This week, we must outline and complete a reference section for an Industry Analysis paper. The plan is to educate ourselves about our prospective job and to find out what companies expect from potential hires.

While I am happily employed as a CS teacher at the moment, for this assignment I will be investigating what it takes to become a Video Game Developer, with special focus on Amazon Game Studios, who just opened a branch locally in San Diego. I selected this because it is extremely relevant to my high school CS students. I would love to network with people who work at our local branch and potentially have them visit my classroom for Computer Science Education Week in December.

Today my CS team met up on Google Hangouts and finished up our first collaborative assignment–a collaborative resume that delimits the unique talents and services our team can offer. I’m happy they approved of my team name, SCSI Logic!

According to Debbie Morrison (2012), the five strategies that successful students engaged in online learning tend to practice are:

• Reviewing and becoming familiar with course syllabi
• Planning and sticking to a study routine
• Signing in to the course’s LMS at least thrice weekly
• Reaching out to instructors with questions when needed
• Fostering and maintaining an online community with classmates

Morrison seems to suggest that, while a student may not have these strategies to begin with, that the strategies can be explicitly taught or individually practice. However, the common thread in successfully applying these five practices is self-direction and responsibility for one’s own learning.

I can say that I already have these five strategies deeply ingrained; but as Morrison suggests, I did not always have these habits. I had to cultivate them. This seems to be a recurring theme, but this article has made me realize that I should be explicitly teaching these habits to my own students. Even though they are in the physical classroom, most teachers in our district utilize an LMS to post the syllabus, slides, and other learning materials. They should be engaging with this material outside of class regularly. Beyond this, a study routine is invaluable for any student–online or in the classroom.

Reference

Morrison, D. (2012, September 28). Five-step Strategy for Student Success with Online Learning. Online Learning Insights. Retrieved from [link]

The first semester of my online CS program at CSU Monterey Bay technically does not start until next week; however, because I am working full time and do not have much spare time, I have already begun to work on the assignments that are visible on iLearn.

Before the semester begins, we are asked to put together a weekly study plan that we can stick to. This gives me an excuse to use the second planner (a miniature one I use for my lesson planning and work events) that I purchased. Here is a screenshot of what my week will look like: