I Pass My First Class

The good news out of library-school land this week is that I passed my first class. It is, funnily enough, the class that required me to create this blog. Unless you get a waiver, everyone enrolled in the MLS program must pass the basic "Computer Based Information Tools" class. I decided to get this done first, as it is a prerequisite for many other classes in the program. It is a pass/fail class, and I found certain parts of it challenging. I was nervous about not passing. So nervous, that this kept on popping in my head:

I wasn't sure what to expect from it at first, but it was an independent class. The students did everything on their own, with guidance from our professor if there were questions. There were tutorials on different "tools" for computer learning. These were accessed through Adobe, right on the campus server. You could take the tutorials as many times as needed to pass, and then at the end there was an exam (4 exams total). They included everything from basic "this is the Internet" chapters to word processing chapters, and then the final chapter dealt with more complex issues, such as creating databases. The tutorials also tied in this computer knowledge with libraries. I was surprised by how much I didn't know! During the chapter for cataloging, which I figured I'd ace, (having worked in a cataloging department before) I was surprised by how many technical terms were unfamiliar to me. It knocked me down quite a few pegs, I'll admit.

In addition to the tutorials and exams, we had four proficiency exams that needed to be submitted. They included everything from creating a blog, liking the school's Facebook page, creating a spreadsheet and doing Internet research, to the last project, which I struggled over for a few weeks: creating a web page from raw html codes. I knew a few html codes (how to bold something, etc) but I had never actually created an entire web page from it. After some cursing and trying-again and again-I finally got it to work. It wasn't anything fancy, and I still had a few problems with some tags, but it was enough. I'm glad I learned how to do the basics, but I'm not sure if I'll ever use it again. But-never say never, right?

I'm going to keep this blog going, as I find it's a good outlet for me to write about my school and work experience. I also created a basic website using Weebly, but I'm not sure if that will be updated. Even though it was a pass/fail class, I'm proud of the work I did. It was my very first class, and taking an online class was a new experience for me. It also helped that I had a great professor who was always available for my questions. Now, I have one class left for this semester, then a quick break until my first summer session starts. Hooray!