Overview of Course
Ten dialogs introduce over 200 new ASL signs. The dialogs cover common phrases used to talk about the family and relatives, terminology popular in the Deaf community, and common means of communicating with a Deaf person including the use of a TTY which allows Deaf people to have conversations over a phone line. The basic ASL course dialogs cover a wide range of ASL sentence structures that will help beginning signers communicate more comfortably in ASL. Information about the lives of people in the Deaf community is presented in each of the ten lessons of our basic ASL course. Topics covered include Deaf people from different countries communicating in sign language with one another, truths and misconceptions about lipreading, hearing loss, strategies Deaf people use to get someone’s attention, closed captioning in theaters, hearing dogs, how parts of a sign can be altered so that the meaning of a sign changes, and a popular Deaf joke.
Overview of Lessons
| Lesson | Title/Theme | Dialog | Grammar | Vocabulary | Culture |
| 1 | Talking about your family | Asking questions about someone’s family. | Noun/adjective structures: Placement of numbers. Negation. Question seeking information | Immediate family signs. Numbers. | How do Deaf people learn ASL? |
| 2 | More about the family | Describing where someone lives. | Pointing in space (indexic referencing). Topic/comment sentence. | Signs related to where someone lives. Pronouns. | How do Deaf people from different countries talk to each other if countries have different sign languages? |
| 3 | What the family does | Talking about a profession. | Pointing in space. Topic/comment sentence. Simple sentence. | Verb + person marker. Directional verb-sign. | Why don’t Deaf people just lipread instead of signing? |
| 4 | Relations | Describing the size of one’s family | Topic/comment sentence. Information seeking question. | Signs related to family and relatives. | American Sign Language: Movement of the hand |
| 5 | Deaf family member | How to correct a misunderstanding in a conversation. | Topic/comment sentence. Noun/adjective technique. Directional verb-sign. Facial clues. | Three directional verb-signs. Signs for relatives. | A word about hearing loss. |
| 6 | Communicating in signs and other ways | Conversation about the use of a TTY | Topic/comment sentence. Simple sentence. Complex sentence. | TTY related signs. | What is a TTY? |
| 7 | How to communicate with a Deaf person | Conversation about signing and fingerspelling. | Conditional sentence. Time line. Topic/comment sentence. | Age. Conditional sign SUPPOSE. | Attention getting behavior in the Deaf community |
| 8 | More signs from the Deaf community | Questions for talking about the Deaf community. | Rhetorical question. Use of the sign FINISH. | ASL signs common in discussions about the Deaf community | Captioning in movie theaters. |
| 9 | Talking about transportation | Transportation related conversation. | Topic/comment sentence. Negation. Simple sentence. Directional verb-sign. | Transportation related signs. Negative incorporation. | Deaf joke: The train trip. |
| 10 | Until next time | Talking about someone who didn’t show up as expected. | Negation. Simple sentence. Facial clues. | Negative signs. | Hearing dogs used by Deaf people |
Lesson Organization
Each lesson is based on seven easy steps:
- Learning the Signs
There is a dialog between two people in each lesson. You are shown how to sign each ASL sign used in the dialog. - Creating Sentences
Each dialog is separated into sentences. A clear description is given of how the sentences are translated from English to ASL. You are shown how to sign each sentence. - The Complete Dialog
You watch and practice a dialog between two Deaf signers. - Additional Signs
Each lesson has additional signs for you to learn that are not in the dialog. - Practice Activities
Practice activities help you exercise your new knowledge of ASL. You translate English sentences to ASL. After you have done this, a single click shows you one way for the signing the sentence in ASL. - Quiz
Take the quiz to find out if you are ready to move on to the next lesson. - Culture Information
Each lesson ends with information about Deaf people and the way they live. This section provides insight and motivation for helping you learn ASL.
Final Exam and Certificate
After completion of the lessons, you can take the final exam for the course to test your newly learned ASL knowledge. Upon successfully passing the final exam, you will earn a Signing Online certificate of completion. The certificate is available online in digital form. You can print the certificate to mark your accomplishment.
Continuing Education- add to cart from drop-down menu at registration
Educator SCECHs - If you are an educator, you can take the above courses for State Continuing Education Clock Hours (SCECH) for $95.00 per course. The SCECHs are issued by the Michigan Department of Education and sponsored by Michigan State University. You earn 15 hours per course. To receive SCECHs, you must log at least 15 hours online and fill out a Signing Online SCECH completion form. Sign, date, and send to Signing Online so that we can send it on to MSU for further processing and forwarding to MDE.
Tools to Help You Learn
With your enrollment, you receive complete access to several useful tools and resources to aid you in your learning, including:
- Dictionary
You have quick access to over 2000 ASL signs. - Fingerspelling
ASL uses a manual alphabet where a different handshape is used to represent each letter of the alphabet. These handshapes can be seen at anytime. - Numbers
ASL uses different handshapes to represent numbers. These handshapes can be seen at anytime. - Glossary
At the click of a button you can refresh your memory about ASL rules and signing techniques.
How long does it take?
You are given six months to complete the course. The time it takes to complete the course will vary depending on your previous experience with sign language, ASL, and your own learning style.
With that said, the site will pace you so you can take at most one lesson per day. Each lesson should take you about 1-2 hours of online time. Therefore, a complete course would take 10 days, taking on average around 15-20 hours total to complete.
How much does it cost?
The cost to take this online course is $75.00. ($95.00 to earn SCECHs)
If you enroll in more than one course at a time, the course access duration will be extended.
How do I enroll?
You may enroll below.