This document provides an overview of student support resources and initiatives at Fortis College. It discusses the student resources tab in Blackboard which contains contact information, tutoring options, policies, and tools for students. Smarthinking offers 24/7 online tutoring in various subjects. WellConnect provides students with counseling and referral services. The Learning and Information Resource Network (LIRN) acts as the online library. Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) standards ensure students are meeting credit completion and GPA requirements. The document also provides guidance for new instructors on completing hiring paperwork and initial course set-up requirements.

1. Fortis College
Policies, Procedures and Initiatives
Week Two: Fortis College Support Resources

2. Welcome to NFT101!
This training course runs for 4
weeks, and includes both
asynchronous and synchronous
requirements. All assessments
must be successfully completed to
receive credit and be assigned a
course. If you have any issues
accessing the course, please
contact your instructor.

3. Purpose
Fortis College Student Support
These Presentations are intended to expose you to online policies, procedures and
initiatives specific to Fortis College Online, where our weekly live sessions will focus
more on the role of the instructor. The review of these PPTs and completion of the
weekly quizzes are required for ALL FOUR WEEKS in order to be assigned a course.
As you go through these presentations, please be sure to read through the comment
boxes as they will contain explanations for the information found on the slides.
Week Two Presentation Topics:
 Student Resources Tab in Blackboard
 Smarthinking (Online Writing Lab for Hybrid)
 WellConnect (Fortis Online; Not Available for Hybrid)
 Learning & Information Resource Network (aka LIRN)
 SAP (Fortis Online/Non-hybrid Instructors only!)

4. 4
(Student) Resources Tab

5. Student Resources Tab
- Contact Information
- Student Services
- Free Tutoring
- Smarthinking
- Learning Resource Center & Library
- LIRN
- Writing Center
- Key Policies
- Attendance/Late Work
- Tools for Success
Fortis College Online’s Student Resources Tab is a unique, internal Web
based page that lives within the Blackboard LMS. It has been designed as an
interactive, constantly changing, one stop repository where students can
access Fortis tools, resources, tips, trainings and find as they work towards
their educational and professional goals.

6. Student Services
• Main number & hours are:
– #855-449-7521
– Monday-Thursday: 7:00am - 7:00pm MST
– Friday: 7:00am - 6:00 pm MST
– Saturday: 9:00am - 1:00 pm MST
• Primary function is to assist students with issues that do not derive
from or otherwise involve course content:
– Materials (textbooks/laptops)
– Time management advising
– Attendance reminders ( for 4+ days of no activity)
– Directing traffic (to instructor; PAD; Financial Aid, Career Svc., etc)
• Advisors partner with students at time of enrollment, and work
with them until graduation

7. Student Services
GOAL
Student Services exists to motivate, empower,
and provide students with the tools to
succeed, thereby starting, retaining, and
graduating as many Fortis College students as
possible to excel in their chosen field.

8. New Student Advising
• Work with students within the their first module of starting
their online program, or first online course in their hybrid
program.
– Ensure students know the fundamentals (comfort navigating
classroom, copy/paste, print screen, saving documents)
– Coach students on creating good study habits and time
management
– Establishes a bond with their student and understand what
motivates them
– Constantly monitors student progress and performance to keep
them on track
– Identifies areas of struggle and creates action plan to improve
student academic success
– Promotes communication with their Instructor

9. Continuing Student Advising
• Work with students until graduation
– Establishes a long term relationship with their student and
understand what motivates them
– Constantly monitors student progress and performance to
keep them on track
– Identifies areas of struggle and creates action plan to
improve student academic success
– Promotes communication with their Instructor
– Ensures student is meeting academic standards, using all
Fortis College resources and graduates on time

10. Instructor and Advisor Partnership
• Our goal is to work together to afford every opportunity and resource
available to our students
– Advisors always encouraging students to openly communicate with
their Instructor on curriculum related questions and concerns.
– Advisors and Instructors using each other’s names in
communication with students to show students we are close and
united.
– Advisor and Instructor use email and copy department leadership if
an issue that requires escalation arises.
• Stephanie Kidd, Director of Student Services,
skidd@fortiscollege.edu
– Advisor and Instructor sharing successes with students (students
gets a good grade, student seems more engaged in the classroom,
student says something nice about their experience here, etc.).

