Please read thoroughly before registering for a course, and retain with your course materials for future reference.

There is a link to this FAQ from the Current Student Resources area.

Administrative information

Overview of Forensic Solutions courses

How Forensic Solutions courses work

Getting Ready for Class

Welcome to Class!

Terms & Conditions

Accreditation

Administrative information

Rules and regulations

What Forensic Solutions LLC online courses cost

Course fees are listed on the course description page for each course. The course description page for each course includes a summary of course contents, start and end dates for each course, course fees, registration deadlines, a link to the registration form, etc. You can link to a course description from the Course Catalog. Course fees are also listed on the registration form. Course fees cover access to the online course materials for the specified length of the course. There are no hourly charges - you may be subject to hourly charges from your Internet access provider or from your local phone company, of course.

Some Forensic Solutions courses have required textbooks. You can purchase the book online from the Forensic Science Bookstore, obtain it from another bookstore, or (if you are extremely lucky) borrow it from your local library. We don't require that you buy the book through us. We compiled the Forensic Science Bookstore to make it convenient for you to find Forensic Science related texts; if it is more convenient for you to purchase the book elsewhere then feel free to do so - we just want you to get your hands on a good resource! However, if a book is required, please do buy it if at all possible. The instructors only recommend books that they use themselves and want to share with you. They may assign extensive readings and discussion topics based on the book.

Student Discounts - We offer student discounts for some courses. To qualify, students must be currently enrolled in an accredited college or university, working toward a degree. Proof of current enrollment must be sent in before the student discount applies, and may be sent as an email attachment (for example: .tif, .gif) to register@forensic-science.com, by fax to 831-480-5737, or by mail to the payment address noted in the Payment section. Student discounts cannot be combined with any other discount rate or special. For courses offering the student discount, please see the course catalog.

Payment

As soon as we receive payment, we will put you on the permanent enrollment list.

Please note: Payment by check or money order must arrive at our office no later than the Registration & Payment deadline in order to ensure enrollment and to avoid a $20 late fee. The deadline for registration and payment is generally a week prior to the course start date. Credit card payment must be authorized by the Registration & Payment deadline in order to ensure enrollment and to avoid a $20 late fee. We won't be able to grant you access to the course until we have confirmed your registration with payment.

Refund policy - We regret that we cannot refund enrollment fees if you choose to withdraw from a course once you have confirmed your registration with payment.

We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and checks and money orders in U.S. dollars only. Payments can be sent to:

Forensic Solutions LLC
329 Harbor Drive
Suite 211
Sitka, AK  99835

For other contact details please see our Contact page

We suggest that you send your payment in three weeks in advance if you are located out of the country, and two weeks in advance if you are located in the US.

There are free Currency Conversion tools outside of the Forensic Solutions website that you can use to estimate the amount in your own currency located at: http://quote.yahoo.com/m3?u and http://www.xe.net/currency/.

Many instructors allow late registrations through the first two weeks of the course with a late fee. Please inquire about the particular course you are interested in. Payment for late registrations may be made by credit card only.

Invoicing - We offer invoicing to select organizations that wish to send a group of their members through one or more courses. If you are interested in invoicing for your organization, please link here.

Dropping out of Forensic Solutions courses

Once you have registered for a course and we have received your registration fee, we regret that we cannot refund your registration fee. Please understand that this policy is necessary, because even though you may or may not have accessed the course materials, we have spent administrative and server time processing your registration, setting up your passwords, etc. Please be sure that you have adequate time and financial resources to take the online course, before you authorize payment. You may drop out at any time before confirming your registration with payment. To cancel your registration before you have paid your course fee, please send an email to: register@forensic-science.com.

Back to top

Overview of Forensic Solutions courses

Our courses are taught online, over the Internet. Lesson plans are posted weekly as web pages on a protected area of our website, and a web-based course discussion forum allows interaction among students and the instructor. You can log in on your own schedule and participate - there is no specific class time. Because students log in on their own schedule, it doesn't matter where you are located. In fact, we have a broad international student base.

In some ways, a Forensic Solutions course is like a regular college course: It has an instructor and students. It has a course outline and often a textbook. It runs for a set number of weeks. It even has a classroom - although the room is a virtual one that exists only in Cyberspace.

