of your work, and faculty will accept a copy of your saved email as long as it has a date and time "prior to" the duedates.
Save Changes
Please do not use the "save changes" when submitting an assignment under the moodle program, as if it were a word processor. Every time you click on "save changes" it submits your work to the online instructor. DO NOT DO THIS. Do it only once when you are complete. Instead word process your work in a word processor, you can click to save on your word processor many times, then go ahead and copy and paste your work from your word processor over the the "save changes" posting box under your moodle assignment age and click on "save changes". The other problem is that you can spend a couple of hours working in the posting box in moodle, and when you click "save changes" it times out, and you lose all of your work, because you did not use a word processor, saving your work as you edit your document, you have nothing saved and you have "lost" all of your work, and have to do the assignment again.
Submit Quizzes
Our quizzes in law 1,10 and 19 are based upon a careful reading of your textbook (West Bus. Law 10th edition). The quizzes are not timed but do have deadlines. This means you can go to each quiz, and click on "attempt quiz now" to first open up the quiz. You will get a statement, "this quiz is limited to (1) attempt. you are about to start a new attempt. do you wish to proceed" you may go ahead and click "ok". This then opens up the quiz. You can then go ahead and "copy and paste" the quiz into a word document, or your word processor and save, and print it out" so you can review the questions while you are reading the chapter in your textbook. You can then come back, reopen the quiz, answer each question, and then click on "submit all and finish" - you can only click on this button one time since you only have one attempt to "submit the quiz". you must also do this before the deadline expires for each quiz.
The reason we do not time quizzes is we like students to study the textbook carefully and learn from taking the quizzes. Please note that the software is set up to "randomize" the order of questions each time you "reopen a quiz" so make sure when you come back after studying the questions and getting your answers to mark the appropriate questions with your selected answers".
The quizzes for each class are written by the authors of the textbook. Here are some hints on how to improve your test scores. - http://profj.us/26w/law1/improvemc.htm
Also note there is an appeals process if you disagree with certain answers - see http://profj.us/appeals - please send your appeals to our Paralegal Tutor, Kelly at - you can only appeal 3-4 questions each quiz, and you must do so within a week following your submission of the quiz, otherwise the statute of limitations runs. (does not apply to the final set of quizzes due in week #5).
We are also going to open up the appeals process for Law 16 quizzes. so you can send your appeals to the Court of Appeals (Kelly first), and then to the Supreme Court (your online instructor in each class, but only after denial by the Court of Appeals)
Assignments and Quizzes
To submit Assignments and if your class has Quizzes then click on the left side of your moodle class, click on "assignments" - read the instructions carefully, and click on "edit my submission", and "copy and paste" your work in the box, and click on "save changes". You can confirm whether your assignment was submitted by again clicking on the assignment and you will see your submitted work. Quizzes may be opened, and then copied for you to study and then submit at a later date. Read moodle notes for more information.