First off, I am sorry to see that this class is coming to an end. I really enjoyed this class, and even though I was not the most vocal during the class sessions, am one of those students who engages by listening. The format was unique, something I’ll touch on later, but one that will be memorable. I also enjoyed hearing about Professor Arvan’s experiences. I think one of the things that helps me to learn the best is hearing about an example, in this case situations that he had faced or lessons learned, something to help it stick in my mind.
Some of the lessons that I learned in the course were about the different aspects of human capital, the importance of identities within organization, the value of intrinsic motivation and all of the economic models that we learned about. It was interesting for me to learn about the different aspects that go into human capital, and also about the short versus long term benefits. The way that we learned about it class, with learning the topic first, discussing it and then utilizing various models to reinforce the topic was great. I felt that I got a well-rounded understanding of the concept that will prove to be valuable in the future. Additionally, in talking about the identity of organizations and intrinsic motivation, I was able to make connections to what we talked about in class to the paper that my group did for our project to personal connections outside of the classroom. What I was not expecting was the connections that I was able to draw from previous experiences or my time in the student government, an organization. I’m not sure what I was expecting in terms of drawing personal connections, but I guess I was surprised to see that there were connections within my college career to what people see in the workplace.
As mentioned previously, the class structure was new to me but something that I thought helped me to learn more. It was a bit of a challenge to me as I am much of a note taker, lecture based student, so going into a more abstract and personal approach to the material and the blogging expanded my abilities. It was a bit of a challenge for me to be able to communicate some of my experiences, highlighting that an area I can improve upon is talking to third parties in giving details. Additionally, keeping up with the comments was something that was relatively difficult for me, which I’m not exactly sure why since it was a personal comment / question that was being expanded upon. In terms of the homework, what I found to be the most challenging or frustrating part was the necessity to complete the entire assignment correctly in order to get points. I tried to plan ahead to allow for extra time, but the semester caught up to me more times than once and I was doing the assignment the night before or the day it was due. This is my full responsibility, but it was one that was more of a challenge than anticipated for me.
Overall the homework assignments took me about an hour, and the blogging also would take about an hour. I appreciated the soft deadlines in the course. I think it helped me to stress less and learn more, because it was more an ability to perform at a higher level, for example the blogs. I would look at the prompt earlier in the week, think about it, then sit down to write it. By doing this ahead thinking, I was able to work to expand my ability to communicate the details. I think I improved in this area as the semester went on.
In terms of things that I did not see within the course, the only thing that sticks out to me is the fact that while we had discussions, it was though we didn’t know each other as a class. We knew our group members by name, but for me that was about it, not counting you referring to students by name. I think that there is possibly room for more collaboration in terms of groups, not necessarily to the degree of the group project but something possibly. I liked the group project set up, I think that it allowed us all of the aspects that professor often try to focus on with group projects, but allowing us more liberties and ways to work together was nice. The freedom was appreciated. In closing, while this class was much different than what I have had in the past, I really enjoyed it and appreciated the class style / structure.
Some of the lessons that I learned in the course were about the different aspects of human capital, the importance of identities within organization, the value of intrinsic motivation and all of the economic models that we learned about. It was interesting for me to learn about the different aspects that go into human capital, and also about the short versus long term benefits. The way that we learned about it class, with learning the topic first, discussing it and then utilizing various models to reinforce the topic was great. I felt that I got a well-rounded understanding of the concept that will prove to be valuable in the future. Additionally, in talking about the identity of organizations and intrinsic motivation, I was able to make connections to what we talked about in class to the paper that my group did for our project to personal connections outside of the classroom. What I was not expecting was the connections that I was able to draw from previous experiences or my time in the student government, an organization. I’m not sure what I was expecting in terms of drawing personal connections, but I guess I was surprised to see that there were connections within my college career to what people see in the workplace.
As mentioned previously, the class structure was new to me but something that I thought helped me to learn more. It was a bit of a challenge to me as I am much of a note taker, lecture based student, so going into a more abstract and personal approach to the material and the blogging expanded my abilities. It was a bit of a challenge for me to be able to communicate some of my experiences, highlighting that an area I can improve upon is talking to third parties in giving details. Additionally, keeping up with the comments was something that was relatively difficult for me, which I’m not exactly sure why since it was a personal comment / question that was being expanded upon. In terms of the homework, what I found to be the most challenging or frustrating part was the necessity to complete the entire assignment correctly in order to get points. I tried to plan ahead to allow for extra time, but the semester caught up to me more times than once and I was doing the assignment the night before or the day it was due. This is my full responsibility, but it was one that was more of a challenge than anticipated for me.
Overall the homework assignments took me about an hour, and the blogging also would take about an hour. I appreciated the soft deadlines in the course. I think it helped me to stress less and learn more, because it was more an ability to perform at a higher level, for example the blogs. I would look at the prompt earlier in the week, think about it, then sit down to write it. By doing this ahead thinking, I was able to work to expand my ability to communicate the details. I think I improved in this area as the semester went on.
In terms of things that I did not see within the course, the only thing that sticks out to me is the fact that while we had discussions, it was though we didn’t know each other as a class. We knew our group members by name, but for me that was about it, not counting you referring to students by name. I think that there is possibly room for more collaboration in terms of groups, not necessarily to the degree of the group project but something possibly. I liked the group project set up, I think that it allowed us all of the aspects that professor often try to focus on with group projects, but allowing us more liberties and ways to work together was nice. The freedom was appreciated. In closing, while this class was much different than what I have had in the past, I really enjoyed it and appreciated the class style / structure.
I'm glad you liked the course. Let me get at the part where you wrote you are a note taker, lecture based student. You might want to analyze that some. Were you that way in high school too? I imagine high school classes not being too large. If you were that way in high school, then it is indeed an ingrained habit. I have noticed in the last decade or so that there are more students in that category than I remember. I wrote a post about it after teaching with blogging for the first time, which was in a class for CHP students. You might find it interesting. It's called Teaching Quiet Students.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it might be that you only became that way once having gotten to the U of I and then having taken a steady diet of large lecture courses. Then you got a lot of practice in note taking, but perhaps you didn't get much practice in class discussion. If that's right, you need more practice, a lot of it. Sometimes learning requires you to go outside your comfort zone.
The thought that you have relevant experience to the course subject matter is something that wouldn't have occurred to me as a young assistant professor, where I was well trained in economic theory, but knew nothing about how people learn. So building on the connections that you do have is the right way to go about things, not just in my class, but in your own self-teaching later.
I liked your comment about knowing each other as a class. A simple solution to that, which I should almost certainly do, is give everyone a name tent that they keep and that they post on their desk when we are in discussion mode. Knowing people's names and referring to them that way would break the ice and then maybe encourage greater participation. At national meetings I used to go to we'd often have the name tents, especially early on. It is a professional practice, so one the class should embrace.
I felt relieved after reading your post and realized this course is not only challenging for me LOL. I didn't have much experience with these kind of courses have many discussions but few notes to take, which makes me worry that I am not doing well on this course. I think you did much better than I did in class, at least I heard you answer to Professor's questions quite often. Also, I think you are good at leading the team. Most of time you made up a plan for our team and made sure we can finish our job before the deadline. I truly appreciate you for your effort on the course project and wish you all the best!
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