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Final Blog Post

After already taking EPSY 1259, I knew a little bit of what I was getting into when I registered for this class. Having said that, I still learned many useful techniques to enhance my online learning that I didn’t know before this class.

The most interesting topic to me was the online collaboration section of the course. Google Docs is a really powerful tool that will help me a lot going forward in my college career. It is more efficient than dropbox, the service I had been using, because multiple people can work on the document at the same time in Google Docs, and you do not have to deal with conflicted copies of files.  Online collaboration is only going to become more and more important throughout my career with the amount of group work I will have in Fisher, and my busy schedule with the Track and Field team. I will have less time to meet in person with people, and I will need to be more in tune with online collaboration.

I have also learned that I need to be a little more focused when it comes to my online classes. I made an effort to keep up with this one, and that is why I think my grade will be good. In previous semesters I was missing online quizzes and discussion posts, but this class helped me keep a schedule, I set a specific time each week in my phone to work on class material and my phone alarm went off at that time each week. I did not miss a single assignment in this class. I’ve learned that I can easily handle any course load that is given to me as long as I take the necessary steps to accomplish it.

My most meaningful experiences were discussing each of these topics with my classmates. I have never really had a meaningful class environment in an online course like we have in this one. I think I read more of my classmates discussion posts in this class than in any previous online class I had taken. That was very cool to me, and I wish more online classes were structured this way.

This class has given me plenty of tools that I can apply to the future. Aside from the online collaboration part of the class that I already mentioned, the whole idea of using your time wisely and managing time effectively will help me a lot. While I had previously made a calendar of how I used my time in EPSY 1259, making a new one in this class was still interesting because I got to see my progress from last semester. This helped me get more out of that assignment, and a lot of other students probably did not have the opportunity to have that.

All in all, I am happy I took this course because of all the skills I learned, especially those mentioned above. I think I would recommend all students to take this class before taking any online class at this university.

 

Researching

This is one of the more dull topics we have learned about in class, and a topic I have a lot of prior knowledge of. However, this does not mean knowing how to research and finding great articles is something you can just toss aside. It is a very important topic and one that is relevant to all college students.

No matter what your major is, you will be responsible for writing a research paper at some point. Without being able to utilize all the awesome tools the OSU library provides for students it will be hard to get the grade you want.

The topic I want to blog about is Google and Google Scholar. Google is much more powerful than people realize, but you have to know how to narrow results. Using Google Search operators is a great way to do this. Here is an example of how one operator, the quotation mark, works.

If want to find an article about hockey playoffs, it may be beneficial to enter it into the search bar as “hockey playoffs” when you do this, it will search articles that have the words hockey and playoffs right next to each other. Otherwise, it will just look for the words seperately and could yield different results.

Learning from Online Videos

Using online videos as a learning tool has greatly enhanced my learning since I have been at Ohio State and I think everyone can benefit from hearing a different version of a lecture they have heard from their professor at OSU. In  my opinion, hearing the same lecturer speak every day can get really old which can cause you to day dream in class. Every once in a while I will go on youtube and find a short video about a topic I learned about in class to get a fresh take from a new voice. Honestly, I do not even take notes on the video I just listen and watch. Since it is something else, it just sparks my mind to remember the content better.

 

Also, this is a great tool in reviewing for tests. On test day, you are more likely to remember a topic that stands out in your mind. So if a topic is difficult to you, why not watch a few videos about it. When the concept comes up on the test you will remember watching the videos, while you may not always remember the instructor talking about it during class jumbled up between a bunch of other topics.

Supply and Demand Educational Video

 

 

The topic I chose to learn about was the economic concept of supply and demand. One topic discussed in the video is called the “substitution effect.” This happens when the price goes up on a certain product. When the price goes up, people will not buy the product and substitute a different product in its place. It also works in the opposite direction, if the price of a product goes down, more people will tend to buy it.

 

This video helped my learning of the topic because the teacher is so enthusiastic. My high school economics teacher was very dry and boring. This guy is excited about the topic and makes me want to learn, which makes the material easier to take in. It also helps to visualize the different supply and demand curves on the white board. I call myself a visual learner, so it helps to see the changing demand curves on the white board.

Online Study Tools

I first learned how much online learning tools could enhance my learning during a course I took my freshman year. It was offered by SASSO, and it was about helping student athletes transition to the college course load and the amount of stress put on student athletes at Ohio State.

One tool I learned in that class was a website called quizlet.com, while it was not one of the websites taught in this class it still was very useful to me and has helped me study for tests since my freshman year. It is basically an online flash card maker that tracks your progress as you learn more and more terms. Once you are done learning all the terms, you have the option for it to create a test for you, it includes a matching, multiple choice, and short answer section all based of the definitions you provided when you made the flash cards.

My favorite online tool learned in class was the mind map. I like this because it helps categorize topics into larger groups which makes them easier to remember and learn. It is also surprisingly easy to use (much easier than the other websites learned in the class, in my opinion.)

I think online study tools are the future of studying so it is best to learn them and become very familiar with them.

Online Collaboration for College Students

The amount of group work that is required in college is staggering. Especially in my college, the Fisher School of Business, it seems like I have at least two classes per semester that require some type of group work. What I have come to learn is that everyone thinks they have the busiest schedule out there, and it is really hard to find a time that everyone can meet. What a lot of my groups have been doing is collaborating for the project online, through a Dropbox service or Google Docs. Google Docs, something we have already discussed in class, has the ability to allow all the students in the group to work on one document at a time while chatting and discussing about the project together online. Dropbox is similar, allowing students to upload and download filed to a folder than can be accessed by everyone in the group.

The main point is that there are many ways to get around people having busy schedules. The internet allows for online collaboration in so many ways that it is necessary in this day and age to be familiar with services like Google Docs and Dropbox. It will make life easier for you and your group mates.