MY NEW LIFE ONLINE.
I'm finally feeling comfortable in the online educational evironment. My first classes were in the term that started here at Kaplan in August. It took some adjustment to get in the swing of things in the online environment since I was so entrenched in the traditional classroom environment. For all those years in college, I was geared to the mon-wed-fri classes alternating with tues-thurs classes, and of course it all started every monday and then ended on friday. Since Kaplan's class week starts (wed) in what is the "middle" of the week for me, it was hard to get used to. Friday was the day to get out of class, turn off my brain and focus on getting hours in on some job and then sometime on sunday it was time to put hours in on what papers were coming up due. I've had to jumpstart myself to not turn off my brain on fridays! I'm getting much better at staying on track with this new schedule. Has anyon else had to struggle with making this adjustment? It's not so difficult all by itself but when you start juggling it with family, work and other projects things are more apt to get out of whack. An example would be like almost letting the saturday discussion post slip by.
The seminars took some adjustment also. Let's see......I can hear the teacher but can't see him/her; I can't see or hear my classmates but I can see what they write. OH MY GOSH, everyone is writing at the same time, now we've got several conversations going. Read what they are writing, try to jump in and respond, get involved. Oops, who said that? Is she talking to me? Oooah, professor, I have a question. Now this is when I type it, then hit the wrong button and it doesn't get on the page. I'll type it again and send it, no, don't send. They've moved on to the next slide on power point. Get my drift? Has it happened to you?
Now might be the time to mention a thorn. When we have only one hour with the professor in a live setting, I get really frustrated when there's a lot of extra "chatter" that is not on topic. It's nice to have a comfortable atmosphere but when it gets too much so, time gets wasted. I think the seminar time is best used to review the professor's power point, ask questions and get other types of direction from the professor. Of course that is my opinion. Some may feel that it's not a problem if 20 minutes or more are spent on conversation that is just chatter and not about the class. For me, this has been quite frustrating. In one class, I typed out a question about the upcoming test, it didn't get answered. I typed it a second time, then a third. There was so many people writing about the night and the weather and their kids, etc. that my question kept disappearing as the screen scrolled up! Never did get that question answered. Oh well.
On the bright side. I love my classes. The professors are really good. What is probably the best thing about online classes is the flexibility. Kaplan has it set up so "life" can be worked around the classes and the coursework. It took me a little time to make the most of the discussion posts every week. It works best when we have the opportunity to give and receive as many responses to each other and the professor as possible. I especially like it when the professor poses new questions to us that relate to what we have written. Something I need to do better is to get my questions to the teacher answered via IM. Haven't even tried it yet but I need to get on that as I think that can be really useful.
So, how about you? How has this experience changed your life? Jan