Irvine Valley College

Administration of Justice

Colin McCaughey

 

 

 

Home Page

                                Orientation for ONLINE courses:

The following information pertains to all AOJ online courses that I teach.

Welcome to online learning in the Administration of Justice program at Irvine Valley College.  The purpose of our online courses is to expand your opportunity for learning while allowing you flexibility in your course schedule.  These courses involve online delivery of ALL coursework, and DO NOT include any on-campus meetings.  In order to complete these courses, you must be able to use a computer with the minimum requirements stated below.  If you do not own a computer with these minimum specifications, you are not disqualified from the course.  We offer student access to several computers on campus in the IVC Library and also in the IVC Computer Lab in the B300 Building.  These computers do not have 24 hour access however, and may be in use by other students, especially during busy times.  It is highly suggested that you have access to a computer with these minimum requirements at your home or work in order to be successful in our classes.

Technical Requirements for Online Courses at Irvine Valley College: Can also be viewed at http://www.ivc.edu/de/technicalreqs.aspx

The following is a list of basic requirements you must meet in order to be successful in completing this online course. In addition to the hardware and software requirements listed below, you should be very familiar with using the Internet, retrieving and sending email documents, opening and attaching word and excel documents to email documents, as well as a working knowledge of using both Word and Excel.

  1. Computer: PC – Pentium III or higher with Internet Access: Pentium IV preferred. MAC – G3 or better.
  2. Operating System: PC – NT, 2000, XP, or Vista: MAC: OS X.
  3. RAM: 512 MB or higher
  4. Internet connection speed: 56kbps or higher speed – Hi-speed (DSL) recommended!
  5. Sound Card: Recommended with speakers
  6. Plugins: Audio – RealAudio/Realvideo. Its web site is found at http://www.realaudio.com: Video: Video plugin software may be required to see video presentations of course materials. The recommended plugin is RealPlayer. Its web site is found at http://www.real.com. Quicktime (www.apple.com/quicktime ). Adobe Acrobat Reader (www.adobe.com/products/acrobat ).
  7. Browers: Internet Explorer (preferred) Safari (MAC), or Netscape Communicator.

Please Note: The AOL browser is NOT recommended. You may use AOL to connect, but you then need to use either the Netscape browser or Internet Explorer browser. If using a MAC OS, it is recommended that you use the Safari browser.

    • Cookies: All students, especially those who connect to the Internet through AOL, must be sure the cookies’ setting under the Preferences tab is set to “Accept All Cookies”.

Software Requirements:

You must have, and know how to use, a word processing program.  I primarily use Microsoft Word, but can also accept documents from WordPerfect, or any program that has the ability to save documents as plain text or in html format.  Also, I recommend that you have Adobe Reader and Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your computer. I may include PowerPoint presentations for some chapters that will help you to better understand the course material.

Help Desk:

Students enrolled in online classes at Irvine Valley College are supported by the campus office of Technical Services.  If you are having technical issues with your computer, student email, or the Blackboard course website, the information on this page will answer most of your questions.  There are also links to tutorials on how to use Blackboard, and this link for support contacts for Blackboard and your college email.  If this information does not answer your questions or solve your problems, please email me.

 

 

The Blackboard Course Website

 

My online classes utilize the Blackboard course website software.  If you are not familiar with Blackboard, please take the time to review these training tutorials.  You can log into the Blackboard course website from three different ways.  The easiest and most convenient is to use the link directly from your Class Listing in MySite.  To log in to Mysite, you will need your user name (first initial and last name and then a one or two digit number (i.e. jdoe33) – this information should have been provided to you when you registered at the school- then your password (your 4 digit PIN plus two zeros) – your PIN is the last four numbers of your social security number.  Once you have logged into MySite, you will see a computer icon next to the online class that you are enrolled in.  Click on the icon and it will bring you directly to the home page of the course.  Once you access the homepage, you will see a list of navigational links on the left side of the page.  These links will get you to the different areas you will need to be successful in the course.

 

Another way to access the course is via the Blackboard link on the IVC Homepage.  Select Blackboard and then select Login.  Use the same login username and password for MySite above.  The last way is to access Blackboard via this link.  Same username and password as MySite.  If you are having trouble logging in, refer to this help site.

 

There are several important areas to pay attention to in the Blackboard course website.  First and foremost is the Course Information link.  This link will contain the course syllabus, your directory for the entire semester.  The syllabus contains all of the important information for the class, specifically how to complete assignments, dates of assignments, and weekly reading assignments. It also contains any other information that you may need for the course, including textbook information, learning objectives, grading information, and an overview of typical weekly assignments.  If after reading the syllabus and you still have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Another key area of importance is Assignments.  This is where you will find your assignments that are due for the week. Also, you will find links here to submit your weekly written assignments.  The assignments area may direct you to access Course Documents for other weekly materials.  This is where you will find weekly lectures, test and quizzes, and any other supplemental reading or handouts.  The Discussion Board is used weekly to supplant any topics that we would generally discuss in the classroom setting.  There will usually be a discussion each week, and your input is mandatory!!  External Links will list links to websites that relate to the weekly topic.  I do track access to the external links!!  Communication provides a link to email me or any other classmate, and also provides a roster of classmates.  Staff Information will introduce you to your instructor and provides contact information, including email, phone, and office location on campus.  Last but not least, is Student Tools.  Student tools gives you an opportunity to keep up with your grade and weekly scores on assignments.  Student Tools also provides a link to the Blackboard user manual.  Please use this link first if you are having any issues with Blackboard.

