Well the term is now in full swing.
There’s always what feels like an awkward waiting period the first week or so after classes start. I always have this expectation that week 1 starts with no knowledge of what this class is going to be like, and then all of a sudden in week 10 we’re experts. It’s strange to think of what actually occurs in those middle 9 or so weeks. The assignments, modules, quizzes, all eventually add up to the complete experience. And it’s taken me awhile, but going through this second degree taught me how important it is to be actively involved in my own education. It might sound silly, and it’s not as if I was just phoning it in the first time around, but these courses really do only give what you put into them, especially with an entirely online program.
I was able to get into a capstone project that I was pretty happy with; we’re currently helping to update a Tableau interface for a global warming experiment that was conducted at OSU over the last 10 years. I signed up for the project because I had some experience working with SQL in my job and I wanted to see if I could potentially get a leg up through this project and develop ways that I might be able to more broadly apply these skills. It feels like important work, and I’m excited about the opportunity, I just think the hardest aspect of this course is going to be how self guided the whole ordeal is. The way my brain works I function much better in an environment where weekly quizzes are due on Tuesdays and homework is due on Sundays. But for this project it’s all self guided, and while I’ve got a partner working with me on this, it still feels constantly like I’m going to miss some invisible deadline where I should have gotten X amount of work done on the project and now I have to spend the whole weekend in overtime.
This all relates back to my earlier feelings about terms, and how you can expect week 1 to be fairly easy, and maybe week 10 is stressful but it at least has a finality about it. In-between though is where the real work gets done, regardless of how many days you end up spending studying for the final exam. And I think my biggest challenge over the next few weeks is going to be staying accountable to myself. I am the one who will be setting these deadlines, and I’m the one who has to make sure that both our sponsor and my partner can rely on me to do what I’m tasked to do. It’s uncomfortable, but ultimately I think it’s an experience I need. I’m looking forward to week 10, not so that I can call this class done and move on with my life, but more so to be able to look back on this time and be proud of what my partner and I were able to accomplish. Unlike other final projects, this capstone feels like we’re working towards something that people can actually use and benefit from.
Or maybe it’ll be the term I start going prematurely bald. We’ll just have to see.
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