Canadian Geography 120 in a Distance Education Setting

I really enjoyed the Distance Education course that I took this semester. I feel that the semester work plan guide did meet my needs in that I rarely felt rushed to get my assignments completed. I felt that the work load was fairly average, and wasn’t too much for me to do. The information that I was given on the website for my assignments was clear and concise. I was able to follow along easily. There were a few resources available for my course, but more would make it easier to find what you are looking for.
Students should be told in detail about the Distance Education courses, and what will be expected of you. They should be told completely that it is on your own and there isn’t someone reminding them that their assignment is due. I had no problems whatsoever with navigating the course or finding out where anything was. The site was designed well, and everything seems to be at your fingertips with regards to finding what you need. The roles of the teacher and facilitator seem odd to me. The teacher mainly just sits in the class and keeps order, as they may not have taught the subjects that are in that class. Plus there is a teacher in a different place that can help you out if you need it. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the teacher in the classroom know the subjects of the students in their room? For example, it would be more beneficial to me to have a canadian geography teacher in my class, so then I could just go up and ask my question and get an immediate response. With a facilitator, sometimes you have to wait a day or so to get an answer about the question that you have. I do not think that a weekly tutorial for all students would be beneficial, because different students work at their own pace, so having a tutorial for everyone would mess up the process of the students who learn at different paces. The email accounts could be better utilized because they could be a place where the facilitators could send a quick word of praise to the students who did good on an assignment, etc. I don't think deadlines should be placed on the units because then it seems like so much more work to do, whereas when you have one assignment that's due in a week, it doesn't seem like that much work that needs to be done. I do believe that more pictures, diagrams and graphics would add a lot to the course, instead of just a lot of text. As for the assignments, my only complaint is the amount of graphs and diagrams that needed to be labelled and made. They are the most time-consuming of anything.
The regular evaluation of student progress could be improved by more communication between the facilitators and the students. There could be a place where you could keep a journal showing your progress within the course. If you make the journal worth some marks I'm sure that the students would be more than willing to participate. I think students should be tested whenever the test is scheduled. By giving a student a date, it is their responsibility to be ready by this time. I think the tests should be done online, as it is an online course. Students should become familiar with the computers, and should be able to navigate on them efficiently enough to be able to write a test online. I think the evaluation should be formatted in a way that allows the students to show what they have learned and to show that their online course was beneficial to them in some way. I think that regular assignments should be worth 80%, work ethic, regular testing, special projects, and the final examination should be worth 5% each. The assignments are the main topic in this course, as it is where you learn all the information, so it should have the biggest weight.
I liked being able to work at my own pace and teach myself about the topics, rather than being taught to. That made the course interesting and fun for me. However, I did not really like all of the maps and graphs and diagrams that I needed to do. They took a lot of time, which could have been put towards something else. I would take another distance course, but since I am graduating, I can't. I did enjoy it because it was a nice break from the normal, everyday class room setting.

Journal #12

(Media Studies)

This week I would like to talk about our advertising project that we are working on. My group is doing subliminal messaging and product placement. I find that researching subliminal messages is very interesting, because you see the messages in a different way if your purpose is to dissect them. There are a lot of subliminal messages out there that we don't really think about because we just see them as an ad, not as having a hidden message in them. We can be easily influenced by advertisements because we do not take the time to really look at them and see what the meaning is. The advertisements can have a whole different meaning, but if you do not take the time to look at it, you will not notice it. When we looked at the ads in class, we saw something totally different when we really looked at them. Some people might think that the ads were sexy and appropriate, but if you take the time to look you can see that women are portrayed totally differently in ads. I think that this advertising project will be very informative and will make people look at advertisements in a whole new light.

Journal #11

(Media Studies)

This week I would like to talk about how advertising affects us. Advertising affects us in basically everything we do. We are constantly influenced about what we see in ads, which can be seen or heard on the radio, television, magazines and newspapers. If we see an ad with something that we are familiar with, we will probably stop to watch it, just because we like the product or have seen it before. There are also commercials that people will watch over and over again, simply because they like the commercial, not necessarily the product. Advertising affects us because we may see an ad about a product, and then buy it because we like how the product was portrayed in the ad. Personally, I will watch commercials that I like, and sometimes will get an idea for something else based on some of the ads I see in magazines, etc. Very rarely will I go and buy a product that I see on a commercial or in an ad, unless I have thought about buying it before. Overall, we are still influenced and affected by every type of advertising. 

Journal #10

(Media Studies)

This week I would like to talk about the ongoing disputes that are centred around the Olympics. I know it is a very controversial topic, so I would like to throw my two cents in. I believe that countries should boycott the Olympics to show China that the world does not agree with its rule over Tibet. I don't think the Olympics should be put on in a country that us bringing such harm onto other people. It has escalated so that it is no longer about the athletes, but Tibet. The Olympics are supposed to be a symbol of peace, and I agree with many other people that the Olympics should not be held when there is not really a sense of peace in the world. Many people have said that the pro Tibet protesters are being disrespectful towards the athletes as they have continued to try to sabotage the torch relay. In my opinion, these people have been protesting for a long time, and now are simply using the Olympics as a global stage to get the word out. I completely approve.

Journal #9

(Media Studies)

This week I would like to talk about the presentations that are being done in class. I am really enjoying them, even if my group has not gone yet. I have found that they are extremely informative, as most have taken the entire class. I feel that they are very in depth, and I have learned a lot. I think that the visuals, like the clothing that are similar to the decades, are a nice part of the presentations as it is something different than just a poster. I find that learning about these decades are very interesting, especially to see that some things that were popular then are still popular now. I really liked working on my presentation with my group, and I learned a lot while working on it. It is a nice change from the basic essays that we always have to write. I think this kind of presentation enables us to learn and see things about a different topic that we might normally just learn about with writing notes. I hope my group gets to present soon and hopefully everyone will like it. Even though one group has done the fifties already, my group has some different information, so it shouldn't be repetitive.

Journal #8

(Media Studies)
This week I would like to talk about potentially boycotting the Olympics in Beijing later this year. Even though it would hurt the athletes who have trained hard for this event and may not be able to return to the next games, I believe it is a safety concern. With China ruling over Tibet, and the fighting that has been going on because they want to have control over a place that has certain religious rules, it has caused major problems within the country. I think that bringing people from all over the world to a place that is having a war within it, is just asking for major trouble. It has the potential to be a serious safety risk, and people's health and safety could be in jeopardy. I think that the rumours that the prime minister is saying that Canada will probably not boycot the Olympics is out of order. I think that they are saying this simply because the Olympic Games are coming to Vancouer after that. There are several major protesting groups that are fighting for the freedom of Tibet, and if many countries boycotted the Olympics, it would be a world wide message that China should leave Tibet alone.

Journal #7

(Medis Studies)
This week I would like to talk again about our project on different decades. My group is doing the 1950's, and it is going quite well. We are filming a skit along with our own individual topics. The skit combines all of our topics into one, including music, fashion and family. The skit is taking a lot of time, but it should come together nicely. We have a script and everything, so the main problem is remembering the lines and acting out the parts at the right time. Having props for the set from Mrs. Briden's room is very beneficial, and I do not know how we could have done the skit without it. If anything, it will be extremely entertaining, and we are adding on some bloopers too. It should be really funny, and depict some of the common things that occurred in this decade. I am the camera-woman, and even though I'm not very good at it, I don't think it will look that bad. (fingers crossed) Anyway, I am learning a lot about the decade, and it is a very fun assignment.