CIOS 256 Course Reflection

This was the first distance education course I’ve taken in years, but definitely not the first distance education course I’ve ever taken. I was home-schooled up until my junior year of high school. This was, however, a little different than college-level distance education since my mom was basically my teacher and handled all of the responsibilities of that, such as organizing classes and keeping touch with instructors. I also took a few distance education classes in my first few years of college, one being college level algebra which I had the hardest time with in a regular classroom environment. I flunked it twice, but when I took it through distance education I came out with a solid “B”. I attribute this to my years of being home schooled which made me accustomed to being dependant on myself more than an instructor. I had trouble adjusting when I eventually went to a public high school and also when I started college and the classes were much bigger. Even now, I have trouble sitting in a class for an hour and a half, which is one reason I decided to pursue my academic goals through distance education once again.

The one downfall of distance education that I have noticed is the lack of one-on-one or group learning time. Sure, when I have a question or comment I can email my instructor or a fellow student, but it’s a little different when I can walk down to my instructor’s office with the question rather than emailing and waiting days for a reply. If I am working on an assignment and encounter a hang-up, I have to put it on hold until I get a response. But this is one of the few disadvantages of distance education. Overall it is much more convenient for me and allows me to challenge myself in ways that wouldn’t be possible in a classroom environment.

CIOS 256 has been one of my favorite college classes thus far. It was informative and a great learning experience while also giving me freedom to be creative and discover how these programs can work for me. I am looking forward to taking more in-depth classes into Dreamweaver and Fireworks that will greatly benefit my career as an IT professional and web/graphic designer.