#finalremarks

One of my favorite parts of the instruction of the class were the professor’s weekly agenda videos. Because this class is mostly online, watching her on the weekly videos made the class feel more personal and less like an online class. Since the class teaches about all types of media, the weekly agenda would also be displayed in an audio podcast. I personally liked the videos more than the audio documents because I could visualize the information while hearing the audio. Otherwise, everything is great about the content, professor, structure, and general information on the course as a whole.

Even though I am only a first semester freshman, so far I can say that this class, CI 1942, is my favorite class I have taken at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. I know many people would consider this statement as not saying much because I have only taken 5 classes here. Nonetheless, I can confidently express that this class will remain as one of my favorite classes, throughout college. I could go on for hours about this course (ask my friends about how much I talk about this class), but I’ll keep it short and concise.

First things first, not only is the content interesting, but the design of the class is perfect, especially for the material discussed in the course. I can remember myself at summer orientation contemplating to myself if I should take a class classified as hybrid. Taking a partially online class as a first semester freshman seemed daunting. All I wanted was a professor to stand in front of me and teach me the material. However, the structure of this class makes learning the content efficient and easily applicable, in terms of taking what we learn and directly using the information on our assignments. To be honest, I thoroughly enjoy having the opportunity of completing my assignments for this class in my cozy bed on a cold rainy day. At first, on the first day of class, let alone my first day of college, ever, I wanted our group to meet more frequently than agreed upon. Now that the semester is almost over *tear*, I can say that we came together as a group face to face the perfect amount of time. Despite the fact that St. Paul is pretty far from most of the students in class, I absolutely enjoyed our time together in the LT media lab room. Although this class is somewhat independent, as we are expected to keep up with the class without meeting in person, aside from the two times we came together in St. Paul, I feel like I know my classmates pretty well. From reading their discussion posts and blog entries, watching numerous flipgrid videos, and communicating regularly in our GroupMe, I can honestly say that I wasn’t in this alone. Although we didn’t see each other in the flesh very often, I still felt a connection with my classmates; they were more than online people to me.

I don’t want to sound like I am just giving the easy answer, but I enjoyed each and every topic we discussed throughout the course. Every theme related to the next and all together compiled a seamless curriculum. I most enjoyed discussing the concept of privacy on the internet. As more and more websites and media platforms are created, the concept of privacy over the web has become a topic of discussion. It really got me thinking about how I control my own social media accounts. This theme really challenged my beliefs because as much as I feel my profiles are private and not visible to the general public, as stated throughout the course, relevant to nearly every single week, “Once you put something out on the internet, it is there forever.” I still want to learn more about privacy in terms of each unique social media platform.