First, I’d like to say that ESEPSY 1159 was a wonderful class and I would recommend it to new and experienced students! There’s definitely a lot to learn.

This class taught me a lot about technology, online tools, and online resources. I learned a great deal about search engines. Perhaps the most useful thing that I picked up was the advanced search options for just about and search engine. Being able to limit the type of sites that come up and the flexibility of search terms has proved incredibly helpful not online in school but in my job as well.

I’ve also learned a lot about myself in this class. I’ve learned how bad of a procrastinator I am and what I can do to help that. I’ve also learned some useful time management skills that I’ve applied recently. Prioritizing my to-do list has to be the most helpful thing I’ve learned. In prioritizing my to-do list I can make sure I don’t miss a deadline because I was working on an easy unimportant task. By putting the things that have to be done at the top of my list I can make sure that they get done. Goal setting has also become incredibly important in my life. Every Sunday and Monday I set goals I want or need to get done during the week. I set individual deadlines and completion goals and hold myself to them. This really makes sure I manage my time wisely. However, I could work on my procrastination tendencies. With my goals and deadlines, I get things done when they’re supposed to be done but I definitely take advantage of my free time and I definitely do not start things early. I should really work on not putting off what I can do today in order to be less stressed tomorrow. 

By far, the most meaningful experience in the course was the assignment where we tracked our time usage in half hour increments for the week. I really got the chance to see where all my free time goes. While I wasn’t very shocked or upset it did make an impact. It definitely helps to see it drawn out. While I can know I watched three hours of TV on Monday, seeing it compared to the 2 hours of homework I did compels me to work harder on my school work and truly use my free time after my  work is done.

I’ve already started to use the tools learned in this course to my real world job. The most useful things were the time management and motivation lectures as well as the search tools. During my job I have to be creative with search terms and learning how to make them flexible has already shown improvement in my results. I also really appreciated the lecture on listening strategies. This has helped me at work too and I can’t wait to utilize it in more settings. Being able to listen, take notes, and not have to ask questions that my boss has already answered only makes me look good at work. It’s great being the efficient employee and getting things right the first time. Truly, this class has helped me in more than just scholarly learning.