Greetings!

My name is Deanne Lachner, and I'm the owner of Peace Love Grammar. I live in McKinney, Texas, with my husband and two of our four daughters (the other two are grown and have left home).

Here is your instructor (me) with her two lovely daughters on the day they turned 11 (Bridget) and 2 (Savannah). Yep! They have the same birthday: December 23!

If you have any questions during this orientation--and there is NO question too small to ask--please click "Ask Question" under the "Q&A" tab on your main classroom page in Ecto Learning. I will check at least once a day and answer all questions. If any of you can answer a fellow student's question, please feel free to do so. We are a community, and we're all in this together. 

While I have never been a project manager, I have certainly enjoyed both taking and designing distance learning courses such as the one you have signed up to take, which will result in certification in project management. You may be wondering what the course will be like, how well you will do, whether you will learn the material you need, and-especially-whether you will be able to use the technology required for distance education.

You can! This short orientation course will introduce you to all of the tools you will be using, give you a chance to practice them in a no-pressure (ungraded) environment, and provide a forum for you communicate with fellow learners and me. The forum allows you to ask and answer questions about yourself (including your previous experience with education and distance learning, if any), your expectations and concerns, and what distance learning is all about.

I am here to help you succeed! Contact me any time during your orientation at deanne.lachner@waldenu.edu, or call me on my cell phone at 214-460-XXXX. I have a two-year-old, so if I don't answer my phone, there's no telling what's going on in my house! Please leave voicemail and state a good time and number for me to call you back. I will respond to email and phone calls within 24 hours. There are no dumb questions and no question too small when you are going through this course. I encourage you to contact me-or ask your fellow students-any questions you have.

Let's get started!

1. Click HERE to download Orientation Course Mind Map. Save the map to your own computer and print it if you wish. View the map to see an overview of the orientation course sequence of activities. Note: one of your activities is to make your own mind map, so consider the elements of the mind map you find useful so you can emulate them in your own map.

2. Work through each activity under the "Assignments" section in your Ecto dashboard. Complete the activities in sequence, ending with the survey. Ask questions as you go by posting your question in the Q & A section of your Ecto Dashboard.

3. Follow instructions carefully, and do not hesitate to ask for help!

Sincerely,

Deanne Lachner

Instructor