I had my first class a week ago tonight. It's amazing how things have changed in the years since I got my bachelor's degree. A large part of the class will take place on the internet, even though it's a regular class and not distance learning.
I was pretty nervous walking into a classroom where I didn't know a soul (wouldn't you know the room had front access only, so I had to walk in front of a full room and the professor!). It was rather overwhelming at first, but after class let out I found the other women who were also taking the class as non-matriculated grads. We exchanged email addresses and commiserated on how out of the loop we felt.
In the last week, I've set up my access to the web portion of the class, taken part in an on-line discussion there, posted my wegpage there, and taken a quiz on chapter 7 there as well. Needless to say, I am beginning to feel more comfortable with the whole thing. Now I can focus my worrying on the poster project and other group assignments the professor mentioned in the first class.
4 comments:
Ugh! Group assignments... why must they always resort to that? The singular most frustrating and useless experience in higher education. I suppose some people must like them?
I wish some professorial types would step up and explain the logic behind it. It just seems so damn lazy of the teachers: fewer projects to grade after all. You often hear the drivel excuses, students must learn to work together, blah blah, real world, blah blah.
But that's all horseshit, IMO.
I hate group projects too, it always seemed like I ended up doing all the work while the others rode in on my coattails OR we spent all the time arguing about it. Or both. Bleah.
I am glad things seem generally to be working out so far.
I seem to have drawn the short stick... My partner and I will be presenting on NYLA next week. Kill me now. Just kidding, of course.
More to come on the subject, I'm sure.
What I always hated the most was trying to coordinate your different schedules to meet and work on it outside of class. Everyone has their own separate class schedules, jobs, activities and obligations. And the more people on any given team, the harder it is.
When doing a professional group project "in the real world," this is not even a factor. Everyone works together anyway, or at least has some overlap in work schedules. That's why that logic has always rubbed me so wrong.
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