I Don’t Want To Go
I’m just a first year student who like most others tries to keep their head down and out of the glare of social media. As I currently study Cyber Security and Behaviour at Western Sydney University I had the chance to participate in the Unit ‘Living, Learning and Working on the Web’ in which the aim was to highlight the effects of social media presence and set you on your way to building your own. My learning experience for this unit really helped to increase my understanding of the online world yet it became difficult to successfully apply this knowledge as well as having to put myself in the spotlight.
Blogging
The main aspect of this unit was writing blogs as well as being able to evaluate our own and others work. Throughout the semester we had two assessments that required a 500-word blog and two comments on others blogs. With little experience my first submission became ‘The Shield of the Pseudonym’ whilst catchy, this still had difficulty capturing the argument of surveillance. I spent a lot of time researching online looking for information provided in the unit and elsewhere online. From receiving a distinction worthy mark and feedback telling me that I was on the right track, there didn’t seem like I could do much more besides include academic sources rather than other articles. Disheartened by this result and the broad nature of the unit, I became disillusioned and started to participate less and less. When the second blogging assessment was due by the 7th week, I had stopped blogging and wrote out the assessment an hour before it was due. ‘Let me Mind your Business’ became my fifth written blog (out of three published) and there was a clear drop in quality due to amount of time spent on it. At this point I just wanted to submit the work as I felt like I wasn’t being challenged, yet the irony was palpable as my marks suffered. This relates to the theory of flow as in this case, the work was not challenging enough, which led to a declined interest in completing it. I didn’t enjoy the blogging aspect and it probably not something I will continue, but it is still important to learn the impact of your social media presence, which is one of the main focuses of the unit.
Lectures
Most students would confirm that the lectures and tutorials are important to attend to understand the course work and be able to achieve highly in the unit. This unit was not exactly the case. The online lectures were a mixture of a lecture and a tutorial as it became a more Q&A style discussion in which we would attempt to stay on topic but would generally branch off into an unrelated topic that would be just as if not more interesting. The most interesting observation from this was how quickly attendance dropped off. Despite having 95 members in the units closed Facebook group, the first week had less than 30 participants. This continued to drop until even I stopped attending. Weekly activities were expected to be completed in which the topic of that week would be discussed to give a broader mindset of the particular chosen focus. The lecturers were extremely knowledgeable in their fields and were able to provide a deep level of knowledge on each weeks topics yet the failing was that as a student, this didn’t provide much assistance to the assessments. Even though our society is moving towards a more technology based lifestyle, it doesn’t seem to me that online lectures are a good way forward. I’m hesitant enough to go to lectures when I’m on campus, but trying to make time later at night while I’m either travelling home from uni or just not thinking about work reduces the likeliness of my attendance. The online aspect removed me from working mode, as I was no longer in uni mode and off campus. This in turn reduced my levels of cooperation and focus making the lectures more of a chore, despite the interesting content being discussed. In future if I have online lectures, I would aim to be present on campus to stay in ‘uni mode’. The lectures really provided eye opening observations for me in how the progression of technology has continued to effect us all especially in the learning environment.
Interactions
The engagement and interaction from students is one of the hardest aspects of a unit to get right. I mentioned that I did disengage from the unit after a while but through every lecture I attended, I wanted to input and be part of the discussion. Even the use of the Facebook page to share everyone’s work and the constant banter between the students and the teachers highlighted the interest in the focus for each week. I may not of completed every weeks tasks but I was able to look through everyone’s posted work to build greater understanding. Especially prevalent was the creation of a cyber security group chat in which everyone was able to work off each other and convey ideas that may not of been brought up in lectures. There was also a select group of students whose task it was to get others to engage by following their lead unbeknownst to the rest. Having no physical body to the unit certainly did not restrict it from engaging a majority of the students undertaking it. Being able to achieve this is impressive in its own right yet taking into account that this unit was able to do something that most physical units can not just goes to show the effort and care put in.
Overall, Living, Learning and Working on the Web has its flaws yet a lot of effort and time went into creating and sustaining the unit. I could of done more in this unit as this is the perfect example of you get back what you put in. Whilst my prejudice against moving courses online is prevalent, this just goes to show that it can be effective and that its shortcomings can be overcome.
References
https://study.com/academy/lesson/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-flow-theory-works.html
https://medium.com/@edenhodge0/the-shield-of-the-pseudonym-ebc7d0e368de
https://medium.com/@edenhodge0/let-me-mind-your-business-c0fbf9abfac5
https://elearningindustry.com/5-advantages-of-online-learning-education-without-leaving-home
