This “Survival Guide” is packed full of instructions on how to get familiar with your computer, the Internet, and your online courses.  Some of you may be familiar with many of the topics discussed; feel free to skip to the chapters you need.

Chapter 1: What Do I Need?

This chapter is much like a “Quick-Start Guide.”  It will briefly walk you through each step so you can get started on your work.

Chapter 2: What If Something Goes Wrong? 

This chapter will cover frequently asked questions and answer the most frequently found problems, such as: “What to do if a web site link goes down in your lesson?”

Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with Your Computer

This chapter might serve as a review for many of you and for others an introduction to online learning for anyone who isn’t completely familiar with their computer, the Internet, or some of the terms used in this guide and in your lessons.

Topic 1: Anatomy of a Web Browser

Topic 2: How to Get to a Web Page

Topic 3: What to Do When You Can't Find a Web Site

Topic 4: How to Print Web Pages, and Selections from Pages

Topic 5: How to Download Software from the Internet

Topic 6: E-mail and How to Use It

Topic 7: Viruses

Topic 8: Glossary of Commonly Used Terms

How to get started:

Step 1: You will receive a username and password for your courses from your school administrator.  They will probably come to you through your e-mail account.

Step 2: Go to: http://www.auroralearning.com.

Enter your username and password exactly as they were given to you, and click on the “Login” button.  You will now see the “Home Page” for your “StudentCenter.”  You will see your school’s name, your name and the listing of the courses that you have been assigned.

First, take a minute to familiarize yourself with this page.  Later on, once your teacher has graded a few of your lessons, you should be checking on the “Grades” link at the top of your screen to see how you are doing in each course.  The “Messages” link will take you to the Message Center where you can read and respond to any messages from your teacher or from technical support.

Step 3: Click on the name of the course you want to start; the graphic will expand to show you how many lessons are in this particular course. Notice the color key at the top of the Course Menu (this will come in handy later).

To Start on a lesson, click on the lesson number in the expanded box.  (Note: you can also click on the “Instructions” link on the top right side of the screen at any time.  Click it once to open the instructions and again to close them.)

Step 4: Once you are in the lesson, you should begin reading all of the text on the lesson (some of it will contain instructions).  Click on each link listed in the lesson, and read any materials on that page.  When you are finished with the linked page, you may close it, and return to your lesson.  You will now find questions (each question is colored in TEAL).  Type your answers in the boxes below the question. Please remember to click on the “Save” button after each answer.

Step 5: When you have answered all of the questions in the lesson, click on the “Review” button at the bottom of the page. This is your last chance to proof your work and make sure you have answered all of the questions before handing it in.  If you wish to change any of your answers, click on the “Back” button on your browser.  If you are happy with all of your answers, just click on the “Send to Teacher” button at the bottom of the page.

1. The most common problem you will find is links that don’t work.  In other words, you might click on a link in an English lesson to read information on a famous author.  Your computer will bring up a second browser window, but you may receive any one of the following messages:

Network Unreachable

This Page Not Found (also known as a 404 Error)

No DNS Entry

or, a number of other error messages.

There are currently about 56,000 Web sites that link to our courses. Periodically, some of them may go “down”, or be temporarily inaccessible. The first step you need to take is to contact Technical Support. You may do this by clicking on the link in your lessons to send a message to “Tech Support” (located at the top right hand side of each lesson).  Or you may send an e-mail to online@laurelsprings.com.  Please be sure to mention the name of the course, which lesson number and the name of the link. You will receive a response from Technical Support by the next business day.

2. The second most common error you will get is the “You’ve Been Logged Out” message. You can avoid this by remembering to save every ten minutes. If you do not do this at least every 20 minutes, you will be logged out. Once you’ve been logged out, neither the links nor the Save/Review buttons will work.

You also need to make sure your Internet connection stays active.  If you lose your Internet connection, you might lose any unsaved answers and the links will not work.

3. Please make sure that you are using one of two types of Browsers: Either Internet Explorer (recommended) Version 5.0 or higher, or Netscape Navigator Version 4.0 or higher. Please note that you will not be able to access all of the links if you are using the AOL browser, or a browser made by your Internet Service Provider (such as MSN, or Prodigy). You can still use AOL or another Internet service like it; just make sure you open your Internet Explorer or Netscape Browser to access your lessons.

Topic 1: Anatomy of a Web Browser

No matter how you connect to the Web, the software centerpiece of your Web surfing is your Browser.  In the “old days”, you needed different types of software to do different types of things on the Web.

