CSUMB CS Online Learning Journal - Ryan

 Part One: Educational Goals The biggest goal I have is to graduate from the CSUMB CS Online Program at the end of 2025 and receive my diploma. I plan on attending the graduation ceremony in person and walking across the stage to receive it. I feel that continuing to envision the actual diploma will help to continue to inspire me to work towards that goal. Part Two: Career Goals One of my biggest career goals is to find employment as an iOS mobile app developer after graduation from the CSUMB CS Online program. I feel this is possible and in addition to the degree I plan on releasing at least three more apps to the app store before graduation.  Part Three: ETS Computer Science Test After reviewing the overview and the sample ETS test I feel that I would likely score in the 50th percentile. I am not too worried about my score because I know I can improve it by reviewing the topics listed in the test. Most of the information on the test I am familiar with but I know I will need ...

 Part 1 From my previous post I need to improve on making every hour count. After reviewing the website AcademicTips.org I learned some good strategies on the Time Management page. I have started to really lean on making a weekly schedule and allocate my time for the week. I like to be able to visually see my schedule in google calendar and this helps me stay on track to prioritize my work. Having the schedule also helps me to have a reason to say no to unnecessary activities. I find that I have a reason to say no, such as I unable to attend because that time has already been allocated for studying. I do leave some room for flexibility however, because the plan is for the week I find that I sometimes need to make adjustments to fit unforeseen events into the schedule. I try to focus on consistency and not perfection. Part 2 This week we learned a great deal about ethics. What I found most helpful was the ethics frameworks. I can understand ethics in general terms, but having the fr...

      In this week's module I learned about our work styles. For my own work style I lean towards being a "Get Along" or people oriented work style. I strongly desire for everyone in the group to get along and work together. I will also let others make decisions in the group and tend to follow the group decision even at the expense of my own personal opinion. I also learned about conflict and the different conflict styles. One thing I found particular interesting was the conflict spectrum. I was to place myself somewhere on the spectrum between conflict is negative and conflict is  positive. On reflection I found myself leaning more towards conflict being positive. Even though I would like to avoid conflict, I do understand that it can be necessary to ensure that the best decisions are made. Everyone has a different perspective and brings those differences to the table. So although my work style was "Get Along", I also am okay with conflicts in the group if...

 Week 2 Learning Journal Post Part 1: Review and Reflect Learning Strategy     For Part 1 of this assignment I read an article about effective study skills and reflect on our top three and bottom three areas. The first item I feel that I am relatively good at is "Getting the Main Idea".  I am confident in my ability to understand the overall idea of a topic when studying. I find this helpful as it reminds me that each paragraph is trying to support the main idea. This helps me to connect the ideas in my head and internalize what I am studying. This ties into my second strength in "Extracting Important Details". I find that when I am able to understand the main idea, I am looking for the important details that support that main idea. The third strategy I feel confident in is "Answering Easy Questions First". I like to use this as a study strategy to help build momentum and feel more confident as I work through the assignment.      The first study s...

 Open Learning Initiative (OLI) Module 2 Reflection     This week we reviewed the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) Module 2. In this module the focus was how to recognize factors that improve team performance and how to find ways to improve collaboration skills. The main video in this module was a talk by Professor Anita Woolley who analyzed what makes a good team. One of the most interesting things I found from the talk was that initially there were no clear patterns on what made a good team. There were instances of teams with all stars not working well together and teams that were expected to fail that did exceptionally well. Based on the research conducted by professor Woolley it seems that having high social sensitivity contributed the most to team success. Team members that worked together as parts of a whole seemed to accomplish more that any super star team. I like this idea in that there is not a strict formula for teams to work. Each team can have it...

 Initial Commit. In this weeks module, we learned about many of the challenges and expectations of being in an online learning environment. I know the program provides great flexibility but at the same time requires a great deal of commitment to complete. I am excited to be in the program and look forward to completing it in two years time. As long as I follow the guidelines presented in the lecture material (schedule study time, log in to the class consistently, start early, etc.) I will be able to succeed in this online program. I also learned a bit about the history of CSUMB and how the CSUMB online program is structured. I like the way we will be able to take one class at a time for most semesters so that the work load is not overwhelming. Many of my classmates situation is similar to mine where we are working full time jobs while attending school. I am thankful that the CSUMB Online Computer Science degree program lets me still have time to meet my family commitments. This wee...