Introduction and Initial Thoughts

My name is Eileen Kielty and I am enrolled in Lesley’s online Bachelor’s in Psychology program. I was delighted to be asked to post to Lesley’s blog as I am a firm believer in the power of support and helping others along their journey. I have been a student at Lesley since August 2011 and have just finished up my seventh and eighth online courses and my fourth accelerated session (completing Fall I & II and Spring I & II).

My story, like most adult learners at Lesley, is a unique one. I am a professional dancer that started college at age 20, due to sustaining dance-related injuries my senior year of high school that forced me to take two years off before majoring in dance at Dean College in Franklin, MA. After completing my freshman year there, I spent a summer at The Ailey School in NYC, fell in love with the program, changed to an Associate’s degree, graduated the following spring from Dean, (Summa Cum Laude) and enrolled in Ailey’s year-long Independent Study Program. After completing a year in NYC, I moved back to Boston to dance with a company.

I have always been a fan of school and, especially funding things myself, my education has always been something I treasure and truly value. I soon realized that I wanted to continue my education in my other passion; psychology. I had originally planned on earning my Bachelor’s in Dance and my Associate’s in Psychology, conveniently, I just switched the two. The plan is to earn my Master’s in Expressive Arts/Movement Therapy and my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in the upcoming years.

Because my profession is so unpredictable, involves traveling between Boston and NYC and involves many project-based opportunities, Lesley’s online accelerated program was the answer! This program has allowed me to actively pursue my degree while actively pursuing my dance career. I have done homework on the train and the bus; on vacation and in my bathrobe. Not only are the professors incredibly engaged and invested in their students, the format and forums of the online program have allowed me to feel connected to my fellow classmates. My biggest worry was that I would feel alone in this process and would miss the face-to-face give and take that an on campus class provides. I can honestly say that this program has changed my view on online learning. I will share some tips that I have found to be helpful in my upcoming posts, but for now, that’s my introduction and my initial thoughts on Lesley’s online program.

Warmly,

Eileen

Nearing the finish line...

(well for this class anyway...)

Week 6 of Fall 2 classes wrapped up today. Week 8 is in sight, which means I really need to be working on my time management. Statistics has a big project due at the end of the class, and while there are intermediate deadlines along the way, it is easy to put it off until the end of each week. I don't want to let myself get behind.

Now that I am back to taking one class at a time, I've find myself getting a little lazy. Time management is really important for online classes, and when I was so busy, I was better at watching that everything got done ahead of time- now it's more like "right on time".

In addition to the large research project, we also have problem sets that carry across multiple weeks- yet another thing to procrastinate on! As Christmas gets closer and my schedule gets busier, I don't have the time to put things off (like this blog, usually I post earlier in the week!)

Does anyone have time management tips? I tend to use lists, and they work for me, but what isn't working right now is motivation. I have 2 sessions left, so I guess this is kind of what it feels like when you hit senior year in high school or undergrad. Just ready to be finished! It is really amazing how fast the program has gone- I did double up on some terms, but my Master's will be finished in well under 2 years!

I don't think I'm nearly as close to the real finish line as I'd like to think!

Ready for Spring!

Registration for the spring term took place earlier this month, and I am all set with the classes I am taking for the two spring sessions. I went to a very large university for my undergrad, and registering for classes was a huge pain. I have memories of sitting with six different telephones, hitting redial until one finally connected (and then when we went to web registration, the system was always busy!) It is amazing that I can just log into a system (on the first try), select the classes I want, know they'll have openings, and be done. It's so easy! I get a weird sense of accomplishment just having the classes registered for. They are ticked off my graduation plan, so now I can see the finish line in site! Problem is, I still have to take them (and then the summer term.)

We are at the half-way mark for the Statistics class, and it is going well. This is definitely the most difficult class for me so far, in that the curriculum isn't really familiar. Luckily, the instructors is the most involved one I've had so far. She emails the class regularly, and posts on the discussion board quite a bit. Some of the instructors are very hands off, so for a difficult class, I'm glad I got one who is hands on!


Wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving! I'll probably be working on statistics- we got a note to warn us it was a content heavy week...and to plan our time accordingly if we were planning on taking some days off. I'll admit I'm a little surprise a break isn't figured into the schedule.

Session 2...

Last week Fall Session 2 began. This session I am taking Statistics, more on that in a minute.

I am really happy to be back to taking just one class at a time. For one, taking two classes at a time, while also working full time and keeping a full schedule of after-work activities was kind of taking a toll on me. I felt really worn down. But also, session 2 is a good time for an easier course load. Between all the terms (winter-summer-fall) there is a bit of a break. Between the sessions, you don't get a break. The first session ends on Friday, and the new session starts on Monday. But, most of the time instructors take work through Sunday, so I don't finish up until Saturday afternoon, and if you wait until Monday to start your new course (which I usually don't, but did this time) you will find most of your classmates have already started working and feel behind.