11. When will an advisor reach out to me?
• To notify the Instructor that a student has no access to a
computer/internet or any other mitigating circumstances
that may be preventing the student from logging into class
to participate
• Or circumstances that may have caused for the student to
be behind in the course (i.e. medical circumstances, etc.)
• If an Instructor has not responded to the student’s email
after 24 hours (during the week)/48 hours (weekend)
• Request for Instructor to contact the student regarding
course content assistance
• Unresponsive student notification to see if the Instructor
has obtained any contact with the student or request for
the Instructor to attempt an outreach

12. Attendance policy
• Online students are expected to participate in each of their scheduled
classes throughout the week. A “week” for online students starts on
Monday morning at 12:00 midnight Pacific Time and ends on Sunday night
at 11:59 Pacific Time.
• A student participates in class by doing the following:
– Submitting a post to the discussion board;
– Posting an paper, project, or other academic assignment; and/or
– Completing a quiz, mid-term, or final.
• While most weekly assignments are due by Sunday of each week, it is
critical that students also engage between Monday and Friday to make the
most of their education experience and to avoid falling behind in their
classes.
• Students are required to submit their response to the weekly discussion
question by Wednesday night at 11:59 Pacific Time each week.

13. 13
Smarthinking (24/7 Online Tutoring)

14. Smarthinking Hours of Operation

15. Smarthinking
• Topics Covered:
– Writing (Essay Center,
Career Writing,
Paragraph Submission)
– Anatomy & Physiology
– Algebra
– Liberal Arts Math
– Accounting
– Microsoft Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, Access and
Windows 7.0
• Services Provided:
– Use Drop-In Tutoring and
interact with a live tutor.
– Submit your Writing for
any class to our Writing
Center.
– Submit an Offline
Question and receive a
reply from a tutor.

16. What can a Smarthinking Tutor do?
• Prepare for upcoming tests. A live tutor (Drop In
Tutoring) can help students prepare for an exam.
• Help students complete homework assignments on
time! A live tutor can help students with problems they
are struggling with in an assignment.
• Following an assessment, direct students to
SMARTHINKING to work with a live tutor on concepts
they don’t understand or questions they missed.
• During the live tutor hours. Find these hours in the
Why are some subjects grayed out? link under Drop In
Tutoring.

17. How Students Access Smarthinking
• To access Smarthinking, students select “Tutoring” from the
left navigation, then select “CLICK HERE TO ACCESS...”

18. 18
WellConnect
(Fortis College Only; N/A to Hybrid)

19. WellConnect
FORTIS College offers WellConnect for its fully online students, a student
assistance program that gives students and their family members free,
confidential access to a full range of life services. Services include:
• 24-hour telephone access to masters’ level counselors at 866-640-
4777
– CODE for STUDENTS to ACCESS: LK87
• Local face-to-face counseling
• Professionals help identify key needs, problem solve, and find
solutions to work through concerns such as emotional stressors, test
anxiety, or relationship issues
• Free legal and financial consultations
• Referrals to valuable local resources on daily living concerns such as
housing, utilities, childcare, and others
• Health and wellness consultations

20. 20
Learning & Information Resource Network
(aka LIRN)

21. Learning Resource Center (LRC)
• The LRC is Fortis’ online
library, and contains the
following helpful
information:
• APA Guide
• LIRN (Library &
Information Resource
Network)
• Centerville (Home
Campus) LRC Link
– Stephenie Rostron
(Librarian)
• Academic
Integrity/Plagiarism
information
• Gale Virtual Reference
Library
– 24/7 access to 1000s of
ebooks (Cengage)
• ProQuest
– Easy to use research
database
• Books 24 x 7 (ebooks)
– ebooks

22. Ask a Librarian
• Students can also send a
question directly to our
Fortis librarians using this
text box on the main LRC
page.
• However, please be sure to
remind students to enter
all information. It is
particularly important for
students to enter their
email address and select
the appropriate campus.

23. 23
Satisfactory Academic Progress
(aka SAP – NOT for Hybrid)

24. Fortis College graduation requirements
 Accumulated, with passing
grades, the required number
of credit hours within the
student’s program of study
 Achieved a Cumulative Grade
Point Average (CGPA) of at
least 2.0
 Completed the program within
1.5 times the program’s length
as published in the Standards
of Academic Progress policy in
this catalog
 Verified satisfactory
completion of all program
criteria for graduation with the
Director of Education,
Registrar, Financial Aid, and
Career Services
 Returned any school property,
including books and
equipment
 Must currently be in good
financial standing

25. Satisfactory academic progress
 The College’s Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) standards
measure each student’s quantitative (credit completion) and
qualitative (cumulative grade point average) progress toward the
completion of the student’s program of study.
 The SAP standards are used primarily to determine a student’s
eligibility to receive federal financial aid under Title IV of the Higher
Education Act;
 [H]owever, the SAP standards are applied to all students and
represent a minimum standard of academic achievement required
by the College for continued enrollment.

26. Fortis college grade scale
Fortis Online students can successfully complete courses with a D+
or D, but must have a 2.0 CGPA to graduate.
QUALITATIVE

27. Maximum time frame
• The maximum time frame in which a student may
complete his or her program of study is the
period of time in which it takes the student to
attempt 150% of the academic credits contained
in his or her educational program.
• All courses for which a student receives a grade,
whether passing or failing, a withdrawal (“W”), a
withdrawn failing (“WF”), or a repeated course
are counted in determining credits attempted.
QUANTITATIVE

28. SAP Table

29. What happens to students who do not meet SAP?
• Answer: What happens depends on where the student is in their
Academic Quarter. Every 12 weeks (or two modules) a student begins a
new Academic Quarter.
• At Risk: If she is not meeting SAP after the first module of an Academic
Quarter (aka 'the halfway point'), then she will be considered At Risk for
going on to Academic Warning status at the close of the academic quarter.
• Academic Warning: However, if she is not meeting SAP at the close of an
Academic Quarter, then she will be placed on Academic Warning status
for the entire next Academic Quarter (12 weeks, comprised of two 6 week
modules). Student must be meeting SAP at end of quarter, or be dismissed
from school.
• Most At Risk students have the opportunity to avoid moving to Academic
Warning status!

30. Course repeat policy
• All courses in which a student
fails to earn a passing grade
(as defined in the course
syllabus) must be repeated
and successfully completed in
compliance with course
prerequisite requirements and
in order to graduate. All
courses from which a student
has withdrawn (whether with
a “W” or “WF” grade) must be
repeated and successfully
completed in compliance with
course prerequisite
requirements and in order to
graduate.
• If a higher grade is earned in
the repeated course, it will be
used to compute the CGPA.
Repeated courses will be
included in the calculation for
credit hours earned /
attempted for satisfactory
progress.
• Students with compliant
CGPAs can still be academically
dismissed from school due to
multiple course retakes!

31. New Instructor Roadmap
Items to Complete: Primary Contact:
 HR Employment Paperwork
(Florida CIE; DPOS; Ohio;
IRS; etc.)
Program Associate Dean
 Faculty Personnel File
Paperwork (Development
Plan; Employment
Verification; Resume; etc.)
Program Associate Dean
 Official Transcripts ordered
w/ Fortis as mail recipient
Program Associate Dean
 NFT101 Training Course NFT101 Instructor
 Initial Course Set-Up
(Announcement; Course
Review; etc.)

32. Please be sure that the following
hiring paperwork is in the
completion process:
 Colorado Form
 CIE Form
 Ohio Form
 I-9 Form with copies of ID
 Unofficial Transcripts( Official
transcripts are ordered)
All paperwork must be completed
and submitted no later than the end
of the 4th week of NFT101 in order
to be assigned a course. Please
direct any questions to your hiring
Program Associate Dean.