The Start of Online Learning

Mitchell Hall, Columnist

I’m not a fan of online classes.

It all started when I woke up one morning and logged into my account on Blackboard Learn. I noticed I had an exam due Monday for my statistics class and there were several pages that went with it.

First, I had to print it and fill it out with written answers before I could transfer them to my computer and submit them to Blackboard. I wasted almost an hour trying to figure out why my printer wasn’t working and, when I finally did figure it out, I got to work on the exam and finished just in time for the deadline.

After the conclusion of my exam, I had to download Google Chrome on my laptop for my European Fiction class, which will take place on Blackboard Collaboration.

This program allows the professor to continue his or her lectures while allowing students to observe the lecture as they listen. In my case, the professor wants to talk to us about the current book we are reading for his class and the time period in which the book takes place. Of course, with my luck, the session we are trying to connect to won’t work and there is a chance I may miss the session and whatever information may have been offered.

This same class also requires a book that must be read every two weeks and an exam that must be taken for each of these books. I still need to read this book and the exam that goes along with it hasn’t even been announced with a due date yet, so how can I know when I need to read this book?

After reading over a hundred pages from this book the class was assigned, I finally finished the book and got caught up and ready for the exam. My only concern is the connection my computer may or may not have. One of the classes that most worries me is my digital design class that will require the skills of coding and other things we’ve learned in past classes.

I’m by no means an expert at coding programs like Atom, so I sure hope I can scrape together whatever knowledge I have on the programs to get the assignments done by their due dates. Those are just the tip of the online schooling iceberg.

The bulk of my work will come from my psychology class, which is already off to a crazy start.

I logged onto Blackboard during my day off to see what kind of assignments I was going to end up doing online.  I found a list of several questions I had to answer for each chapter and a long list of other questions that were going to count as the second exam of the semester.

Even though I don’t have to do all the questions the professor gave us for the exam, the ones I have to do aren’t that simple to answer and require at least a one-page response and other requirements that will go along with it. I hope I can finish the questions and get a good grade on the answers.

To top off all this work, I have to keep up my listed hours for my practicum and write a story about online schooling – sort of like the one you’re reading right now. I hope I can reach the required 45 hours that will allow me to pass the class.