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Student How-To Manual: 1
Energy Industry Fundamentals Course
Student How To Manual
Using the Course Online Environment
Revision: 1
Last Modified: August 31, 2012
Student How-To Manual: 2
The Energy Industry Fundamentals Course (EIFC) was designed and developed by the
Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD) as part of a sequence of three courses
aimed at training the workforce that either begins employment in the utilities industry or is
interested in following such career. The theoretical content was developed under contract by a
third party.
The University of Missouri - Columbia was contracted under the ARRA: Missouri State
Energy Sector Partnership and Training grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop
an online version of this course. In this version, the course includes the initial theoretical
content, activities, and tests, as well as scenarios designed to provide context to the content
being learned.
Disclaimer and Acknowledgments
The material for this course was developed by the Center for Occupational Research and
Development (CORD) for the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD). This webbased version was developed at the University of Missouri – Columbia and was supported by
the Missouri State Energy Sector Partnership and Training grant funded by the U.S. Department
of Labor (SGA/DFA PY-08-20, grant award number GJ-19902-10-60-A-29).
This online version of the course extends the original CORD material by including problembased scenarios to support student learning, and was designed to be delivered by an instructor
in a controlled environment. As such, it was not designed to be taken in a fully online,
unsupervised format. However, users are invited to explore the subject matter presented in this
course for general information.
Students who take the full course and pass a comprehensive assessment at the end of the
program are eligible to receive an Energy Industry Fundamentals Certificate, a credential
developed by and for the energy industry. The certificate program has been accredited by the
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) through CEWD (certificate issuer 1041).
Institutions that wish to offer the course for the credential must become an Approved Course
Provider through CEWD. ONLY APPROVED COURSE PROVIDERS CAN ADMINISTER THE
FINAL ASSESSMENT. For more information on becoming an approved provider, contact Beth
Lehr at elizabethlehr@aol.com.
Copyright and Attribution Statements:
Creative Commons license is Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NCSA 3.0)
© 2011
Center for Occupational Research and Development
Center for Energy Workforce Development
Educational providers and their respective instructors have the right to duplicate and use these
materials for instructional purposes.
ISBN 978-1-57837-645-9
Student How-To Manual: 3
Neither the Center for Occupational Research and Development nor the Center for Energy
Workforce Development assume any liabilities with respect to the use of, or for damages
resulting from the use of, any information, apparatus, method, or process described in this
material. For questions or additional information regarding these materials, please contact
CORD staff at EIF@cord.org
This workforce solution was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s
Employment and Training Administration. The solution was created by the grantee and does
not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of
Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with
respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not
limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness timeliness, usefulness, adequacy,
continued availability of ownership. This solution is copyrighted by the institution that created it.
Internal use by an organization and/or personal use by an individual for non-commercial
purposes is permissible. All other uses require the prior authorization of the copyright owner.
Student How-To Manual: 4
Introduction
The Energy Industry Fundamentals Course (EIFC) was designed and developed by
the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD) as part of a sequence of
three courses aimed at training the workforce that either begins employment in the
utilities industry or is interested in following such career. The theoretical content was
developed under contract by a third party.
The University of Missouri - Columbia was contracted under the ARRA: Missouri
State Energy Sector Partnership and Training Grant from the U.S. Department of
Labor to develop an online version of this course. In this version, the course includes
the initial theoretical content, activities, and tests, as well as scenarios designed to
provide context to the content being learned.
The Learning Management System (LMS), called NTER (National Training and
Education Resource) will be used to teach the online version of this course. The LSM
was designed and is maintained by the US Department of Energy, as part of their
education and training initiatives.
Login Screen
https://trainingportal.ee.doe.gov/nwtp/login.php
If you follow the URL above you should reach a page that looks similar to the one in the
image below. Use the user name and the password you were provided with when you
registered for the course to access the learning portal.
Student How-To Manual: 5
Personal Desktop
Upon a successful login, you will be directed to an area of the LMS called the Personal
Desktop, the default starting page. This page provides access to functionality that
allows for quick access to 1) personalization features (Personal Profile), 2) course
feedback functionality, and 3) student and instructor learning progress. You can also
add courses and individual course components to your Personal Desktop.
Use the
Personal
Profile tab to
set your
Public
Profile and
change your
Password.
A yellow icon shows that the course is in
progress. It will change to green when the
course is completed.
The Energy Industry Fundamentals Course
(EFIC), listed on your Personal Desktop.
Student How-To Manual: 6
Course View
The Course View displays all modules in the course, in a predefined order. Overall, the
EFIC course contains three types of modules: Learning Modules, Assessment
Scenarios, and Quizzes.
A Learning Module is indicated by
a “book” icon at the left. When
clicked, it opens in a new window.
The Learning Progress Tab provides
access to an overview of the completion
and grades for the entire course.
An Assessment Scenario,
indicated by a red puzzle piece.
