The process for setting this blog up was fairly easy, but that might be due to the fact that I spend a majority of my time online. I have a couple different gmail accounts to begin with - one for school, one for my phone, and one I got when YouTube became Google+. I'm also no stranger to blogging. Aside from my social media accounts (two I use regularly), I have three actual blogs that I frequently post to, though I prefer using WordPress as a blogging platform to this one.
This blog is for an art course, so I expect to maybe learn a little art theory in this course, because I'm not well-versed on things like "principles of composition." However, I actively review the media I read/watch/play as a writing exercise in my downtime, and I have a 16 page document filled with titles to review. I've written about 10 or so that I haven't posted, and I think I've done at least 20 different movie reviews alone! In that respect, I have a critical framework for examining art and am well-versed in judging and discussion, not to mention that critical thinking is essential for psychology majors. Every paper I write for a course has me critically examining scientific research. It's become hard to read watered-down reports in the news because I have too many questions and the media tends to skew research. Much of my expectation for this course is to stretch my creativity and have a little fun - it is art after all, and the projects excite me a little bit. For me, though, this course doesn't rank as important as some of my others so I'm not really expecting a lot to begin with.
Online courses are great. They're very flexible to a busy college student working and taking class full-time. Every other online course I've been in has been easy and relatively enjoyable. I find that online courses can be more diverse in how they present information, and that sometimes that makes learning the information easier or more fun. I also find that online courses take some of the social anxiety and pressure out of the classroom setting and furthering discussion more naturally. This works so long as there are no stupid rules about the amount of posting you do. I had a professor once who wanted so many responses (like, 15-20 each week) that many responses lacked any quality because students were struggling to meet the high quota - it seemed like he didn't care about what you actually thought and was more concerned that you were coming online every single day. Most professors, however, seem to judge quality over quantity and I've had fantastic discussions with people on various topics because of the Discussion Board option an online course gives. I think with the slight anonymity that comes with an online course, people are more likely to really truly express what they think/how they feel and it enhances the discussion.
But to be honest, those "Growth Mindset" videos are actually really soul-crushing to me. They were super, super hard to listen to.
I found that there's not much here that applies to me, as I am a senior working on her last semester as an undergraduate, while the videos seem very much directed to first-semester freshmen.
They talk about skills that I needed to develop earlier than this - as a Psych major, there are several required courses that would have been even more difficult to pass if I didn't have certain study skills - time management, taking courses seriously, etc.
Also, as a Psychology major all I do is study the brain. I want to go into counseling, using Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Essentially, that's all these videos are discussing; the whole concept of CBT is "change your thinking, change your life." For laypeople, CBT is the therapy Dr. Phil uses.
I did relate to the money issue though - I didn't start college until the age of 25 because financial aid would not cover me before then and I don't want student loan debt (on that note, I have made it all this way without taking out one single loan!) In order to save money, I've gotten 90% of my books as digital copies - I've maybe bought 2 actual physical textbooks in the past 4/5 years.
In fact, starting college at the age of 25 made a lot of stuff easier, as age made me less self-conscious about how people think about me. I was also more serious going back at that age - I cared less about "making friends" or "fitting in" because I live close and have friends already. Those things ceased to be a priority, and my coursework became my sole focus. I fully believe this is what allowed me to make it through my entire college undergraduate work with no less than a 3.0 GPA overall, and a 3.5 major GPA - which got me invited to join Psy Chi, the honor society of psych majors.
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