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.
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.

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.
    • 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 activities, view video clips, and visit external Web links and other resources in each session prior to completing the corresponding Course Log exercise.
  • Submit Course Log exercises in a timely manner.
    • Check the course introduction for submission timelines or pacing guides.
    • No more than two Course Log exercises may be submitted during the final week. All must be submitted by the posted end date.
      • If there is no grace period, all Course Log exercises must be submitted by the beginning of the final week.
    • Allow sufficient time for the review and revision process. Late submissions may result in non-completion of the course.

      Note: Participants are automatically withdrawn if no Course Log exercises have been submitted:
      • 3 weeks prior to the end date for long courses (10 weeks or more).
      • 1 week prior to the end date for regular courses (3 to 9 weeks).
      • 3 days prior to the end date of short courses (2 weeks or less).
  • Course Log exercises must meet established criteria in order to be approved. All must be approved for course completion.
  • Beacon reserves the right to limit the number of rounds of feedback.


 
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