 

****THE COURSE WEBSITE WILL BE ACTIVATED AND AVAILABLE ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE SEMESTER!!****

 

IVC Off-campus Library Access

 

 

At times, you will be required to access library databases in order to read articles that will supplement the text readings and the weekly material.  Both IVC and Saddleback offer off-campus access to their libraries for registered students.  Please review the directions for accessing the Off-campus material for both the IVC and Saddleback College libraries at the Off-Campus Library Access page.

 

Student Email

 

The Blackboard course website will be our primary mode of communication.  Blackboard allows the sending of email from within the software itself.  However, the only email address that Blackboard recognizes is your IVC student provided email account.  In order to receive emails from me about class information, material, and assignments, you will need to check your IVC email frequently.  There is a way around this by forwarding your IVC email account to your favorite email that you check regularly.  Please refer to this page on how to forward your IVC email account.

 

Online Orientation Presentation

(You must view this presentation prior to starting the course!!)

 

            Prior to viewing this presentation, make sure you are familiar with the Blackboard Course information and the Off-Campus Library Access information from above. Once you have reviewed this information, please click on this link for the Course Orientation.  If you have any questions after completing the orientation, and they are not answered on any of these pages, please email me at cmccaughey@ivc.edu

 

 

TYPICAL WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS

Each week, the student will be required to follow the directions listed under the Weekly Assignments listed in Blackboard.  This is an example of a typical weekly assignment:
            1. Read the assigned chapter from the textbook

            2. Download and read/view the online lecture for the assigned chapter (online lectures are posted in the Course Documents area of the Blackboard class website)

            3. Visit the websites listed for the week in the External Links of the Blackboard website, and utilize this information when completing the assignments and discussion board.

            4. Respond to the weekly question posted on the Discussion Board of the Blackboard website. Your original response to the question must be posted by 11:59 PM on Friday, and your response to at least two other students original posts must be completed by 11:59 PM on Sunday night.

            5. Reply to anyone who has posted a response to your answer AND respond to at least two other students who have posted answers to the weekly question on the Discussion Board of the Blackboard website

            6. Other online reading and research assignments

 

            7.  Tests / Quizzes

*****Weekly assignments start on Monday and all work must be submitted by 11:59 PM the following Sunday or you will not receive credit for the work!!

 

 

Textbook Information

 

Required and recommended textbooks will be listed in the course syllabus.  Textbooks are available for immediate purchase at the IVC Bookstore on campus.  Books may be purchased online from the bookstore (look for the link at the bottom of the page).  You may purchase your textbooks wherever you find them the cheapest, however, be careful with delivery times when purchasing at other than our bookstore.  You will need these texts the first week of the course, and slow delivery is not an excuse for not completing your assignments!! 

 

These are the textbooks that are required for the AOJ ONLINE COURSES:

 

AJ 2 – Introduction to the Administration of Justice

            Criminal Justice (7th Edition) by Joel Samaha (Cengage Publishing)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is also a Study Guide that is available.  It is not a mandatory book, but will help with the tests and quizzes.

 

AJ 4 – Criminal Law I 

            Concepts of California Criminal Law (11th Edition) by George Payton and James Guffey (Criminal Justice Services Publishing)

 

 

 

AJ 102 – Criminal Procedures

            Criminal Procedures (3rd Edition) by Judy Hails (Cengage Publishing)

       AND

 

            The Innocent Man by John Grisham (hardcover or paperback)

 

AJ 106 – Police Field Operations

            Patrol Operations (11th Edition) by Payton and Amaral (Criminal Justice Services Publishing)

 

 

 

AJ 111 – Law Enforcement Administration

            Police Administration: Structures, Processes, and Behavior (7th Edition) by Charles Swanson, Leonard Territo, and Robert Taylor (Pearson/ Prentice Hall Publishing)

 

 

 

AJ 112 – Police Supervision

            Effective Police Supervision (5th Edition) by Harry More and Larry S. Miller (Lexis Nexis Publishing)

 

 

There is also a Study Guide that is available.  It is not a mandatory book, but will help with the tests and quizzes.

 

AJ 119 – Introduction to Corrections

            American Corrections (8th Edition) by Clear, Cole, and Reisig (Cengage Publishing)

 

 

 

Return to Top of Page