For example, you used to need mail software to send and receive e-mail, a newsreader to read public discussions and special software called FTP to download files to your computer.  Plus, you needed a browser to view or browse through the graphic portion of the Internet known as the Web.  Now all those functions are built into browsers.

Most computers are sold with Netscape’s Navigator or Microsoft’s Internet Explorer already installed. You can also download them free from Netscape’s web site or Microsoft’s web site.

While you can use almost any computer to log onto the Internet in some fashion (even an Apple II, circa 1979) to be able to view graphics, you will need a computer manufactured in at least the last eight years. If you have an older computer, please inform the Online Technical Support Department; the online system’s technology is ever-changing and may not be able to run on your computer.

If you have never configured Internet software before, you may need someone to help you, even if you are a computer genius (believe us, we know!). Your Internet Service Provider should give you directions on how to set up Windows, or Macintosh OS to log on to their service at the very least. Unfortunately, as far as they are concerned, once you are connected, you are on your own.

Topic 2: How to Get to a Web Page

To get to a Web page, type its URL (or address) into the “Location:” bar in Internet Explorer, or the “Address:” bar in Navigator. (In older browsers, you must preface the address with http:// (as in http://www.auroralearning.com), but in newer browsers you should be able to simply type www.auroralearning.com and sometimes auroralearning.com.

Take note that the case of the letters (whether the letters are all uppercase or lowercase or a combination) is very important.  Because of this, it is always better to copy and paste (from your “Edit” menu at the top of your screen) URLs from other documents into the address or location bar.

Topic 3: What to Do When You Can’t Find a Web Site

URLs point you to directories on a remote computer just like you used to get to different files/folders on your hard drive.

If a Web address doesn’t get you to what you want, try working back through the URL.  For example, you may go to a site like this: http://www.laurelsprings.com/graduation/2001.html but if it’s not there when you get there, try: http://www.laurelsprings.com/graduation or http://www.laurelsprings.com and so on until you are positive that the document is no longer available or until you feel your search has lasted quite long enough.

After you’ve tried that, I would try using a Search Engine. There are many engines available to you, such as: Google, Mamma, Alta Vista, and Hotbot.

Topic 4: How to Print Web Pages, and Selections from Pages

You can print entire Web pages just like you would print any other document on your computer screen.

First, wait until the page is transmitted completely to your computer.  On the bottom of your browser window message bar, it must say “Done.”

To print from Navigator or Internet Explorer, use the File menu at the top of the page, and select either Print, or Print Preview.

For more complex Web sites, your browser might ask you to specify which frame you would like to print.  A frame is a division of the page (a page with multiple frames is usually framed by multiple scroll bars).  You will need to go back to the page and click your mouse on the side or selection you wish to print then head back to the printing menu to print your selection.

You can also print sections of a Web page by highlighting with your mouse the sections you wish to print, copying it, and then pasting it into your word-processor (Microsoft Word, for example) and printing your selection from there.

Remember: Web pages can be copyrighted just as any other publication.  You should not print them except for your own personal use without asking permission from the Web page’s owner.  The same holds true for any elements on the page, including text, but also graphics.  Never print or distribute these things or put them on your Web page without giving the proper credit and/or asking permission when needed.

Topic 5: How to Download Software from the Internet

In most cases, all you need to do is click your mouse on the name of the program or file on a Web page and your browser will start downloading.  A prompt should appear asking where you want to store the file (it is almost always best to create a new folder and to save the program or file to your desktop).

Sometimes a prompt does not appear. In this case, right click in Windows (or click and hold the mouse button on a Macintosh) on the name of the file. When a pop-up menu appears, click on “Save As…” and the browser will begin downloading. Once the download begins, a box should pop up showing you the progress of the download.

If you cannot get your browser to download the software, right click in Windows (or click and hold for Macintosh) on the file name until a menu box pops up. Select "Save As..." and you will be on your way.

Should the file transfer progress box disappear, don’t panic.  It’s disappearance does not mean your computer has stopped downloading the file.  For example, sometimes it disappears if you click on something else on the Web page or in another browser window.  You will probably find the transfer box tucked away in some other corner of your computer screen and the transfer still faithfully chugging away in the background.

