Tips for ALSC online education courses

After recently taking the ALSC Online Education course, “Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Programs Made Easy,” with Angela Young of Reed Memorial Library, my initial thought was to write a post extolling the virtues of ALSC’s Online Education, but then I remembered, I’ve already done that. (see earlier post)

Instead, as a veteran of five or more ALSC online classes, I have these few tips to help you make the most of your next class.

1. Plan ahead.  Remember to add your professional development needs to your annual budget requests.
2. Think ahead.  Don’t attempt to take a course during a season or time that you know you’ll be busy. There is homework. 😉
3. Folders, folders, folders.  Whether the class is more instructional, e.g. Children with Disabilities in the Library, or more collaborative, e.g. Stem Programs made Easy, you will receive a lot of information in a short amount of time.  Use your hard drive, thumb drive, or cloud storage to make a folder and subfolders for your course content.  If your class is a collaborative one, i.e. each student contributing programs for re-use, you will receive a plethora of useful programs that you will want to use in the future.
4. Rename files.   Most students (myself included) will submit work to the group’s shared board with some variation of Name, Assignment Name, Date.  This is helpful to the class instructor, but not to you as you frantically sort through folders trying find the great program on flight dynamics. If you download any of the proffered assignments, name them appropriately and include the author’s name (see below).
5. Save a list of your classmates.  In the future, you may need a name or email address to connect, collaborate, clarify or credit.

Any tips you’d like to share?

New classes start January 5th!  What are you waiting for?