Online University Courses

It never fails to amaze me how much some people will take advantage of a situation without realizing the consequences. My current term at the University of Maryland consists of all web-based courses. I was a bit aprehensive about the unfamiliar format, but it's actually very enjoyable. I have, however, been amazed at the fact that some of my "classmates" either cannot read, or simply don't care about their grades.

One key feature of these online courses is a feature called "conferences." Conferences are simply a spot on the website where the professor can post various topics and assignments, and the students can respond in writing. For my web development course, one of our recent assignments was to install and evaluate a web browser other than Internet Explorer or Netscape. I was eagerly awaiting the posting of the conference, so that I could pounce on Firefox. Firefox has been my browser of choice for a while now, and I am very pleased with it. Well, somebody else beat me to it.

Keep in mind that we were tasked with posting a written evaluation of a web browser...to me that would indicate a thorough description of features, pros, cons, etc. The individual that chose Firefox before I was able to posted an "evaluation" that read something like this: "Firefox is great. It's the best browser out there." That might not be verbatim, but it's pretty close. The "evaluation" was indeed two sentences that lacked any usable information. I was a bit irate when I read it. It's one thing to not be able to choose my favorite browser because I was too slow on the draw. It's another thing to lose out to someone that doesn't even provide an evaluation!

I posted a response to that individual's comment that actually consisted of an evaluation of Firefox, and I followed the spirit of the assignment by posting my own evaluation of an entirely different browser (see my last post).

Not only did that one individual ignore the parameters of the assignment, but the majority of my classmates did as well. Instead of everyone evaluating a different browser, most chose to simply post their own evaluation of Firefox...WTF? A couple of people were bold enough to cut and paste the description of the browser from the Mozilla website. I could have sworn that that was plagarism, but I could be wrong.

In a nutshell, these people either do not care about their grades, or can't manage to comprehend verbiage as complex as "each student will evaluate a different browser." Oh well. They're making my performance stand out in a positive way. Perhaps they'll keep it up for the duration of the class, but I hope not (for their sake).

Creative Writing

While my kids are back in school, I am as well. I found myself missing it during the summer, and I'm happy to be back at it. Since both of the classes that I'm taking this term are web-based, I'm a bit worried that I'll struggle to adapt to this new format. So far, it hasn't been an issue, since both of my professors seem to be very skilled at expressing various topics in writing.

One of my classes is (another) writing class. I enjoy writing, but have never been very good at creating works of fiction. This class will primarily involve writing short pieces of fiction, and I'm hoping that it will help me overcome the apparent block that I have in that department.

Those of you that have read any significant amount of the content on my blog know that I mostly enjoy writing about non-fiction. It's gratifying, and I seem to have a knack for story telling. All that I need to do now, is come up with ways to adapt that to fiction. I have one short piece that I wrote about a month ago that I can work on improving. A certain couple of test readers thought that it has potential. I thought that it was pretty weak, but our inner critics are often the harshest.

It will undoubtedly be an interesting journey, and I'm hoping that it goes well.

Back from Okuma

We've returned from our one week vacation to Okuma. We had a great time, and found ourselves wishing that we could have stayed longer. The weather was great, and everyone had a good time. We took a trip in a glass bottom boat, rode jet skis, got beat half to death on a "ski tube," and spent plenty of time playing in the water.

Next week I'll be back to work, and the kids will be back in school. I'm reminded of the Staples commercial where a man is school shopping with his obviously unenthusiastic children with "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" playing in the background. While my wife and I thoroughly enjoy the company of our kids, it's also nice to get back to a regular routine. The kids tend to get a bit edgy after spending so much time together. They are always well behaved, but they do bicker a bit when they spend the whole summer together.

I'll be back in school on September 3rd, so I'll be a bit busy for several weeks thereafter. Since I enjoy school now, I don't mind staying busy. I'm looking forward to continuing down the path of higher education, and challenging myself academically. I'm sure that my parents continue to be amazed by my fondness for school. Amazed or not, I'm willing to bet that they're tickled pink.