This has been my first week in class at Ashford and I am working on finishing up my first paper this evening. I have to admit that this has been a surprising week for me, some good, some are well, just surprises. First of all, the first week of reading assignments has been pretty heavy. I am finishing (or attempting to) a text called Life Launch: A Passionate Guide to the Rest of Your Life which I have attempted to read and comprehend in 5 short days. The writing assignments themselves (thus far) have not been overwhelming, but the breadth of information covered in such a short time is certainly an eye opener for me.
A really pleasant surprise has been the variety of students that are in my class. I have seen everyone from career beginners to retirees and everything in between. The breadth and depth of individual experiences vary but the combined experience of the students as a whole is pretty rich. There has been a lot of interaction between everyone involved, student to student and instructor to student. In fact in reading some of the posts I have found that I am not the best writer in class, which (not to sound overwhelmingly egotistical) has been something of a surprise and has challenged me personally to work harder.
I was also surprised to receive a call from my Student Advisor (Representative) on my first day of class this last Tuesday. He was checking to make sure that I had been able to log in okay and to make sure that I had everything I need. Today I received another call from the Admissions staff who were confirming my transcripts. Since I have attended 5 different schools before Ashford, it can get confusing and they just wanted to make sure everything was in place. Mighty nice of them.
Lastly the Blackboard Discussion Board has been a surprise. I don't know if it's just because I don't know how to work it thoroughly yet or not, but when I jump into a particular discussion question I can see the names of the original posters and their titles, but not the names of everyone who replied on their post unless I click on each and every post. I have a tendency to forget who I have replied to so it becomes a guessing game. I guess I'll have to get more organized since there are at least 20 different students in this class and I really don't have time to click on 20 different threads.
Once I finish my first paper it will be all in all a great first week. I'm looking forward to many more and eagerly anticipating my grades.