This short course offers students who are new to the internet a chance to practise the basic skills and techniques they will need when the Course begins. It focuses only on the particular techniques necessary for the Course and is in no way a general introduction to either the internet or computers.

Students who take this short pre-term Course training will be offered one to one guidance using the medium of the internet (emails) and sometimes by simultaneous phone calls. The pre-course training needs two weeks to complete and it is advisable to finish this at least two weeks before the Course begins to allow some assimilation of the training before joining a course group. General Certificate Course emails will begin to arrive two weeks before the course starts and this can be confusing for students who are still completing the pre-course training.

The content of the pre-term Course programme is set out below. The training consists of step by step instructions and tasks which keep the student and mentor in touch with each other and will lead the student from a basic novice starting point to ready to begin the Course. However, it will not teach students to type quickly, or deal with the vagaries of a computer system which lets them down from time to time, nor will it necessarily cover all the technical difficulties they may encounter when joining the online Course Group. But we hope that any difficulties that they do encounter can initially be addressed with their pre-Course tutor and subsequently be shared and addressed with their Course Group.

Pre-course outline
Computers		Create and save documents into files, organise folders for the Course. (email instructions)
Emails		Create address book list and folders for Course emails (email instructions)
Internet		Download Acrobat Reader and MSN Messenger (phone help)

Computers		Use the toolbar and menus on your computer (instructions)
Emails		Send, receive and open emails with file attachments (from mentor)
Internet		Use a search engine for website information. Visit and bookmark favourite websites and navigate around them (send email from site)
Campus website		Tour of Campus demo website including message boards and live chat with mentor in conference room (with mentor by phone)

Mentors

A mentor will be one of the tutors listed on the Staff Profiles page of this web site.

This course can start at any time as it is one to one. On application, you will be given a mentor, and you can arrange dates and times convenient to you both. The fee for the two week course is £55 (payable in sterling to Counselling Online Ltd. at the address below). Please contact Anne Stokes to make the necessary arrangements either by post to the address below or by clicking on the email link and sending her an email.