Andrea's Survival Memo

Commented on Group 6 and group 3 survival memo.

Audio Survival Tip Introduction

EDAC 631 was one of the first courses that I have to take to complete my degree in Career and Technical Education. My background is in the field of Engineering so changing careers to Education is a whole new world for me. From the first day of class, I was nervous that I would not keep up with the course. I had never taken online courses before so I was unsure of what to expect. I teach full time at the community college, am active in my community, have three teenagers still at home, one in college, and a husband. So life can gets busy for me very quickly. So below are my survival tips I used to get me through this course.

1. Time management is key to getting things done on time. Thus, setting aside specific times during the week to focus on the reading assignments. For instance, the initial discussions were due on Wednesdays, so I picked Monday nights to read the assignments and submit my response on Wednesday.
2. Outline the reading assignments to help organize your thoughts and responses.
3. For group assignments in online courses, it is challenging to effectively communicate with everyone at the same time. Thus our group used communication tools such as via conference calls, emails, discussion blog, and text messages.
4. Make sure that you understand the syllabus. The syllabus kept me on track to regarding the content and context of the assignments.
5. Do not be afraid to ask questions when you are unsure of an assignment. Our instructor, Bo Change answered any questions that we had and would offer suggestions on how we could improve our assignments.
6. It takes discipline. With my busy life and work schedule, I had to be diligent in getting my work done. My goal was NO late assignments.
7. Use a print or electronic calendar like Outlook or Google to indicate when all assignments due and set reminders.
8. Have another person outside of your group proofread your research papers.You gain valuable input of your writing, grammar, misspelled words, etc.
9. Before you can consider the proofreading process complete, you should verify your sources and make sure that the document adheres to the rules of the formatting style that you are using; in our course we used APA. I struggled with this formatting style the entire course however Bo Chang was great in consistently providing resources and feedback for the students to get it correct.

My advice for future students in the EDAC 631 course is to pace yourself. At first it will seem like a lot of information to process. However by the end of the course, the knowledge you acquire about adult education will position you to be a more effective adult educator.