As the term comes to a close, I’ve reflected on how some of the weeks were relatively easier while others were a bit more stressful and I also learned a lot about my learning strengths and weaknesses. I believe the strengths that I naturally possessed regarding organization, as well as determination to stick to a plan or schedule helped me to stay on top of all 5 of my classes. There were a couple of slips however, and I notice that my weakness in my academics is outside stress. I noticed that a couple of times where I procrastinated and didn’t stick to the routine that I planned for myself for taking care of my coursework were when I had been really stressed out over things that were going on outside of school. This is something that I want to improve, because stressful events in life will always happen and I cannot let that affect my academics or one day I will fall too far behind.

I actually enjoyed taking this course much more than I initially thought I would have. It put things in perspective to take the time to evaluate myself and my learning skills and weaknesses. I will definitely have a new and improved outlook on how I approach my academics from here on. I will continue to use the organizational tools such as the planned weekly schedule that I have been using as well as trying out a couple of new ones (Term At A Glance Calendar) in the next term. I haven’t figured out how I am going to keep outside stress from affecting my academic performance quite yet, but since I won’t be continuing until Fall term, I will take advantage of the summer break to practice habits in dealing with that. I will definitely be utilizing the OSU Library more and will most likely use NetTutor starting Fall term as I should be taking a Math class then as well as Chemistry soon afterward. I know these are my weakest subjects, so I will turn to those resources to guide me in improving my skills in those areas.

My goals for the next term as well as those following will remain as achieving the best grades as possible in all of my classes. I don’t want to graduate by slacking and barely passing the courses that I’m not as knowledgeable in just to get by. I want to get the most out of all the courses that I take and to do so will require a lot of dedication to my planned routines, as well as practicing good time management habits. I know that there will probably be some cases where I do not perform as well as I had hoped, but it will be alright as long as I know that I tried. I will just continue to make improvements because the moment that I start to really procrastinate and lose priority in my academic performance will be the moment that the achievement of my goals will begin to be at risk which is not something that I’d like to look back on and regret. Overall, I’m confident that the next 4 years of my degree program will be full of great learning experiences that I can proud of!

Since I have started this course, I have been able to identify the strengths that I already had and that are relevant to my online learning. I am naturally organized, and prefer to make lists and notes when it comes to anything important in my life. This includes budgeting as well as notating any important tasks or dates on a weekly or monthly basis. I find that this has been extremely helpful in keeping myself from becoming overwhelmed with my new role as a college student.

This came as a surprise to me because I obtained my GED a year after I was supposed to graduate high school and just focused on raising my children since. I was really nervous that being out of the school routine for so long would be too overwhelming and that I would end up dropping out. However, I’m at Week 3 now and I seem to be managing rather decently. I hope that I can manage to stay on track and not get discouraged.

I did experience some struggles, of course. My youngest child is only 1, and she is really attached to me and requires a lot of my attention throughout the day. This has limited my time to commit to schoolwork to mostly late nights and early mornings. I also picked up an additional 2 classes during the second week so that I could be considered a full-time student. That had to be the most stressful point, because I had to catch up on the first week of both classes. I also realized that the two classes I picked up weren’t the easiest either. I managed to get through it though, and I think I’m slowly balancing everything out again. One thing for sure, I won’t ever spontaneously add classes late into the start of the term again because I almost set myself up for more than I could handle.