Students Experiences After Concluding Successfully an Online Education Course

I am on the border between deciding which of the strategies that I learned during this course was the most useful. Currently, I would say it is a tie between the note-taking styles/methods, and the time prioritization/management charting. The note-taking strategies I will be applying throughout my other courses as selecting the best methodology as appropriate to the study material and goals. Having not previously encountered note-taking methods, I was stuck with the list and summary methods informally applied, but after learning about new processes this has opened up some organized possibilities.

I especially liked “Starbursting” (Rudy, 2016) but the other methods were new to me as well and I can foresee utilizing them. Regarding time-prioritizing/management, the charting in the textbook was very helpful in showing exactly how time was being spent, as opposed to how I thought it was being spent. 

It was definitely eye-opening to see where the time was going, and how much time I thought I actually had. Applying informed decision making to that information is a major boon toward further success. This has already impacted my learning strategies through improved time budgeting, planning, and prioritized allocation. 

The most surprising thing I had encountered this term, was the breadth of personal experience and information that is present as part of the Discussion Forum. The subject directed format, coupled with the personal experience integration with the topic responses, allowed for the sharing of experiences, and experience, while still adhering to the topic at hand. 

The surprising portion was just the breadth of experience that people had dealt with which often carried relevant information or lessons learned that were applicable in my life. After introduction to the peer assessment concept and its integration with the UoPeople experience I thought that it would be a vital role in the learning experience, acting somewhat like a pseudo campus and classroom. I do believe it accomplished that and more. The public forum and mandatory participation ensured that everyone was exposed to everyone else’s ideas. In any social environment, there is the tendency to form groups, but the peer assessment implementation at UoPeople makes it so that everyone is at minimum equally interactive. 

Of similar effect, one has to go out of your way to avoid exposure to other people’s ideas, which builds the feeling of community and familiarity. This exceeds the expectations and has definitely provided bonuses in the form of new perspectives and experience shared from people that might not have normally interacted. Through the application of free review, through the Discussion Forum, we are able to apply the social interaction in the online media, while still worrying about social graces, and attempting to operate where we may have to justify our positions. 

On the other hand, the assignment assessment clearly provides guidance and filtering of the assessment criteria, so that the assessment process is significantly less based on the assessor’s capabilities or material knowledge. Having participated in the assessment process, I am significantly more comfortable, and confident with it. I have also benefited through the peer assessment in both my courses, not just learning new perspectives, but different paths to problem-solving that have definitely been useful. 

Overall, I am very happy about my UoPeople experience so far and the value it has already brought me.  

Reference:

Rudy, L. J. (2016) Starbursting: How to use brainstorming questions to evaluate ideas , Envato Tuts+ https://business.tutsplus.com/tutorials/starbursting-how-to-use-brainstorming-questions-to-evaluate-ideas--cms-26952 

This article was written by Bruce Bonnick, a UoPeople Computer Science student and it is edited and reproduced with his authorization.

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