Zach's Blog

Educational Goals:               My educational goal in the CS program is to become a well-rounded computer science professional. While I'm already engaged in the Software Engineering industry, there is much more for me to learn. Based on my CS Individual Learning Plan, I know that the CS program will equip me with the knowledge I need to be successful. Following my achievement of a bachelor's degree in computer science, I'd like to work towards a master's degree. Career Goals:               I'd like to achieve a role in Software Engineering that allows me to learn new technologies and allows me to grow. I'd like the ability to work on challenging projects that bring meaning to the world and have a positive impact. It would be ideal to be able to work on projects in multiple business areas in order to learn about the various ways technology is being used. ETS Computer Science Test: ...

 Part 1:     Time management was an area I identified last week as something I needed to work on to improve my study habits. I tend to struggle finding the will to stop what I'm doing and begin studying. Something I should do, is continue doing the weekly activity log that I started last week, and block in time where I will study. I should remember to block in times specifically where I'll have the most energy to prevent fatigue from stopping my need to study. Part 2:     In this week's readings I learned a lot more about ethics. While I've previously taken an ethics class in my associate degree program, the readings provided in this week were a great refresher. Some important ethics topics that were covered this week were ethics frameworks and theory, as well as the difference between ethics, morals, and law.     Additionally, in this week's OLI module 3, I learned more about my work style, and what I can do to better support the work styles...

 Effective Study Skills: Three areas that I'm strong in when it comes to studying are getting the main idea, thinking skills, and making every hour count.  Three areas I'm weaker in are creating a schedule, outlining textbooks, and the SQ3R method. Weekly Activity Log Project Management Basics:     Something was driven home by each of the three presentations was the importance of having a project manager on your team. A project manager will be a strong leader for you team that can help with finance and communication. They'll help operate in accordance to a work breakdown structure. Such a structure will ensure a team creates the required deliverables. Another important idea, is the use of Gantt charts. This is something I'm familiar with, as I see it a lot at work. Gantt charts help teams track progress on deliverables and the overarching project. Previous Capstones:     PetRecs:          PetRecs is a record keeping solution to mana...

     This week was a great start to my CS Online journey. I started with viewing all the weekly materials, then taking all the lecture and writing lab quizzes. I then got started doing some research and writing an outline for my industry analysis paper. I enjoyed the research process when writing my Industry Analysis Outline because I was able to learn so many new things about a specific company in an industry I'm interested in. Later in the week I also was able to meet with my team and have great dialogue about how we can work more effectively as a team.      In Open Learning Initiative Module 1, I got to take part in a meeting with my booth team. The meeting had plenty of disagreements and conflicts, which I thought were handled poorly. When meeting with your team it's important to be an active listener, allow all team members to share their ideas, and when disagreements arise, ensure they are addressed in a respectful manner.