Year 2: Semester 1

For my 1ST semester 2ND year I completed the following courses:

• The Intelligent Organisation
• Business Statistics
• Content Management
• Information Organisation in Libraries

I enjoyed all of these classes aside for one; business statistics. It was another maths subject that had lecturers that could not speak English and seemed to have no idea what they were teaching half of the time. I passed by studying in the last week before the exam, it was bad, but it worked. The classes were useless and I don't know why I kept going to them, I was not learning anything. There was no assignments for this class, only tests and an exam.I received a PASS for this course, I was very happy with it as I was worried that I would fail.

For content management I found it to be a lot like some of the other classes I had done in the previous year. The content of the subject reminded me of Relational Database design and development as we had to create a database, but this time it was a text based database created in DB Textworks, not a relational database. It was a well presented class and the handouts were very helpful in learning how to create the database for the assignment.

For the Intelligent Organisation, I found the class to be very interesting and relevant to my degree. It covered a range of different ways to work with information in companies and how different companies deal with their information. I preformed well in that class and it was easy to understand the content.

Information Organisation in Libraries was my professional elective and it involved the cataloguing of items. I found that it was hard to keep to the rules of cataloguing, but once you had the basic knowledge it was easy to build on. It is also helpful to get a basic idea of Dewey, especially when planning to work in a public library, it makes it much easier to find the correct reference books for patrons without having to look on the computer system.

I passed all of my courses for this semester and did very well in 2 of them. I got the marks I was expecting and I feel that I could only have done better with a little more study, but my work timetable did not really allow for it.

Year 1: Semester 2

This will be my third post on my blog. I have skipped two weeks, this was not intentional and it has set me back, so I will be posting three times this week to make up for it.

To continue from my last post; For my 2ND semester 1ST year I completed the following classes:

• Investigations and Intelligence
• Knowledge management technologies
• Relational Database Design and Development
• Macroeconomics

I did very well in Investigations and Intelligence. It was an easy class to understand and get involved in, I also found it to be very simple to relate to the entire concept of my program. I only had one problem in I & I was completing the group assignment as I had two people in my group who were not very willing to do their share of the workload. This made it very hard to get all of the parts of the assignment together on time, in the same format and to the same standard. This was resolved by having a meeting with the group and doing the majority of the work during the meeting.

Knowledge management technologies was also an easy class for me when I studied. There was a lot of information to take in and I am not very good in making websites. It was also hard to complete the work for the class as my laptop did not have the required programs to make the websites; all of my work had to be completed on the university computers. Finding computers in the labs can be very hard when it gets further into the semester and closer to exams; though at the end of the class I had gained a stronger grasp on the concepts of websites and HTML/XML which will be very beneficial in my future career as information is becoming more and more electronic and on the Internet.

Relational Database Design and Development was an awful class. I found it dull and badly taught by the lecturer. It was hard to learn how to use the database as we were only taught the different terms regarding to the database and how to structure it and not how to make an actual database. I got through that class by doing a lot of outside study of the system, working together with friends and seeking information from people who knew how to use the system. My only goal for that class was to pass, I had no aspirations for high scores as I knew it would be impossible with the lack of information I had been given in the classes. I could see how the course would benefit me, but it needed to be taught better if it was to be of any use to me.

Macroeconomics was also a dreadful course, I ended up failing by 3 points. I could not see how the course related to me and my program and I still can't. It was taught badly as the lecturers' could not speak proper English and did not seem interested in helping students pass. In the first lecture of the course the lecturer said "I will be seeing more than 80% of you again because you are going to fail." That, is not the way to introduce a course. My only goal for that class was to pass and I couldn't achieve it. I hope that the program is changed to include more relevant courses and not ones like macroeconomics. The only forms of assessment for this class was in-class tests and the final exam so it has no assignments page link. I received a fail for this course, I am not very proud of it, but I know that many people from the BP140 degree has had to complete it again.

Year 1: Semester 1

I have realised that I have no structure to my post for this assignment yet, I am just writing randomly, about what ever comes to mind and I find important at the time. I have therefore decided to for a structure for each of my blogs so that I know everything is being covered and I am not repeating myself or missing anything out.

My structure will be, for the first few posts; going over my previous classes and providing a description of them, how I felt about them, and what my goals were for that class and what I achieved in that class.

I will be going in order of when I did the classes. Year 1 Semester 1 classes first, Year 1 Semester 2 classes second, Year 2 semester 1. I will then be up to date and will be able to change the structure of my posts to meet my new needs.

For this post I will try to cover my first semester of uni.

In my first semester at RMIT I completed the classes;

• Marketing
• Introduction to Organisational Behaviour
• Business Computing
• Information Knowledge Environments

I think that these subjects were a brilliant way to introduce me to the world of uni and the concepts of my degree. Organisational Behaviour was very good as it got me involved with students outside of my degree, it forced me to step out of my comfort zone and participate in public speaking and slowly develop my writing skills in many different forms.

Business Computing enforced this by giving me a format for writing my reports and expanding my computer skills.

Information and Knowledge Environments was also a good starting point as it introduced me to the correct way to reference my work and search the many databases of information provided to students at RMIT.

Marketing was the least useful as I found it to be dull and very simple. The one good point about marketing was that it made me more aware of how to use the DLS and meet important deadlines for assignments and tests.

My only goal for my first semester at uni was to pass all of my classes. I was so overwhelmed by it and how different it was to everything had ever done before that all I wanted to do was get through my first semester with no problems or hiccups. I achieved my goal and got better marks than I had first thought, overall I was very happy with my first semester at RMIT.

My Development Thus far in the Course

As of yet I have not made much progress on this assignment so I thought now would be a good time to start posting my reflections on the program, my learning, development and goals for the future of this program and beyond.

In my previous courses I have received marks that I am happy with, with the exception of Macroeconomics, which I failed by 3 points. I found it hard to get through Macroeconomics as maths is not my strong point and the way in which the course was presented I found hard to follow and understand. I like more interaction with the tutors and more of a chance to work through questions on my own and then go over them with the class. The lectures were also a waste of time as I could not understand what the lecturers were saying as they could not speak proper English, this was a major issue for me as I like to have the work explained clearly.

I am now half way through my degree and I am finding that I am having an easier time managing my assignments and work requirements and I am beginning to understand how all of the courses relate to each other and are relevant to my learning and development. The Classes for this semester (year 2 semester 2) are a lot more involved than the previous courses and have more assignments that have to be completed. I have chosen to do Desktop Publishing as I thought it would be relevant to my work in an office. I thought it would also help me in creating my PowerPoint presentations, as I seem to have trouble in creating neat and easy to read presentations.

I will write a new entry tomorrow in continuation of this one as my laptop is about to die.