I have for the most part enjoyed this course and like the fact that it was a bit different than classes I have taken in the past. I feel that it is always hard to change the way we learn/teach as I went to school in the 90’s and it was very heavy with you learn the information, test on it, and then move on to the next. I know that it has not changed from that mindset and is in fact worse with the no child left behind testing that is now applied. School has become so regimented for everyone that it has lost a lot of the practicality and thinking that should go behind it. With that said when we do have opportunities to think and be creative the majority of us don’t know what to do and it is usually very hard. Then, we end up having to go back to the same old mindset so it is quite an inconvenience to change the way we think for 4 months and have to put in double the work because we are so use to having everything laid out and regimented.

I do not feel that school prepares you for the workforce, I say this because it has become so regimented and usually there is not a lot of thinking involved it is learn this concept, test, dump it because you have to learn the next concept. Too much information is being taught in such a short amount of time that the actuality of retaining everything is very small. From my experience you get a baseline understanding from school and each position you get you will have to learn the culture and the way that they do business.

I did enjoy the diversity of material that was gone over in this course. I was not sure what to expect with the name but I love history and figured I would give it a shot. From thinking about the way historians analyze, to water and then to the worlds fair. It was really great material and even as hard as it was for me ,as I am not a creative person, I do feel that I learned a lot more from this course and will actually remember it.

I don’t think it matters if this class is taught face-to-face or online. I think it should be known from the beginning that this class is taught differently, the assignments need to be more spread out, and more feedback and grade needs to be given throughout the course. I think the hard thing about “creative” learning is the subjectivity of it. We are told to voice our thoughts or opinions and use a medium we want to use to express the information and then we are graded by an instructor that has their own set of thoughts. I hope that in some way this may help going forward. Thanks for the interesting class, it really did make me step outside of my comfort zone and made me think about things differently.

I want to reflect and talk about two things; Devil in the White City and Blooms Taxonomy because I feel the strongest about these aspects of our course.

The Devil in the White City has been a breath of fresh air for me personally this semester. I expected to be reviewing some kind of text book that emphasized on engineering. When I saw our required reading for this course I was a little surprised. Not only was it a well written book, but it had loads of historical information and facts about the World Fair. At first I wasn’t sure how this would tie into our course work and how it would be incorporated into the curriculum. I have had to analyze the content in a different way (other than just memorizing and being tested on it) and try and dissect the characters underlying beliefs and values. It was a new and interesting way to learn about a historical event, especially about the specific individuals involved. I really enjoyed it!

Blooms Taxonomy is a new concept for me. I may have experienced it before without knowing it, but I am not familiar with this model of learning/teaching. In most of my pre-requisite courses I was expected to read the material, take notes, ask questions and then memorize for tests. Except for English style courses; find a topic, write a paper, revise the paper, and then hand it in. Very simple and streamline. This course was difficult for me, especially at first, because I had to change the way I was thinking and interpreting materials. I was forced to go beyond facts and instead answered questions such as; what did it represent? why was this done? what habits, beliefs, and values were represented by certain individuals? I don’t particularly like change, so it was a little difficult for me to get on board at the beginning to rethink the historical structures and events that we covered. However, after going through the course, I think it is an important way to learn and to apply critical thinking to history.

I think for my style of learning, this course would have been better taught in person. It wasn’t impossible and I was able to contact Professor Madsen-Brooks easily if I had questions. However, I think assignments such as; the concept map and final group project would have been easier to understand and complete in a face-to-face class. I think having an open conversation in person about each assignment would have been beneficial. I also think working in a group face-to-face is much better than trying to do it online. I feel this way because I am a visual learner, I like to see examples and I like to work out problems and ideas on paper. I am also not great with technology so online work can be daunting for me sometimes.

 

Looking back not just on this History 100 course but my whole college career thus far I have mixed emotions. I feel as if there are some courses that I have taken where I could honestly say I’m ready for the real world and have a better understanding of that subject. On the other hand I have experienced some classes where I do not feel the same. Nonetheless my work habits have greatly improved. I also feel my time management is better off where I could handle being out in the real world. I think overall my college experience has been good; professors all have been great at empowering us as students. I feel confident moving forward in my life right now even though I still have one more year to go. BSU has taught me a lot and has helped me grow as a student and as an individual.

 

As far as this course being online I think it is doable. Elective courses or 100 level classes I like being able to have the choice to take it online. Personally it fits my schedule better if I can get a couple classes online. With that being said the context of this course is a bit hard to teach online. Some of the assignments were difficult, and I’m sure hard to present to us through videos online. This course in particular I do think it is better off taught face to face. I think it would make it easier for the students to get a better grasp of some of the topics we have learned. You made yourself available as a professor enough for all to succeed, I just think that with some of the content of this class it would have been easier to understand if I were sitting in class for an hour. All in all I had a good experience and think this class is better off face to face, but at the same time think it is doable if you had to take it online.