I have had the opportunity in the past to get involved with chat rooms and using sites like Myspace to explore what I can do with the online world. Neither of those really has anything to do with school, but it did help me learn how to navigate sites and how to connect with people online rather than face to face. When I attended UNL years ago, we had to use Blackboard for some assignments and lectures which were not much different than what I have used this term through Canvas for OSU. So I feel like I had a lot of things going for me when it came time to begin my online education. I felt confident in the beginning with only a little fear, but now most of that fear is gone and I’m ready for next term! One of the major things from this class that helped was to learn what kind of learner I really am and ways to use those tools to help me understand information for a class from only a lecture that the instructor has posted. Being able to read the lecture out loud on my own as well as listening to the instructors recorded audio for slide shows helps me retain more information along with note taking. A traditional classroom would hinder you reciting the information aloud to yourself. I plan to use the online library tools a lot more and keeping up with my professional contact I made through my FW255 class. Having someone there that has been through this kind of work already is a great help. I created goals to get my work done early each week for school. I found that between home life and work that it was difficult to do so. I plan to keep up with my calendar for each term so that I have a visual aid in front of me all term long so that I am prepared for what work I have to look forward to before the deadlines fall upon me. I am very excited to move forward!

I have learned a lot of new things from this class alone, not to mention my other 2 that I am enrolled in. I always felt that I had the strength of knowledge of general computer use and being able to navigate my way around the internet. I knew that my own learning style was that of being more of a hands-on kind of learner, so I knew that online learning would pose a potential challenge to that. But after the first 2 weeks I have really found out that it is an entirely different world than that of a regular classroom! I have found out how much of a kinesthetic learner I am and how weak it seems that I am at simply visual learning. I have developed ideas of how to increase my visual learning in that I am not just reading over and listening to lectures in my classes, but some I will be printing off the lectures so that I can listen to them and take my own version of notes along the sides of the pages. Also I have been reading the notes out loud and sometimes have found that playing music softly in the background helps my concentration out. Does this help anyone else? Are there any other tools anyone has found that would help me or others with these potential learning issues? I have a few years ahead of me to earn my Fishery and Wildlife Sciences degree, so keeping an open mind to new ways of online learning is one thing I am striving for!