Oklahoma State University

Student Information

1. Logging In - see video "Log-in"
You have received a user ID and password from us to log in to our website. Your user ID starts with "G(course number)S" then there are three or four numbers. These numbers are your student ID for our course. To get to our course material, click on the "Course Access" tab in the menu items to the left. You will get to a page where it asks for your "OKEY Username" and "OKEY password." Please type in the user ID and password we issued to you. Type both exactly as they are written -- these are case-sensitive, so be sure to pay attention to lower case and upper case letters. In the middle of the next page you will see the names of the courses for which you are enrolled. Click on the course name to get to the course homepage.

 

2. Course Sequencing (for German I and II)

  • When students first log into a course, they are only able to view one quiz: Intro Quiz. In order to ensure students understand how our courses work, we require them to read through the 'student information' section on this website, then pass this quiz with a 90% (unlimited attempts) prior to having Chapter 1 tests and quizzes unlocked.
  • Students are required to complete ALL grade items of a chapter before the next chapter's grade items are unlocked. Students will not be able to see the tests and quizzes, but they still show up as a zero (0) under their 'grades' tab until complete.
  • There are ten (10) chapters total for German I, and German II consists of a Review Chapter, then continues with chapters 11-18. In order to successfully complete a course, ALL applicable chapters must be completed.

 

3a. Course Materials and Schedule (for German I and II)

  • On the course homepage, you have several menu items in a menu bar across the top, starting with "Course Home." The course material is listed under "Content." Click on "Content". Under Section 1 Lessons, you will find a link for each chapter.
  • When you click on that link you get to an Outline with daily assignments. Most of these assignments are links, for instance, in German I on Day 1 of Outline 1 you are to watch a video clip, watch two animation clips and do two computer exercises. Notice that it says at the top that the outlines for the chapters are set up for a whole school year.
  • If you are on a block schedule (that is, you have 80-90 minutes of class time every day) your should be using the block schedule outline.
  • If you do not have access to this outline, please contact us as soon as possible. For a summer course you will need to cover 3-4 days of the outline daily.

 

3b. For German III, IV, and AP

  • Go to the German course homepage (see "Logging In" above), click on "Content" in the top margin, and click on "Outline."
  • Under each chapter, you will find the appropriate links to content you will be responsible for knowing.
  • The first few links of every chapter is for accessing the chapter handout either as a PDF or as an MS-Word form. You MUST complete these in their entirety for each chapter. When you have completed the handouts and applicable projects, attach them to their respective dropbox folder on our website (if you complete them electronically), or you may mail/fax them to us (if you complete them on paper). Do NOT email handouts.
  • When completing handouts, you must ALWAYS answer a question in German if it is posed in German. It a question in posed in English, you may answer in either German or English.
  • When you submit a handout, the latest you should submit your work is after you have completed a unit. Do NOT wait until the end of the course. If you do, you may lose points for not submitting handouts on time.
  • If you are on a block schedule (that is, you have 80-90 minutes of class time every day) your should be using the block schedule outline.  If you are in a year-long or summer course, you should use the appropriate schedule.
  • If you do not have access to this outline, please contact us as soon as possible. For a summer course you will need to cover 3-4 days of the outline daily.

 

4. Info- & Worksheets(for German I and German II) - see video "Infosheets"

  • You will notice on the outlines that you are supposed to have info sheets in front of you when you watch video clips or animation clips. There are also worksheets that provide additional practice for you. BOTH ARE REQUIRED.
  • You should print both the info sheets and worksheets from our website: Go to "Content", then scroll down to "Section 2 Info Sheets and Worksheets." Print the sheets you need for that chapter. We recommend that you keep these in a 3-ring binder, since you will have quite a few of these by the end of the course.
  • Your local teacher/facilitator has access to keys for these info sheets and worksheets. Use the keys to check your answers.

If printing is cost-prohibitive, we have MS Word forms available as an alternative. Make sure you have the ability to save/retrieve these as you go through the course.

 

5. Other Activities
Please look at the outlines to see what you are supposed to work on each day. Occasionally there are activities such as games, which can be done only if there are several students in your class. If you are the only student, you may be able to do these activities with us over the phone by calling us toll-free at 1-800-423-6493.

 

6. Quizzes and Tests - see video "Tests"

  • It will tell you in the chapter outlines when you are supposed to take tests or quizzes. Please note that all of our quizzes and tests are closed-book and need to be proctored. To take a quiz or test, you click on "Quizzes" in the top margin (in the same menu bar that has "Content". You will be required to type in a proctor password.
  • You can get the proctor passwords from your local teacher/facilitator. Some tests have speaking portions. Please call us to complete these sections as soon as you have completed the written portion.
  • Please note, if you are taking German I or German II as a semester-long course, there are deadlines for completing quizzes and tests. If you are taking a test/quiz after the deadline, you need to call us for special access. There will be a 10% grade deduction for each grade item completed after the deadline has passed.
  • Mid-term and final exams are mandatory for all courses listing them; they are no longer optional.
  • Quizzes are graded automatically by the computer, and you are able to view you your answers and how they were graded as soon as you submit a quiz. Most quizzes allow you a second attempt, but only if you get at least a 30% on timed writings and quizzes and 40% on tests. The computer will take the highest grade of your attempts. If you have questions about how a quiz was graded or if you feel that you should receive partial credit, e.g. for a misspelled word, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call us at 1-800-423-6493.
  • Before you do a second attempt on a test or quiz you should look at your first attempt to see what you missed.  To do this, you go to 'Quizzes', click on the quiz or test name, and then click on 'Submissions' (a little above the box where you usually write the password to take a test).  Then click on 'Attempt 1'.  That will show you the quiz questions, your answers, and how many points you got on each question.  Also, on questions you got wrong we may have written a comment showing the correct answer.

 

7. Speaking Tests

  • In German I & II there are a total of 4 speaking tests that must be completed prior to moving on to the next unit. They are each worth 20 points and cover any of the vocabulary and grammar for all chapters since the last speaking test. Students have to call us (1-800-423-6493) to do this speaking test over the phone.
  • The space for their grade on the speaking test is listed under "Grades." Even though it is entered separately, it is still counted as part of the test grade.
  • Please do NOT allow students to take all of their speaking tests at once at the end of their course.
  • In addition to assessing a students' speaking skills, we also give corrective feedback that would be useless if students took all of their speaking tests at once. The following written tests have accompanying speaking portions.

German I: 3, 5, 7, 9
German II: Review, 13, 15, 17

German III, IV, and AP have fewer speaking tests, but all students enrolled in these courses have mandatory tutoring sessions where students will be required to speak German for most or all of the session. For AP German, tutoring sessions are not optional and you will receive a grade for these sessions.

 

8. Tutoring sessions
A very important part of our courses are weekly tutoring sessions. Please call us as soon as possible to schedule these sessions. The sessions can be done over the phone on our 800 line. If there is more than one student we would like for you to call us as a group on a speaker phone. We can also do these sessions over the Internet (iChat or SKYPE, for which our user name is german_online).

 

9. Grades

  • You receive grades for the online quizzes and tests. As soon as a test or quiz is graded the grade shows up on the your grade schedule. You can see your grades by clicking on "Grades" in the top margin. You can look at your quizzes to see how each of your answers was graded by clicking on the quiz name, then click on "Submissions," then on "Attempt 1."
  • Most quizzes allow you a second attempt, but only if you get at least a 30% on timed writings and quizzes and 40% on tests.
  • The computer will take the highest grade of your attempts. If you have any questions on how the computer graded one of your answers, please let us know. Either call us, 1-800-423-6493, or write us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
  • If it is suspected that tests, writing assignments, projects, speaking tests, or quizzes were completed with the aid of an Internet translator (or any other unethical means), you may receive a 0% for the entire assignment.

 

10. Special characters
Correct spelling in German requires use of several special characters. Instructions for making these are available on our website. Click on "Content" and look for "How to make German characters." If you have difficulty making these characters work, perform an Internet search in order to find out how to make these characters on your specific computer model.

 

11. Internet Translators
Internet translations do not accurately convey meaning from one language to another and the translations that result are most often nonsense. Look at this example below taken from an English sentence (1), translated into German (2), and then back to English using a translator both times (3). The second sentence sounds just as bad in German as the third one does in English:

  • It does not matter. The nut does not fit the threads on the screw anyway.
  • Es macht nicht aus. Die Mutter bringt an den Fäden auf der Schraube sowieso nicht an.
  • It does not settle. The mother mounts at the threads on the screw anyway not.

Apart from the fact that online translators do not provide an accurate translation of your text, it is considered cheating to let the computer do your work for you. Therefore translators should not be used whatsoever for work you complete for your German Online course. If you submit work created with an online translator, you will be given a 0% for the assignment and you will not have the option for a second attempt.

 

12. Additional Information
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can reach us through our toll-free number, 1-800-423-6493, or write an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or to the program coordinator, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

 

13. Browser Requirement.
We recommend that you use Firefox to work with our course web pages. Other browsers (like Internet Explorer) are not always compatible with our course management system, Desire2Learn. You may download Firefox for free from the Mozilla website.