In other ways, a Forensic Solutions course is a bit different: A Forensic Solutions course takes place through lessons posted as web pages and messages posted in the discussion forum within Forensic Solutions' web site. In this forum, the instructor posts messages with instructions for the students, information and explanations, homework and other assignments, and so forth. The students post messages with questions (for the instructor and for each other), comments, finished homework, etc. Everybody in the course can read all the messages, and the messages remain visible even after you've read them.

As a result, you don't have to be in the forum at a specific time of day or even on any particular day. Instead, you can log in when you have the time, read the course messages, and post your own messages. If you don't have time to read or respond to a particular message this time, it'll still be there in the forum the next time you log in. If you need to spend a few extra days on a particular assignment, or if you can't log in for a few days, you don't have to worry about falling behind - all the lectures and all the exchanges between the instructor and students will still be there when you get to them.

Also, in a Forensic Solutions course, you'll find there are usually a number of conversations going on separately. The instructor can post an explanation or assignment for all students while at the same time replying to questions from individual students, and the students can be exchanging tips with each other at the same time they're working with the instructor.

Who does what in Forensic Solutions?

The instructor conducts the course, providing both the outline that sets the direction for the course and the content to fill in that outline. Through messages posted in the course discussion forum, the instructor provides lectures and background information, assigns homework and other projects, answers questions from students, and so forth.

Back to top

How Forensic Solutions courses work

Discussion Forum

We are using a discussion forum software called Ultimate Bulletin Board (or UBB). You will have access to the discussion forum for your course beginning on your course start date.

You do not need to download this software, as it is already running on our website. You will, however, need to be familiar with it (it's very simple).

When and where to show up for a course

To access your course beginning on your course start date, please link to the Current Student Resources area. At the top of that page, there will be a link to your course. Click on the link. You will be prompted for your case sensitive username and password info, which you will have chosen during the registration process.

Remember that you don't need to be in the lesson plan or the discussion forum at any particular time of day, so don't ever worry about being late for your course.

On the first few days of the course, the instructor will begin posting messages to welcome students to the course, explain a bit about how the course operates, and begin the first lesson. If you show up early on the first day and find no messages from the instructor, don't worry - just check back later in the day. You won't miss anything.

Reading messages: Where the action is

Once you get to the forum, what do you do?
Read the messages posted there. In Forensic Solutions courses, almost all interaction between the instructor and the students takes place through messages posted in the forum - lectures, assignments, question and answer sessions, homework, group discussions.

Read all the messages. Though it's sometimes tempting to try to shorten your sessions by reading only the messages from the instructor, you'll miss a lot if you do. Many of the best ideas, the best answers, and the best pointers to new resources come up in exchanges between students, or between students and the instructor. If you're stuck on part of the course work, there's a good chance that others are, too, and that they're already working out the solution in forum discussions.

You do, though, need to keep track of messages containing lectures and assignments from the instructor.

Posting messages: Asking questions, making comments

Got a question for the instructor? Post it. (It wouldn't be much of a course if you couldn't ask the instructor questions.)

Got a comment or question for another student? Or got an answer for another student's question? Post it. (In the best classes, the students learn from each other as well as from the instructor.)

Found some new source of information that you think other students in the course could use?
Post it.
The more you participate, the more you'll get out of the course.

Posting homework: Where does it go?

Wondering what to do with your homework? The answer varies from course to course. In most classes, you will be posting your homework as messages in the course discussion forum.

To find out what to do in the course you're taking, check the lesson plan for each available week. If you have questions, ask the instructor.

Real-time chats

Occasionally, instructors may schedule special real-time conferences as an addition to the normal course activity. In these cases, the instructor will post information on and instructions for the conference well in advance. Participation in real-time chats is not required.

How much time it takes

The knowledge and skills you gain will vary according to the amount of time you can devote to your course. But there is no definite rule for how much time you'll have to put in to stay up with a course. The amount of time required for any course will vary according to your background and previous experience. On each course description page we post a recommended time per week to spend on the materials specific to each course.

