Health Care Systems: FAQs

FAQs

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Do I need to know how to use a computer to take Health Care Systems (HCS) courses?

Being a computer whiz is not necessary to complete HCS coursework. However, you will need basic computer skills to use email and to carry out functions within Blackboard course sites. You should also know how to operate word processing software to prepare your assignments. See Required Software and Other Software.

How do I turn in my assignments?

Assignments will be submitted via the Digital Drop Box in Blackboard. Please do not send them as email attachments. Exceptions to this request will be noted by course faculty.

I've heard the word asynchronous learning used with online courses. Is that the technique used in HCS online courses?

Yes! In our context, asynchronous means not in real time. In other words, we are not conversing or working together in a shared space at the same time.

What if I need to talk to the course professor about something I don't understand?

Faculty members are available for consultation by appointment (telephone or office) and email.

Where do I get textbooks for HCS courses?

Textbooks are available from the Health Affairs Bookstore. They may also be ordered from other bookstores but may take longer to be available if they are not in stock. Let the course faculty know if you have trouble obtaining your books. Note that some required course readings may be available online through the Health Sciences Library or through other Internet sites.

I noticed that there are several written assignments for the course; do I have to write them in a certain way?

In the School of Nursing the American Psychological Association (APA) format is the accepted format for written assignments. Since it is the accepted format you may want to consider purchasing the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.) or at least securing access to a copy of it. Another source of information about preparing your papers is the APA Website found at http://www.apastyle.org.

I am concerned about the information I might share on a course's Student Homepage. If it is on the Internet, doesn't everyone have access to it?

This is a reasonable concern. It is a good rule of thumb to consider all information on the Internet as publicly accessible. Students are encouraged to share as much personal and professional information in this area as they would like. Remember, the information posted on this part of the course site is one way for us to get to know each other! Please let faculty know if you have concerns about a request for you to complete the Student Homepage.

How soon will I hear from an email that I send to course faculty?

Communication is an important aspect of all HCS courses. Faculty try to respond to emails as soon as possible and usually within 24-48 hours during the semester. Over the weekend and on holidays, the response usually will be at the start of the next work week.

Do HCS online courses require specific software?

One of the big challenges in beginning to work with computers is the vast array of software available and the variety of software that people use. This consideration is important when you are working in a group and different people have different email programs and different word processing programs. Sending work between computers with different operating systems and different applications can be a challenge and ongoing issue. A good example is sending email attachments, which may not be possible to open if you don't have the software they were created in.

Another problem occurs when you are working in one version of an application and then take it with you to another computer that has a different version of the same software or a totally different software. Decide where you are going to be doing your work. Is it all on one computer? If so, there is usually no problem. Are you going to be doing some work at home and some at school or even at your place of employment? If that is the case check out what software each machine is running. If the versions are the same you should not encounter problems.

If the software is the same but the versions are different, you will need to remember to save your work so that it can be read by the oldest version. Another suggestion for word processing documents is to save it as a Rich Text Format file (.rtf). The best way to do that is to select SAVE AS (in your word processing software); go down to the SAVE AS TYPE box and scroll down to Rich Text Format (.rtf) selection and click on that. Now your document can usually be read in most Microsoft versions of software and in WordPerfect. Other file types that Microsoft Word supports are in the drop-down list where you selected Rich Text Format.

Microsoft products are used in the UNC School of Nursing. These can be purchased at a greatly reduced price from the UNC RAM bookstore if you are an enrolled student. You will need your UNC One Card to make these purchases of the academic versions of software at a price considerably lower than the retail cost.

Lastly, HCS courses require that you download and install one software application that you will use in all courses, Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you are not using your own computer for your class work, you will need to be sure that it is okay to download and install this application. You may download Adobe Acrobat Reader from the Internet--it is free! It is important to remember that after you download this application, you need to install it. If you have questions, contact Kevin Morgan at kjmorgan@email.unc.edu or at 966-9414.

Sometimes I have trouble accessing Web sites and get messages that say the site is not available or no longer exists. How can I complete course assignments if I can't access these sites?

Web sites come and go. Links that were working earlier get broken for a variety of reasons. The reason may be known but most of the time the reason is not known. The first strategy is to try later. Servers go down for maintenance or other reasons and may be unavailable, or the site may be so busy that is overwhelmed by the traffic. Trying later may solve your problem.

The next reason may be that the files were moved or renamed. Try shortening the file name in the address window to the main files and going in that way. For example, the URL for a page might be http://www.unc.edu/courses/nurs117/faq.htm. If the file was moved or changed, you might be able to figure it out by shortening the URL to http://www.unc.edu/courses/nurs117 and seeing if there is a link to the original page.

DO NOT spend hours trying to access any site. Try a time or two. Try later once or twice. If the site is one linked to your course material in Blackboard, let the course faculty know about your problem so they can check it out and fix it if it is broken or replace it with another site that provides the learning experience it was intended to provide.