Guidelines, Policies, and Procedures

  Tips for a Successful Course Experience

Beacon Educator strives to provide quality professional development in a positive, welcoming environment. To facilitate this atmosphere, we expect honesty, integrity, and professionalism from all parties involved in our online community of learners. We hold the following expectations:

Professional Conduct

  • Act in a professional, ethical, respectful, and legal manner.
  • Respect all Beacon materials as copyrighted works.
  • Use standard English (grammar and conventions) in all communications.
Participant Expectations
  • Complete the Course Tour prior to taking the first course with Beacon Educator.
  • Review FAQs for answers to commonly asked questions.
  • Contact the appropriate person in a timely manner if problems are encountered.
    • Contact the course facilitator with issues regarding the course. (Click Facilitator located within the course.)
    • Contact Technical Support if needed. (Call 1-866-936-7352)
    • Contact Beacon Educator for general issues. (beam@beaconeducator.com or 1-800-311-6437)
  • Read course content, complete Check Your Understanding exercises, view video clips, visit external Web links and other resources in each session, prior to completing the corresponding Course Log exercise.
  • Complete Course Log exercises in a timely manner, so that
    • No more than two Course Log exercises remain to be submitted during the final week.
    • All Course Log exercises are submitted by the posted end date.

      Note: Participants are automatically withdrawn if no Course Log exercises are submitted seven days prior to the end date. (Three days for courses scheduled for two weeks or less.)
  • Follow any additional timelines for submissions that may be included in the course. (Additional timelines are typically located in the first course session.)
  • Realize that Course Log exercises must meet established criteria in order to be approved. Facilitators provide feedback and participants have the opportunity to revise responses to Course Log exercises. Beacon reserves the right to limit the number of rounds of feedback.
Academic Conduct

To receive course credit, all Course Log exercises must be completed independently by the participant and not plagiarized from any other source or person.
  • Collaboration via learning communities is encouraged, but Course Log exercises must reflect the individual's own unique response.
  • When a source is used, it must be cited according to a standard protocol.
  • Changing words but maintaining the sentence structure and ideas of another's work constitutes plagiarism.
For a first occurrence, participants will be asked to revise any response that is substantially identical to another's work. For any subsequent occurrence, participants will be subject to course withdrawal or will not receive credit for the course. No refunds will be made. District contacts may be notified of the action if the district is providing course funding. Beacon reserves the right to block accounts, thereby denying future registrations.

 
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