When clicked it opens in the
same window.
A Quiz, indicated by a red
puzzle piece. When
clicked it opens in the
same window. The quiz
link is disabled (black) until
the associated Learning
Module is completed.
The condition/restriction
for activating the Quiz. It
indicates that for the quiz
link to become active,
the listed Learning
Module should be
completed first. The
condition will disappear
once the listed module
has been completed.
The Search box,
allowing course-wide
searches.
Student How-To Manual: 7
Learning Module
A learning module is an individual, self-contained, course component, equivalent to a
chapter in a printed textbook. It can contain one or more sub-components
(subchapters). All user interaction with the module (navigation and questions) is
monitored and stored and can be accessed by the instructor. A learning module can be
completed in one or more sessions. To close a Learning Module, just close the window
in which it was open.
The requirements for completing a learning module are: (1) read all pages, except
for the Copyright page and (2) answer all questions.
A learning module will always open in a new window (or
new browser tab, depending on browser settings)
Table of Contents or Learning Module
Navigation Menu: Allows to navigate freely
between the pages in a module. When
clicked, each subchapter will expand to show
contained pages. It also contains completion
indicators, as explained in the content area.
Learning Module Content
Area: Will automatically
refresh to show the content
for each page selected in
the left-side menu.
Student How-To Manual: 8
Learning Module (continued)
Table of Content or Learning Module Navigation
Menu showing various completion indicators.
Click on the menu items to view and read the
content. Can move freely between content
submodules and pages.
Use this to hide the
menu to expand the
content area.
Allows access to the Learning
Module list of glossary terms. The
glossary terms will be highlighted in
blue throughout the text and will
display the term definition when
clicked or when the mouse pointer is
maintained over the term for a longer
period of time.
A page-by-page way
to navigate the
content of a Learning
Module. Click Next to
show the next page,
click Previous to
show the previous
page.
Vertical bar that can be used to show and hide the menu. When the
menu is hidden the bar is located at the far-left and the direction of
the arrows changes to points towards the content area.
Student How-To Manual: 9
Learning Module: Table of Contents or Navigation
Menu
Green bullet: Submodule completed,
does not contain questions.
Green checkmark over grey bullet:
Submodule completed, contains question,
for which an answer has been provided.
Yellow bullet: Submodule in progress.
The page currently displayed in the
content area is shown in Bold.
Grey bullet: Submodule not started.
The Table of Contents or Menu of a
completed Learning Module shows
all completion markers in green.
Student How-To Manual: 10
Working with Assessment Scenarios
The Assessment Scenarios are designed to assess content knowledge in the context of
a hypothetical real-life situation. Because the Assessment Scenarios are implemented
as quizzes, all the functionality presented apply (see Taking a Quiz section on page 11).
Therefore only the differences between a quiz and an Assessment Scenario and
suggestions about how to use them are presented. Three passes are allowed for each
Assessment Scenario. The Assessment Scenario questions are not randomized.
Follow the same procedure as for Quizzes to access the results for an Assessment
Scenario after completing a pass.
A Suspend the Test option is available for Assessment Scenarios as well.
The introduction to an Assessment Scenario will look similar to the one below.
The menu on the Intro page is the
same as the one available for
quizzes. Shown here is the menu
after a first pass through the scenario
has been completed. Click Start the
Test >> button or the Start New Test
Pass to begin working on the
scenario questions.
The scenario Introduction Page presents
the scenario context, the characters, and
the beginning of the dialog between them.
Read carefully this introduction as it may
be relevant for the questions that follow.
Student How-To Manual: 11
Working with Assessment Scenarios (continued)
Assessment Scenario include two types of questions: multiple-choice and essay. By
design, the questions work in pairs. First a multiple-choice question will be used to ask
for a decision and then an essay type question will be presented to ask for an argument
for the choices made in the previous multiple-choice question.
IMPORTANT: Make a note of the answers provided to a multiple-choice question (or
use the << Previous button to move back to review them) as they will be needed to
answer the following essay-type question.
An Assessment Scenario Multiple-Choice Question
Each question includes a
continuation of the dialog
started in the introduction
or of the dialog of the
previous questions. To
answer the question read
this dialog carefully. The
same dialog will be
repeated for the following
essay question.
Multiple-choice questions
in an Assessment
Scenario can be of two
types: single-choice
questions or all-that-apply
questions. For singlechoice questions only one
of the options provided
can be selected at any
time. For all-that-apply
questions, any number of
answers can be selected
at the same time. A (select
all that apply) comment is
inserted after the question
to guide the answer.
For the following essay question, the question area will show
the question being asked and a text edit area. Use the text edit
area to type the answer.
Student How-To Manual: 12
Assessment Scenario Results
Follow the same procedure as for Quizzes to access the results for an Assessment
Scenario after completing a pass.
