That's A Wrap.

Okay, I made it. I'm done. As of Wednesday night, I finished all of my projects and finals....everything is turned in and now I start waiting for the results. I have already received the final grade for one class but I have two more to receive marks from. I am kind of curious as to how three classes led to 5 finals but I suppose that was my price for not having to write a thesis...though I would have taken the thesis anyday over group projects...yuck.

It's strange to realize that this is it....for 2 months, at least. But the next time I'm in a classroom, it will be a real one and not just the warm glow of my laptop screen. Taking classes online is a surreal experience. And one that seems to be a bit controversial. When I went to William & Mary for the admitted students weekend, I had a chance to meet with the head of the law library since I will be the law librarian fellow there next year....though they have offered this fellowship for five years now, I am the first to receive it...I guess it's not so common to run from one graduate degree to another....

Anyway, as I was telling this man about my degree and what I had learned, etc., he expressed his feelings about online education...how he felt that an online degree did not carry as much weight as a degree granted from a traditional university environment. While the red-headed part of me wanted to fight with him right then and there, my better side stepped in and reminded me that brawling with your future "boss" is not a good way to start things. So I acknowledges his concerns and pointed out some of the things I felt I had gained from doing classes online and left it at that. He'll find out soon enough that an online education, at least in my case, is every inch as valid as one in a classroom.

But I understand his point. Before I started this program, I was disdainful of online programs...to me, they equated to nothing more than the University of Phoenix or ITT Tech. I thought of online degrees as the collegiate equivalent of vocational school in high school - where you went if you couldn't hack the "real" class load. I admit, I was an academic snob. Even when I took "online" classes at UK, I still had to be on campus for several face-to-face classes, tests, and finals...and all the researching...I might as well have been a regular student. So when I moved out here to Utah, the land of no Library Sciences programs, my only alternative was to go with a true online course...I couldn't fly back to UK every other week, though I would have done so if I could have afforded it.

In my first quarter 100% online, I got a bit of a reality check....online classes were not just something I could breeze through on autopilot. While I could choose when I would handle the workload, I couldn't lessen the load....because I would pay for that later, like on the exams. It was a bit of a humbling experience for me. I admit that I am a bit of a slacker when it comes to classes and doing assignments, etc. I did well in college with minimal effort on my part - I was the student you loved to hate - the one who missed half the classes, rolled in late for the final and walked out with an "A." Now if I liked a class, I would pay attention and participate, blah blah...but there were many classes that I sat through where I didn't even know the professor's name or official title of the class - I was just there to fulfill a requirement and move on to better things.

In that aspect, online classes were a lot harder for me. There was no breezing through. Even if I found the subject matter mind-numbingly boring, I had to pay attention and do every assignment, participate in the online discussions and all that crap because that was the only way to get a grade...it wasn't like college where I could lie about why I had missed half the quarter (if you check with various professors at my undergraduate university, you will discover that I had mono more than any other person in the history of mankind...let's just hope those professors never talk to each other and put two and two together, right?).

So my point in all this is that I can honestly say that the online program, it meant something to me. I have always loved school because it is something I can do well, but until my online experiences, I didn't realize how much I had taken for granted or had abused in my traditional education. I learned a lot about self-discipline doing online classes and I needed that, as I am not one who is naturally inclined towards discipline of any kind. Damn the man, anti-establishment, anti-authoritarian, hippie, etc. etc. As I get ready for law school and start freaking out over horror stories that people tell me about the first year, I am glad I did this degree. I think I'll be a better student in the real classroom this time around.