Seven Weeks and a Thousand Dollars

Having just come off the discussion boards for my team, I can't help but ask, "This is state of the art education?"

Signing up for distance learning, I expected two things before going in, 1) self pacing, 2) individual assessment.

The course outline at the beginning set my expectations for massive number of small projects, and many things being dependent on working with other people. The upshot, the people I am working with, while well intentioned, do not have the comfort level with the tools, or the knowledge of the subject matter, to move things forward quickly. Myself and another student being in significantly different timezones exacerbates the problem.

We clearly have a team leader, but no one, including that leader, have put forward that the person is it. Instead we try to muddle through with consensus on everything when clearly there is no time to form consensus.

But, circling back to my topic, and a question that has come up in our boards, "What's in it for me." I've yet to see any benefit to this class that I would have had over just reading the books I was reading and fiddling the bits. I've downloaded the EdWeb Analysis and Design document, which to my mind should be occupying my and the cohorts time. Instead, all of our attention is drawn to hosting a session of a web based conference. Why anyone would want to attend the conference is beyond me, clearly it will be a case of the newly opened eyes leading the blind.

I'm past the drop add point, and owe it to the people in the group I'm with to stay with the project and do my part. Still, given what I've learned in seven weeks and at the cost of a thousand dollars, I don't have much hope for what fourteen weeks and two thousand dollars will have gained me. After that, I will need to take a long look at the class plans for the rest of the program.

For now, I'll go back to the boards and see what I can contribute, and what I can learn.