So a while back I thought I was going to write about the other day of classes I have. I didn’t.
Since this is the final full week of classes and as of this time next week I will be completely done, I’ll write about them now.
HIST2350 – Modern China. Oh. Wow. As part of my degree program, I am required to take a “diversity” class that will educate me about something other than the normal stuff you get at US schools and will broaden your horizons from the usual programming, techie, weird stuff. This class has pretty much been really fun and interesting while completely kicking my tookus. Readings twice a week, every week, quizzes about every other week, really intense midterm, research paper, and a final I haven’t taken yet.
I started out really confident about my research paper but got my original proposal turned down. I took some time to rethink it and finally it came to me on a ride home from the Cape. I sat down over the weekend and wrote the entire thing from all the notes I collected. It’s pretty awesome right now. I spoke with the professor today and he seemed reassuring that I could still do well. I give it a B overall. I would probably take a different class if I had a choice to do it again but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy learning as much as I have.
IS4800 – Empirical Research Methods. Pretty typical research class. Learn about the different types of studies, do them. Rinse, repeat. The professor tries his best to be interesting and keep us interested and I have to respect him for that. The second half of the semester has be more exciting than the first because we are running full scale studies. It’s also a little stressful because it’s random groups that change for each study and the pile of end of semester work was high before the studies. This one gets a B but mostly because there really needs to be a way to make the first half of the semester less dry.
MISM3305 – Information Resource Management. Holy crap. This is the slowest, driest as the Sahara, most bleh class ever. We sit and stare at the professor stumble through something that is almost but not quite a lecture. We have a final but no graded materials to use as any sort of guide as to what will be on the final and how she will grade. Luckily, we have a final paper and presentation that she has, more or less, handed to us. While that makes it easy, it also makes it terrible because she gives us research materials that she wrote. This class gets a C-, so close to giving you credits toward your degree but really just hanging there to be a monkey on your back. Take it if someone else teaches and if it’s not TuF 325-505, maybe it will be fun. Maybe.
So there you go, my Tuesday/Friday classes for this semester. As a former coworker says, “Fun and exciting stuff.”