So, I picked my classes:
LIS 2002: Retrieving Information (required core course, blended format)
LIS 2405: Intro to Cataloging and Classification (online only course)
LIS 2690: Information Visualization (blended format)
LIS 2879: Academic Librarianship (blended format)
You’ll notice two things about them. One, it’s a pretty fun and interesting set of things to study. Two, everything is online, or at the very least, blended.
I’ll be honest: this upsets me. I dropped everything to move to Pittsburgh for this degree. More than that, Dale dropped everything and took a job he doesn’t like as much as the job he had in Virginia, to move to Pittsburgh, so I could get this degree. Which is made up almost entirely of online courses. I am paying through the nose for this degree, and yet, I am looking at another semester of fighting the discussion boards in our sub-par distance education software to have artificial “conversations” for the sole purpose of making the off-campus students feel that they’re part of the community–a misguided effort, to be sure, as they are no more fans of the discussion boards than we are. … I hope I’m wrong and all of next semester’s professors will understand that the enforced-online-discussion model wastes students’ time, brings down the level and the sincerity of discourse, and ultimately decreases the value of the degree we are earning.
I was going to muse/rant some more, but I have some digital library software I am trying desperately to learn to use (getting it to run would be a start–curse you, Greenstone!), before I go to bed tonight. Tomorrow and Sunday, I’ll be on the road, attending a wedding. (Yay, weddings!)
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