This assignment was directly tied to unit 3 assignment 1, where we had to read all about challenges faced by college students and write about which challenges have impacted us most. For this assignment, first, we had to read through everyone’s discussion board posts about the challenges they face. Next, we had to review the section of the course syllabus about how to respond to the discussion board posts of others. Finally, we had to respond to the posts of all of the members of our chat group.
I only have one other member besides myself in my chat group, a girl named Weiyan, so I responded to her post. The five challenges she discussed were large class sizes, low teacher to student ratio, lack of flexibility for students juggling work and studies, high college expenditure, and expensive textbooks. The challenge that impacted Weiyan most was lack of flexibility because the fixed schedule style of learning can lower the learning outcomes of students, and it makes it stressful to try to fit in work around classes.
In my response to the post, I discussed how I really liked how she made references back to previous units to reinforce what we are learning now. I mentioned that I relate to this challenge too since I work a part-time job and take classes every semester too. I also talked about how I think her ideas that online education can minimize this risk is very accurate since it allows you to work more on your own schedule. Overall, I think she did a great job with her post.
Reflecting on this assignment, once again, it was not structured in a way for me to learn new information about the course. The information was learned two assignments prior, in unit 3 assignment 1. However, reading through all of the challenges again allowed me to review the material I had learned before. As I have talked about before, this will lead me to have better retention of the material, which is a great thing.
Additionally, since I was required to read the posts of everyone else, I learned more about how certain issues affect different students differently. It is super interesting that some challenges that may be the biggest for one person may not even be considered a challenge for someone else! Reading through the assignment opened my eyes to other issues, even ones I may not usually face. It also allowed me to learn about my classmates once again!
Also, these posts and responses continue to allow me to work on my writing skills. As we learned in a previous assignment, that is something that employers look for, so it is very valuable to get practice with it every week! The combination of learning new information while strengthening important skills is awesome and I look forward to continuing with it throughout the semester.
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