When I started my online learning experience here at OSU, online classes were not a new thing for me; however things have changed quite a bit since I completed my last program. I now have a family, a career and various other obligations that I must be involved with.  So as a result, the experience of being a student has also changed.

In general, I am a very organized person. When it comes to taking online courses, I can usually plan my week out accordingly and stick with my schedule. I would consider this to be a strong point of mine; however I have found that it is not so easy to stick with a schedule when you have absolutely no idea how long an assignment might take. This term I am taking a computer programming class, in addition to this class. The biggest obstacle that I have discovered with the assignments in that class is the amount of time it takes to write, debug and test a program. For example, last week I spent about 20 hours on one assignment, where 15 hours of that time was spent testing and debugging. Obviously this doesn’t leave me with a lot of time for my other course work. After learning the hard way, I have decided to reverse the order in which I complete my work, starting with an assignment that has a predictable duration followed by the unpredictable work.

This class has helped me to focus on my time management a little closer; it has also helped me to look for ways to maximize my learning. One of the biggest eye openers for me was finding my peak and valley times. It’s interesting that this seems like such a trivial concept; however, it never crossed my mind in the past. Taking this into consideration, I have discovered that I retain more from lectures and reading, when I study in the early afternoon, as opposed to early morning when I normally try to study. I have also learned that it is okay to take frequent breaks, in fact it is beneficial. This term I learned that I am left brained and a multimodal learner. Learning this information has helped prepare me to adapt my learning to best fit my learning style. After using the OSU library’s academic search function, I was thrilled to discover a tool that tracks my sources. This is a tool in which I will use for any research I conduct from here on out.

Moving forward into future terms, I will be adopting these skills and techniques, as well as many other methods learned in this class.

This term really seems to be flying by. Here we are nearing the end of week 3 and I still feel like this term just started. Although it is moving fast, I have already learned a significant amount about my-self in regards to how I learn and more specifically how I learn in an online learning environment.

I have taken online classes before and with those classes, I quickly came to the realization that online learning can be significantly more challenging then a physical campus environment. Some of the challenges that I have faced in the past with online learning is self-motivation and maintaining good study habits. Over the course of the last three weeks, I not only discovered more about my learning style, but I learned how to leverage it in order to improve the way I learn. My learning style is multimodal, meaning that I learn from a series of methods, but that also doesn’t mean that I can be successful by selecting and using just one. Multimodal learners tend to learn best by utilizing the full spectrum of their learning styles.  In the past, I have always believed that I was mostly a visual learner; I tend to use charts, diagrams, pictures, and examples to learn best. After taking the surveys for learning styles, I can actually say that I was surprised by the results and wasn’t sure as to the accuracy, however after reflecting on past classes, personal habits and techniques that I found to work for me, I decided that not only were the survey results a good fit, but they really explained a lot about how I learn. For example, I discovered that I am left brained; I like things to be neat and organized and perform best in such an environment.

After completing my second degree, it has been about five years since I have taken any classes at all, and this time around I am facing an abundance of new challenges that I didn’t have to worry about in the past. I work full-time in the semiconductor industry which is sponsoring my education, but only if I maintain good academic standing. I am a father, and a husband. In addition to family and work I have other commitments such as maintaining my property, vehicles, and financial responsibilities. In the short period of time that I have been back in school, I have found that these things can really have a profound effect on the way I manage my time and approach my education. My biggest challenge this term and through the remainder of the program, will be balancing the time I spend with my family and the time I spend with everything else. So far I am finding that this class was just the tool I needed in order to help me maintain that balance which will ultimately help me to achieve my goals.