HS 121 - Fundamentals of Healthful Living
3 units - CSU/UC 3 hours lecture
Prerequisite: None
This course is designed to provide each student an opportunity to learn about the maintenance and improvement of health in an atmosphere conducive to the development of attitudes and values that will help him/her identify and resolve problems he/she sees as limiting the quality of his/her health and life style. Areas covered included personality and emotional development, stress and stress management, emotional problems, drugs, interpersonal effectiveness, marriage, sexuality, birth control methods, human reproduction and birth defects, sexually transmitted with added discussion of nutrition, fitness, heart diseases, cancer, consumer protection and utilization of the health care system. This course is designed to meet the Health Education Unit requirement for the credentialing of teachers in California.

We are currently using the 4th edition of the textbook Essential Concepts for Healthy Living. Alters, Sandra and Wendy Schiff. Essential Concepts for Healthy Living, 4th edition, Jones and Bartlett, Sudbury, MA. 2006. If you are going to purchase the book from an online vendor, please be sure you order the textbook early as some online vendors do not ship products in a timely manner. You will need the text as it contains excellent information relevant to our course of study.

This welcome letter is for students enrolled in Health Science 121 courses taught by me, Del Helms. I will be the facilitator for your sojourn through this class: on campus, hybrid or online. As a facilitator I will be available to assist you when you come upon any stumbling blocks, and when you need assistance. However, as a facilitator, my primary function is to guide you in a direction, but let you choose the path. The path you choose will afford you many learning opportunities and hopefully by the end of the course you will have garnered enough knowledge to improve your overall quality of living, and be able to make informed decisions regarding your health.

Please read about the version of the health science course in which you are enrolled.

Fully Online:
The online version of the class covers the same topics covered in the HS 121 face-to-face course. The chief difference in the online course is there are no regularly scheduled, face-to-face meetings. All assignments are completed online. Papers are submitted as attachments to e-mails (this is a skill you should have prior to enrolling in any online course). Discussions, collaborative activities, chats, and surveys/quizzes/tests are conducted within the Blackboard web-site.
The course materials will be presented on a weekly basis, thus you will not be able to work ahead. Please remember this is not an independent study course.
You may, however, work at your own pace and when it is convenient for you to complete the work. Access to course materials is available, via the Internet, 24 hours per day, seven days per week. I will be in the lab/classroom to assist you with the technology issues related to accessing the course materials, to provide lecture/discussions and at times to present video materials.
The three major projects in the course are accessible from the beginning of the course and students may choose to work on them at any time.

Movies to assist you with accessing your online HS 121 course:

Introduction to HS 121 Online

Logging into Blackboard

Navigating Your Online HS 121 Course

Hybrid:
The hybrid version of the class covers the same topics covered in the HS 121 on campus course. The chief difference in the hybrid online course is there are regularly scheduled, face-to-face meetings once per week rather than the traditional two day per week class meetings. Assignments can be submitted in class or online. Papers submitted online must be sent as attachments to e-mails. Discussions, activities, chats, and surveys/quizzes/tests are conducted within the Blackboard environment. I will be working with students in the classroom to access the online materials.
The course materials will be presented on a weekly basis, thus you will not be able to work ahead. This is not an independent study course.
You may, however, work at your own pace and when it is convenient for you to complete the work. Access to course materials is available, via the Internet, 24 hours per day, seven days per week. I will be in the lab/classroom to assist you with the technology issues related to accessing the course materials, to provide lecture/discussions and at times to present video materials.
The three major projects in the course are accessible from the beginning of the course and students may choose to work on them at any time.

On Campus:
This class will meet twice weekly and cover the topics delineated in the Course of Outline of Record for HS 121. Access to your grades and quizzes will be made available within the Blackboard CourseSite. Students in attendance at class meetings will receive printed copies of course materials. Students who miss a class session(s) or lose course materials will be required to download course materials from the Blackboard CourseSite. Papers/assignments may be submitted online will prior approval from the instructor.

All three formats of my HS 121 courses take advantage of the vast resources accessible via the Internet. Many of the web-based materials I use are located within the Blackboard CourseSite.
IMPORTANT NOTE: All students officially enrolled at MSJC will receive an msjc.cc e-mail account. Additionally, each students officially enrolled in a course(s) at MSJC will have access to their CourseSite(s) via the Blackboard Learning Management system.

Log in to Blackboard Learning Management System:
Logging in to your Blackboard CourseSite requires knowing your username and password. Your username is your first initial of your first name, followed by your last name in all lower case letters and followed by the last three numbers of your student identification, e.g. John Doe with a student identification number of 08257891 would be jdoe891. Your initial password is the (mmddyy) of your birthdate, e.g. someone born on February 26, 1977 would have the password 022677. If you have previously used Blackboard, your password will be the last password you entered.

PLEASE NOTE: Blackboard is a web based program and you do not need to purchase it. You simply need to have access to the Internet to use Blackboard.

You will best benefit from the web-based materials presented in this class by downloading the latest version of Internet Explorer for the Windows operating system. (You may already have IE 7 loaded onto your computer.) You will almost certainly be okay if you use a browser from AOL, Netscape Communicator, Firefox, or Opera. However, Blackboard is only officially tested using Internet Explorer. Macintoish users should be okay using the latest version of the Safari web browser.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to install the newest version of your preferred browser.

Additionally, you should set your display at 1024 x 768 24-bit true color (800 x 600 will be okay; however, it may require more scrolling horizontally.) This will afford you the opportunity to view the materials in a congruent fashion. Finally, you may need the following plug-ins to view some of the multimedia materials.
You may need to download some browser plug-ins to access some of the materials for this course. Browser plug-ins can be freely downloaded.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS ENROLLED IN ONLINE HS 121

In addition to a different role than you are accustomed to from an instructor, you may not see any of your classmates throughout the course, if you are electing to complete the course wholly online. Also, most of your contact with your classmates will be text based either in discussion boards, chat, or e-mails.
Because of the anonymity of text based conversation and the inability to discern body language and nonverbal cues, it is imperative that all communication be professional and appropriate for a classroom setting within an institution of higher learning. Failure to comply with these requirements will result in disciplinary action and potential dismissal from the class.

Each of the web-based lessons, E-Lectures, are intended not to mirror the book, but instead they are intended to focus your learning on issues related to optimizing your health. You will explore a range of issues throughout this course and you will have access to the latest data available in improving your well-being. Remember, knowledge is only the beginning of empowerment. It is the application of knowledge that leads to true empowerment.

Each of the E-Lectures (web pages to augment your textbook readings) for HS 121 are designed in a similar fashion to assist you with your navigation. The E-Lectures will be accessible within the Learning Units area of your course.
Each of the E-Lectures is chunked into the following sequences:

Beneath the health science graphic will be a title for the electure, a set of goals for that particular lesson and a list of learning objectives.

A list of learning objectives will afford you the opportunity to preview the expected learning outcomes for a particular unit.

The next pages will include information related specifically to the topic under consideration and the materials will vary accordingly.

The final page will have a list of assignments for that particular learning unit.

Good luck and take the time to review the course syllabus. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me via voice mail, email, or post a comment in the appropriate discussion area and be sure to check the announcements page regularly for any updates.

Click here to see a sample syllabus (8 week course) (12 week course) (hybrid course)

Click here to see a sample E-Lecture

MSJC Distance Learning web site

Del Helms' Home Page