One thing to keep in mind is that if the file transfer progress box flashes on your screen, then disappears, your browser may not have saved the file. That will be because it’s not tapped into the correct Web page to actually download the file.  You should be on the Web page that displays the linked file name, or a “Download Now” link.  In other words, you need to be only one mouse click away from the file download in order to get this to work.

When you download software from a Web site, it is usually compressed.  That means that the file has been shrunk so that it takes less time to transfer to your computer.

PKZIP by PKWare is the most commonly used compression format in the PC world.  When a file has a .ZIP extension (it ends with .ZIP) it has been compressed with a ZIP program.  You will need to download a PKZIP or similar program in order to un-compress it. A handy utility to have is the $29.00 shareware program WinZip by Nico Mak.  It will de-ZIP those files for you automatically.

Stuffit, a free program by Aladdin Software is the compression program used by Macintoshes.  Software compressed with Stuffit ends with .SIT, and you will need to download Stuffit in order to expand them.  This program is also useable with Windows; in fact, the Online Department uses this program quite frequently in our transfer of files.

Files that end with .EXE are self-extracting, which means that you merely click on them in order to uncompress them.

As a file download starts, always check that the file is writing itself to your disk with the same name as it is stored on the remote computer, so that you know what to do with it.

Topic 6: E-mail and How to Use it

If you are using America Online (or an ISP such as MSN, Prodigy, or EarthLink) all you need to do is click on the “You Have Mail” icon on the greeting screen to read your e-mail or send mail, even out on the Internet. (To send messages to someone on the Internet from AOL, type the full Internet address—for example online@laurelsprings.com—into the “To” line in the AOL mail screen just as you would type an AOL address.)

If you are using an Internet service, you can use special mail software like Eudora, or Pegasus, or the mail program built into your browser.

Topic 7: Viruses

Viruses are bits of program code that travel in computer files—usually program files—and plant themselves on your disk for the purpose of wreaking havoc.

The best way to avoid contracting a virus is to scan with a virus-checker any program that you download from the Internet, BEFORE running the program. Our favorite is Norton’s Antivirus from Symantec.  Be sure to keep its virus database updated by downloading monthly upgrades from Symantec’s Web site.

You should also scan any disk or CD-ROM of software that you buy before installing it. Several viruses have been spread through commercially distributed software.

You should be especially careful to scan any disks that have been in someone else’s computer.

You should not open any attachment that comes with an e-mail address from anyone you do not recognize.  Delete it immediately, and if it was ever dangerous, it won’t be any longer.

Topic 8: Glossary of Commonly Used Terms

Browser: AKA a Web or an Internet Browser.  Browsers help you view Web pages and navigate through the Web easily. They made the rich resources that are distributed around the Internet instantly available to all, whether a computer expert or just sitting down for the first time, at the click of a mouse button.

Currently the Aurora Learning Technical Department recommends Internet Explorer, which can be downloaded free from Microsoft’s Web page. However, you may use Netscape Navigator, which is also free to download from Netscape’s Web page.  (For more examples and some explanations on which browser is best for you please see Browsers.com or Download.com.)

Copy-and-Paste: Highlight the URL desired with your mouse, and while it is highlighted, go to the “Edit” menu at the top of your screen and choose “Copy.”  Next, place your mouse cursor in the “Location:” or “Address:” bar and again go to the “Edit” menu at the top of your screen, but this time choose “Paste.”

DNS (Domain Name Server): This is the first part of a URL.  For example, www.laurelsprings.com, laurelsprings.com is the domain name. Domain names may also look like a series of numbers. These are known as IP Addresses.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): An Internet file transfer service based on the TCP/IP protocols, FTP provides a way to copy files to and from FTP servers elsewhere on a network.

htm vs. html: A .html suffix at the end of a URL is the same as a .htm suffix, but some Web page hosting services require that Web pages be named with one or the other.  Typing the wrong extension is a common mistake.

http (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol): This is the protocol of the Web.  It should be the beginning of most addresses you go to on the Web.

ISP (Internet Service Provider): The company that provides you with access to the Internet.  Examples include MSN and EarthLink. For more examples go to TheList.

Plug-Ins: Software programs that extend the capabilities of the browser you are using, giving you, for example, the ability to do things like download and display or hear audio, video, animation, and special image viewing files. Software companies are developing plug-ins at an alarming rate, so check frequently to download the latest versions of your plug-ins.

URL (Universal Resource Locator): Also known as the address. The URL is typed or pasted into the “Location:” bar or the “Address:” bar of your browser to take you to that Web site.