So as most of you should know, I am going back to school. I’m taking a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Science from DeVry in Calgary. The program goes year round and I will take 5 or 6 courses per semester. Each semester is broken into 2 sessions and each session is 8 weeks long. I will be able to focus on one of these tracts when completing my degree; Business Management, Computer Forensics, Database Management, Information Systems Security, Systems Analysis and Integration, Web Development and Administration or a Flex Option which lets me take any course offered at the 300 and 400 level totalling at least 16 course semester credits.

The official start date was July 5 for my first session and as such my first week of school is just about complete. This session I am taking CIS115 – Logic and Design and COLL148 – Critical Thinking and Problem Solving and so far so good. The Logic and Design course is very similar to one I had taken at SAIT back in the day when I started taking computer programming there. DeVry actually gave me credit for this course but I decided to take it anyway, as this is a foundation to all the programming we will be doing later, and given that it was 13 years ago that I took it and I haven’t really used it since, I thought it best to make sure I was very familiar and current with it.

The delivery of the courses is done all online putting the onus on the student to actually log in and do the work. The first work was probably a little more difficult than usual only because I spent a lot of time navigating the websites used and taking orientations and figuring out where I need to go to do all my tasks etc. The unique part about online schooling is that it is hard to judge participation since there isn’t a physical classroom to show up in, and since one of the best learning tools in a degree is the actual conversation that occurs between the students and instructor. To emulate this the professor posts two graded discussion threads each week, each student is required to post 3 times a week or more on each graded thread. But you must post on 3 separate days to ensure each student is taking part in an on-going conversation. Each post is also graded for quality, full marks are given for posts that provide insight, references, personal experience or move the conversation forward in some way. At first I didn’t think I was going to like the discussion threads very much as it felt like you were being forced into some sort of artificial web community. But I have to say, so far, I haven’t minded it too much. I have found a few other students who seem to be keeners like me and we have actually had some pretty good discussions. The rest of your tasks are made up of reading, quizzes, labs and other assignments and tests.

So week 1 is coming to a close and I’m feeling positive about my courses so far. In my logic and design course I already had a student email me and ask me to help with his lab assignment =), to I guess that’s a good sign. I’ll try and post on a regular basis to see if I can keep a regular log going. I promise I’ll be better than Rob, but not much more than that.

- RoneTyne

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