If you're concerned that you may not have enough time to devote to a particular course, first check the course description. If that doesn't resolve your concern, check with the instructor

Check out a sample course

We have prepared a short course sample so that you can gain an understanding of what a Forensic Solutions online course is all about. Taking a look at the demo is also a good way to make sure your computer setup meets the basic requirements (most do). Please keep in mind that this course demo is a representative sample only - our online courses vary in structure and content according to the preference of the instructor.

The sample course is located at www.forensic-science.com. Please scroll down the page until you find the words "Course Demo."

Please login as follows (case sensitive):

username: Homer Simpson

password: guest

Back to top

Getting ready for class -
A last-minute checklist for first-time students

If you're a first-time Forensic Solutions online student, you can use the following checklist to make sure you're ready:

• Have you received confirmation of your course registration?
  Upon successful registration, you will be automatically emailed a copy of your invoice by our system. If you did not receive a copy of your invoice, or if you encounter any other problem with your registration, write us at register@forensic-science.com.
• Have you met the course requirements?
  Many courses require to you meet certain requirements before the class begins. If there's a book required for the class, you'll need to have it on hand.
• Have you got a forms-capable browser, and is it working correctly?
  We recommend that you use Netscape Navigator 3.0 (or later) or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 (or later). To make sure everything is working correctly, try it out on the course sample.
• Do you know how to get to your course?
  The day the course begins, you will be issued a password. To access your course, please link to the Current Student Resources area. At the top of that page, there will be a link to your course.
• Do you know the course start and end dates?
  You can link to a course description which includes your start and end dates from the Course Catalog.

Back to top

Welcome to Class!

Posting Guidelines Important! Read before you post, please!

Your messages will be around for the duration of the class so... If you skip this you will end up asking questions that have already been answered. Everyone benefits when students use the forum properly so please read on...

• Please don't email your questions to the instructor. If you have a question, chances are that other students have the same question. When your instructor answers your question in the classroom, it's answered for your classmates, as well.
• Include a subject for each message that you post. Message Subject Tip: When you are posting a message for a specific person put the first name & last initial of that person in the subject box. When that person enters the classroom, the display of unread messages will indicate they have a message waiting.
• Please read the existing messages before posting a new message. Your question or answer may already have been posted.
• Please don't post "me too" or duplicate messages. The instructor usually replies only the first time a question is asked, and your fellow students will appreciate the reduced clutter.
• Please don't delete your messages. It destroys the flow; everyone can learn by reading the messages that others have posted.
• Do not post messages that have personal attacks, profanity, flame language or insulting names. Forensic Solutions reserves the right to expel any student from the course for posting messages violating these guidelines.

Why doesn't my message show the actual time it was posted?

Students and instructors live all over the world in many different time zones.

How can I find a classmate's e-mail address?

Once a classmate posts a message in the UBB discussion forum, you can click on their name to obtain their email address.

How can I save Lessons or other information for reading later off-line?

There are several techniques to choose from. (1) Print Lessons and Assignments. (2) Use your browser's Save As function to save Lessons & Assignments as either HTML or plain text documents . Use your browser to open HTML documents off line. (3) Copy and paste the Lesson into a plain text editor or processor and save it as a file.

How can I check my spelling before I post a message in the discussion forum?

Open any text editor or word processor that has a spelling checker. Compose your message and check it for spelling. Then copy and paste into your discussion forum message.

How can I make suggestions for new classes at Forensic Solutions?

You can email any suggestions to us using our Request Form.

Certificates

Certificates are prepared and mailed quarterly by Forensic Solutions after we have received a list of passing students from the instructors. All students will be emailed when certificates have been prepared and mailed. Please contact your instructor directly if you are unsure if you have fulfilled the requirements to pass the course. All questions regarding the preparation and mailing of the certificates should be addressed to Forensic Solutions. Please keep in mind before contacting us that due to the number of students in our courses certificates are prepared quarterly - please allow us sufficient time to process your final exams/ projects and to prepare your certificates.

Accreditation:

We offer a professional certificate of completion for our courses. However, we do not currently offer CEUs or a degree or college credit, as our courses are designed to supplement other programs, colleges, and universities, not compete with them. Please note, however, that many students have independently arranged for CEUs with the state agency that governs their profession, or graduate, undergraduate and/ or independent study credits with their respective universities. We provide supporting documentation for this process whenever possible. For more information, please see our Accreditation page.

Back to top