RS101OL - Critical Review

RS101OL - Highlights and Lowlights

The final grade was posted a couple days ago for RS101OL which means it's time to reflect on how things went in the course.  So I'll offer a critical review of the class and my performance throughout.  As with any endeavor, there were things that were done well, and things that could have been done better.  Without pulling any punches, here are my highlights and lowlights.

RS101OL - Orientation and Research Methods

There are a lot of different ways to evaluate a class and my intention is to be as objective as possible.  However, it's also important to gauge how subjectively valuable the course was to me personally and how much it contributes to my personal goals in attending DTS.  So this breakdown will cover the gamut in terms of criteria.  I like this format for reviewing my classes, so you'll forgive me for just sticking with that script.

Professor: Billy Todd is officially the instructor for this course but it would be a little disingenuous to single him out when reviewing this class.  The truth is that there are many instructors who deliver the class lectures depending on the topic of the lesson.  In general, each professor did a good job with their lectures, but it was a little difficult to get into a rhythm in the class given the constantly changing speakers.  Overall, the course was more of a collage of topics rather than an integrated stream formulated around a consistent theme.

Texts:  There were only three main texts (four if you count the DTS supplement to Turabian) which each served a unique purpose in the course.  Of the three, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers by Kate Turabian is the most useful, not only for this course but for the DTS program in general.  While a little intimidating at first, it doesn't take long to get used to the style and DTS simplifies things a bit by providing Word templates that make writing papers a snap.  Michael Kibbs book From Topic to Thesis: A guide to Theological Research was also useful in beginning to take some of the mystery out of formulating a thesis topic which will be helpful in the future when I begin working on my thesis project.

Online Format: As usual, the online format was robust and great.  The material presented in the videos was helpful and contributed significantly to completing the learning assignments.  What is interesting in this class, however, is that no credit is given for actually watching the course lectures.  I did find this a bit strange as you can't really do the assignments easily without watching the videos.

Graduate Teaching Assistant:  So far at DTS, I'm three for three with GTAs.  My GTA in this course was again outstanding and very quick to respond to any questions that I had throughout the semester.  Always thoughtful, helpful, and professional.

Grading:  Grading for me in this class was a mixed bag.  As previously mentioned, there was no credit given for actually watching the video courses.  Maybe it's me, but I'm just not a fan of doing work without getting any credit.  The learning assignments, however, were very interesting and significantly contributed to the learning.  They were also for the most part objective assignments which meant the grading was really based on putting the time in to produce the right answers.  And then there was the exam on using the Turabian format.  While the exam was only 10 questions, it accounted for 10% of the final grade.  There was very little room for error even though this was an open book exam (I hate these kinds of exams even more than exams in general) and it was disappointing that so much of the final grade was placed on 15 minutes of work during the semester.  I nearly blew it by actually getting 1.5 questions wrong which did vex me a little bit after I finished the test.  That said, at the end of the course when final marks were given, my final grade was actually rounded up which pleased me greatly.

Time Commitment:  I spent exactly 3 hours per credit hour per week on this course for a total of roughly 3 hours per week or 8 hours per module.  I totaled about 49 hours of work over the course of the semester which for a 1 credit class was perfect.  The thing to keep in mind for this course is the modules are pretty spaced out during the semester which is nice but you have to keep a close eye on things so that nothing slips through the cracks.

Learning Objectives:  As mentioned previously, the class is more of a collage of related topics so it's not surprising to find the learning objectives follow suit.  In general, all the learning objectives are helpful to better understanding the material and provide an opportunity to directly apply the learning using real examples.  Also mentioned before, most of the assignments are objectively graded (either right or wrong answers) so it's important to just be thorough in making sure you understand what is being asked and double checking your answers to ensure they're right.