The essay questions in the Assessment Scenarios will be scored manually by the
instructor. For this reason, the test results presented immediately after the a scenario
pass has been completed, will be inaccurate. The essay questions will all be scored
with 0 until the instructor reviews the answers and updates the score.
Until the instructor scores the
essay questions, the scenario
mark will be inaccurate.
The points for an essay question will
be 0 until the instructor reviews the
answer and changes the score
appropriately.
Student How-To Manual: 13
Taking a Quiz
Quizzes are designed to test the knowledge and understanding of the content. All
quizzes are scored automatically by the LMS. If necessary, the instructor is able to
overwrite these scores. Unless otherwise announced by the instructor, the predefined
minimum percentage for passing a test is 80%. Three passes are allowed for each quiz.
The questions in the quiz will be presented in a random order.
A quiz can be suspended if it cannot be taken in one sitting. Quiz questions can also
be postponed to be answered at the end of the quiz.
NOTE: To be able to take, the related Learning Module has to be completed first (see
explanation for Course View).
The Quiz View (below) provides information about the quiz, allows the learner to
change settings (if available) and provides access to quiz progress information.
Use this tab to access
downloadable Quiz
results, if available (e.g.,
after the first pass of a
quiz was submitted).
Setting which, when
enabled, makes
working with some quiz
questions easier. This
setting is recommended
to be enabled.
Shows the maximum
number and the
completed number of
passes for the current
test. Will be updated
after each completed
pass.
Use this button to begin the test. The menu options change
after one pass to the quiz
is submitted to provide
access to test results and
to allow the user to start
another quiz/test pass.
Student How-To Manual: 14
Taking a Quiz: Options and Navigation
Each quiz includes three types of questions: True/False (single choice) questions,
multiple-choice (all that apply) questions, and matching questions. Once the test
was started, the first question will be displayed on the screen as shown in the image
below.
Click this button to postpone
answering current question until
the end of the quiz.
Use this button to navigate back to
the previous page or question. The
button changes to << Previous
after the moving beyond the first
question of the quiz.
Click this to suspend the quiz/test if
it cannot be taken in one sitting.
Use this button to save the answer
for the current question and move
to the next. This button changes to
Finish the Test >> when the last
question in the test is displayed.
Click this button to submit the
current quiz pass for grading and
access the quiz results.
Student How-To Manual: 15
Quiz Results / Learning Progress
At the end of the a quiz pass, the LMS provides access to the quiz results for all
submitted passes. The same quiz results can be accessed afterwards from the quiz
Info tab or downloaded from the Learning Progress tab.
Click this to move back to
the introduction if you want
to take the test again.
Shows the pass/
failed status.
Click this to
print the quiz
results.
Each quiz pass will be
shown here, up to the
maximum of three passes.
Click this to download
a PDF file with
detailed quiz results.
Click Pass Details for each quiz
pass to show detailed information
about each question.
Student How-To Manual: 16
Working with Quiz Questions
True/False Question
Choose an answer. Only one
answer can be selected.
Click Next >> to save the answer
and move to the next question.
Multiple-Choice Question
Check one or more answers.
Click Next >> to save
the answer and move to
the next question.
Student How-To Manual: 17
Working with Quiz Questions: Matching Questions
When the Text Output (Use JavaScript for Drag and Drop Actions) is enabled (see
Taking a Quiz) a matching question looks similar to the one below. To answer, left-click
on a term from the list of terms on the right side, keep the left-click button pressed,
move the term box over the appropriate left-side definition, and release the left-click
button.
Matching Question
Text Output checkbox is Checked
To try again, use the this button to
reset all the matched terms to their
initial position in the right-side column.
A matched definition will look like
below:
Click
this icon
to
disable
drag and
drop
(see
Text
Output
settings)
If
clicked,
all
matches
will be
reset
Left-click on the term, keep the leftclick button pressed, and drag the term
towards the left-side definitions
column. Note the change in
background color when the mouse
pointer is over the term definition.
When ready, release the mouse button
to associate the term with its definition.
Left-click on the term, keep the leftclick button pressed, and drag the term
towards the left-side definitions
column.
Student How-To Manual: 18
Working with Quiz Questions: Matching Questions
When the Text Output (Use JavaScript for Drag and Drop Actions) is disabled (see
Taking a Quiz) a matching question looks similar to the one below. The available terms,
shown at the top, are also available as options of the drop-down menus on the right
side. To answer, for each definition on the left, choose the appropriate term from the
corresponding drop-down menu on the right.
List of available terms, also shown as
options of the drop-down menus on
the right.
List of available term definitions. To answer,
select the term matching the definition on the
corresponding drop-down menu on the right.
Click this icon
to re-enable
drag-anddrop
functionality.
If clicked, all
matches will
List of available terms,
also shown as options of
the drop-down menus on
the right. To select a
term, click on the dropdown menu to open it,
then click on the term
matching the definition.
Click this to either move
to the next question
(Next >>) or to finish the
test as shown here.