The good news is it looks like Statistics is going to be a great class. It is set up to be very collaborative. Right now, we have two defined work groups. For one, the class is divided into 3 groups of about 5, and we do all our main discussions in these groups. This makes it more manageable then other classes where the discussions were going on among everyone. We are encouraged to "peak" into the other discussion boards, but I think conversation is easier knowing the five people we are mainly working with.

The second group is a private group- we can't see anyone else in the class. My group has two other people in it. This is set up as a sounding board for our final project. The final project is a statistical study, and is causing me a lot of stress. It seems like many people are planning to do a study with their students. I am not a teacher, so I don't have an easy group of 30+ people (we learned that it isn't recommended to do a study of less than 30 observational units). I am trying to come up with a study about inanimate objects, but I am having a hard time making it meaningful. For example, right now we are working with counting the number of raisins in a small box. It is an easy thing to collect data on, and models the process of collecting and interpreting data well, but it isn't very meaningful. I'm hoping inspiration will strike me soon!

Bittersweet

There is so much emotion and exhaustion in this final blog of mine for Website Design 6009. I have pushed myself really hard in this class to learn as much as I could in a very short eight weeks. I say very short, because this easily could have been a six month class, in my opinion. There was so much to learn and do. I am definitely the type of student that needs lots of practice to really assimilate the information I am learning. This class provided plenty of that! I was enlightened to a whole new world with even more acronyms that I still am confused with. I learned a lot and I am so greatly impressed by the work of my classmates. I look at their work and wonder how I compare. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of things, I see what others have done and I am impressed and at the same time depressed. I know I will never do web design full time, but I at least know a few basics. I don't know if I could get a site up and going all by myself, but maybe Bill would love another email from me! I was the student that was constantly sending emails; asking questions, and asking for help. Bill is probably greatly relieved that this class is over and my emails will finally end.
There is another ending here for me. I have just completed my Master's program at Lesley. I will greatly miss the constant communication with teachers and classmates. I will have some free time on my hands and probably not know what to do with it. I have greatly enjoyed every moment of being a graduate student. I am so glad I did this program. Today, I am physically exhausted from the long hours put into this class, emotional about the end, proud of my accomplishment, and excited to use my new skills and education. It is so bittersweet.

Expected Value

The topic this week in Probability was Expected Value. Unlike many of the topics, which I have been exposed to before, this one was completely new to me.

It is such a useful idea! If McDonald's has 5 different Happy Meal toys (do they still do that? Or do unhealthy foods advertising to kids not allow it anymore?), and there is an equally likely chance you will get any one toy, how many should you expect to buy to get them all? The answer is about 12. Now, you may be lucky and get them in just 5 purchases, or you may get unlucky, and have it take many many more than that, but on average (say you and 1,000 of your closest friends are all collecting the toys) it should only take 12 purchases.

One of my favorite things to do at a store is buy a grab bag. If you know 20% of the grab bags are worth $100, and 30% are worth $50, and 50% are worth $10, is it a good idea to pay $25 to choose one at random? Expected value can help you inform your decision. On average, the return of a grab bag is $40, so paying $25 is a reasonable gamble.

Probability classes are generally a lot of coin flipping and dice rolling, so the real life application of expected value was what really made me interested in my topic. On a phone call with my Dad, who works in finance, I mentioned the topic we were covering, and he immediately started talking about how he uses expected value all the time at work. That made me smile, because students always ask about math "when am I going to use this?" It is nice to hear that someone really does!

A unique experience

This class in writing HTML and designing webpages has been a total love/hate relationship. I love what I am learning and get so excited when I see a finished product that does what I want it to. On the other hand, I hate when I think I have it all under control and I look at a preview to see things are not what I wanted. Just adding a "td" or "tr" can totally screw up the works. The hours I have spent with the trial and error approach has my family wondering if this laptop computer is now an appendage! I have a new appreciation for those that can do this for a living. I am sure with a few more thousand hours, I could really get the hang of it. Fortunately, for all those out there I will not be switching careers to designing web pages. I have a friend who just designed her own web page for her business on her Mac with iWeb. I am a little jealous that it looks great and she did not have to be attached to her computer writing code for hours on end. I know that I could have cheated on occasion and used the editor, but I really wanted to understand and have control. I am admittedly a "control freak". I am also determined. I will finish strong and achieve my look. If you get a chance, check it out:
http://ada.lesley.edu/faculty/warrigon/Ecomp6009/wa110107/module5/unique.html . I was told in order to make myself stand out in this job market I needed to show how I am unique. This website is my attempt.