Student Orientation Information
The following information is intended to introduce you to
CRU Online and procedures
for using the resources of our virtual campus. Please read the following information
carefully. You will be asked to take a short, 10-question quiz at the end of this
information page as part of your CRU student enrollment. All of the answers to the
quiz are found in the orientation information so you don't need to worry -- unless
you decide to skip this reading assignment.
CRU Online was created to promote continuing marine life education and awareness worldwide. CRU Online is not affiliated with any "brick and mortar" learning institution and we do not require additional tuition fees other than our basic, low-cost, annual membership to CoralRealm.com. Hey, we don't want you to have to spend thousands of dollars on education. Use your hard-earned cash for dive travel and exploration! So instead of building classrooms, we build quality information and resources to encourage you to learn. We've also built in some laughs and some good old fun. The rest is up to you. Is your head up to the challenge?  Earn points toward a degree
We don't expect you to want to get "marine smart" without a reward. That's why we've developed a point system that allows you to earn a variety of degrees starting with the most basic and moving up to more advanced degrees. (Hey, Harvard doesn't have the copyright on this idea!) Once you've earned enough points, we bestow a prestigious CRU Online degree on you. (We'll also email you a fish-skin diploma that you can print out and hang on your wall!) But we'll tell you more about earning points in a minute. First, we want to tell you about our degrees. CRU Online degrees
At this time, CoralRealm members can start earning points toward a BSF - Basic Smelly Fish degree. Yes, it sounds silly. But what do you expect from the wacky people at "We Love Big Smelly Fish!" who spawned CoralRealm.com ? And really...your friends will be so impressed! But we don't want everyone to stop learning with just a BSF grade so we are now planning courses of study for the MSF - More Smelly Fish and a PhSF - Piled High Smelly Fish degree programs. (Just in case you want to get even more marine smart!) (Sample Diploma) Earning while you're learning
Your education at CRU Online is intended to be totally self-directed and self-paced. CRU courses of study are designed around a variety of topics that you can chose from whenever you visit our virtual campus. You'll find a list of current CRU Online courses in the "Courses of Study" section. You may chose courses in any order, at any time. You may chose to read a feature article, study information from an online slide show, do research using the CoralRealm.com marine life encyclopedias, or take a course using a special CRU eLearning tool. At the end of every course of study, we provide a short quiz to evaluate your learning level. These quizzes allow you to earn one point for every correct answer. Deciding to "record" or "try later"
Every time you take a quiz, you will submit your answers for automatic grading. After you receive your score or grade, you will be given the opportunity to either "record" your grade to your personal student folder or "try again" later -- after you've had time to review the course material. You see, we want everyone who schools at CRU Online to be a valedictorian. The more questions you answer correctly on every quiz, the more points you earn, and the quicker you earn your degree. Please note: you may take the quiz more than once BUT when you click the "record my score" button after your quiz is graded, it will be automatically recorded in your student record folder. You will not be allowed to change recorded quiz scores -- they are permanent! Checking points you've earned
CRU Online keeps a record of points earned by each student. Students may check the number of points they've earned at any time by going to the Student Status Center. Points required for BSF degree
Every student earning a total of 250 points will be awarded a BSF (Basic Smelly Fish) degree. The CRU Graduate Review Board will notify students via email of their achievement. Shortly after, graduating students will be sent their diploma and an exclusive marine life screensaver for CRU Online graduates. After you've read the orientation information
Now that you've read through the CRU orientation information, you can take the student admissions quiz. A school of highly-trained CRU Admission dolphins are standing by to evaluate your answers as soon as you submit them. You must answer all questions on the enrollment quiz correctly to be accepted at CRU Online. At that time, you will receive 10 points that will be applied automatically toward your degree. You'll also be granted access to the CRU Online virtual campus and all of our courses of study.
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