Personal Impact:  This is the kind of class you take just because you have to.  It's not the most interesting learning and can at times seem more like a chore.  That said, there are enough little things that you will pick up during this class that are immediately helpful in other areas of the DTS program.  Learning to use the library tools, learning about the Turabian style of writing, and learning about bibliographic software programs are among the highlights of practical learning in this course that will no doubt help me as I continue through the program.

Overall:  It's an important course that prepares students for success in other courses where the amount of time required is fair and balanced for the number of course credits.  It's important to take the work in the class seriously as there is little room for error which is partly due to the fact that it's only one credit hour.

Highlights:

• Online format affords a high degree of flexibility in managing time for completing assignments.
• Faculty and staff are highly committed to the students and their learning.
• Online format delivers information in multiple formats which significantly enhances the ability to learn and retain information (video, audio, transcripts).
• Good focus on learning the Turabian format which is required for the rest of the DTS program.
• The broad set of topics covered deliver lots of little nuggets of wisdom that can be immediately applied and used within the broader program.
• Introduced to bibliographic software which immediately improved my experience in my other course.

Lowlights:

• The class can seem a bit choppy as it covers such a broad range of topics.
• Very little room for error in completing the assignments if you're striving for top marks.  This is partly due to how the final grade distribution is structured and you need to be mindful of the grade weights when working through the material.
• In retrospect, it would have been nice if they could have spent a little more time covering Logos topics as there is still much to be learned in using that software package.
• There are only 6 modules to complete over 15 weeks which is very comfortable but requires a little discipline in time management.  It would be easy to slip into a false sense of comfort and let things slide to the last minute.  While this wouldn't be a catastrophic situation in this class, it would nonetheless be uncomfortable.

Strategy and Best Practices

So I think it's helpful to discuss a little bit my approach to the class and give you some best practices for getting the most out of the class and meeting your goals.

1. I was very keen to focus on starting the learning assignments early so I'd have plenty of time to make sure I was pleased with the work I was submitting.  This is probably one of the best success factors for any course and good habit of getting into.
2. I definitely made things a little more difficult for myself by giving 1.5 final grade points away on the Turabian exam.  So how did that happen.  Well, on one question I just didn't read it carefully enough and overlooked a part of one of the answers.  That happens and it's hard to get overly upset about that.  The second wrong answer was a function of me overthinking things when answering the question.  My advice is simple, don't over analyze exam questions in any of your courses.  This is the second class where I've gotten multiple exam questions wrong by overthinking the semantics of the question.  Stick with your gut feeling and move on.  More often than not, your gut feeling in this program will be correct.  Did I ever mention in this blog how much I hate tests? :)
3. Learn to use bibliographic software.  I chose to learn how to use Zotero because it was free and very straightforward to learn.  I saved countless hours of time and effort by doing so.  Zotero integrates nicely with Word and dropping citations into your papers is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons.  Do it.
4. This is a one credit class and there aren't a lot of learning assignments.  Don't be afraid to spend a little extra time on them.  Especially the last assignment which requires the student to practice creating citations for a paper.  It's not the most elegant assignment, but it's important to just take your time and identify the kind of work being cited and working through the five examples.  Don't give away marks by rushing through the assignments.  Sure you can complete some of these assignments in a matter of minutes, but what's a couple of hours of extra thought over the course of the semester?

So How Did I Do?

Please keep in mind that I am only a part-time student and have taken only four credits this semester.  Therefore, I was able to schedule a comfortable amount of time for this course.  That would have been a little trickier with a full course load...

Despite the minor frustration of giving away 1.5 final grade points on my Turabian exam, I was careful enough in the rest of my learning assignments to earn full marks.  While technically, this should have resulted in an A for the course, my final grade was rounded up and I was awarded an A+.  From a GPA perspective, it's a moot point, but it was nice to see the plus sign hanging off the end of my letter grade.

This class is a bit of a chore, but the GTA was great and the information learned was both necessary and beneficial.  My advice is to just be careful and take your time to work through the material.  It's not the most interesting class but it's an important one.