During Comm 41 this semester, I liked having blogs as the homework assignments. I felt like it allowed for me to write out what I have actually learned rather than my other online class where the homework is only multiple choice. I also enjoyed the group projects. At first I thought the idea of having group projects in an online class was crazy, I ended up learning a lot during the projects. My group worked very well together and we all got along great, which I think helped make them better. While at times the projects were slightly confusing, I still feel like I was able to learn the course concepts better by being able to discuss them with other class members and apply them.
I didn't like that the blogs had to be posted twelve hours apart. Some weeks I was able to do it, but a lot of times I would be forgetful and not remember till last minute. That is mainly my fault, but I feel like I would have much rather of had no time restrictions so I could turn all posts in.
I think something you should try to include in this class is a forum. I think it would have been really helpful to have been able to talk with other classmates about questions or anything pertaining to the course.
I actually agree 100% with your opinion on the discussion blogs. I wrote that I did not like them. I should have been more specific. I liked the idea that the discussion posts allowed us to convey our ideas to each other, and we were able to see what and how other members of the class were interpreting the ideas as. What I did not like, was exactly what you had listed. The time limits for our discussion posts made it extremely hard to complete the assignments. By spacing it out 12 hours apart, we had to budget our time for the class effectively. Being that this is an online class and that some of us work full time and are also taking other classes, I felt that this actually diminished the advantages of taking an online class.
ReplyDeleteHey ruby, I completely concur with your post. I understand where you are going at with your claims. I felt the same way and talked about the "forum" page and the group work on my blog as well. I really would have liked a separate page where the group members could contact each other more frequently. I know of the google docx pages, where members can change the document from where they are, instead of having to transfer data via email and then edit the document. Other than that, the class was fun and educative, especially the group projects. I think that has to be my favorite considering what we have done for this class.
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