Mike Divine's Learning Journal

     My educational goals in the Monterey Bay CS Program are to complete the program with straight A's in every class taken, learn as much as I can, and build a portfolio that I am proud of.     My career goals are to become a software developer, continue to advance my skills throughout my career, and eventually become a lead developer.     After looking at the test and seeing how hard it looks, I admit my confidence was lower than before I had seen it.  Although, I have faith that I will learn a lot of this through the CS program at Monterey Bay.  So knowing that; I expect to achieve at least a 90% on the test in 18 months.     This week we learned more about goal setting and how to do a better job of keeping on track to accomplish your goals.  We worked on setting educational and career goals as seen above.  We also learned about the ETS Computer Science Test and we also were able to see a sample.  It looks pretty h...

          After reading the Academic Study Techniques found here: https://www.academictips.org/acad/index.html , one of the things I learned that would help me with my note-taking would be to use the 2-6 Method.  This Method has you separate the paper into a smaller left column and a much larger section on the right.  This allows you to call out major points or things you think you will be tested on as well as write headings to make it easier for you to find things when studying for quizzes and tests.          One of the things we learned this week was about the CS curriculum at CSUMB and we researched each class as a team and described each class in our own words.  We also learned about the basics of Project Management and how they keep projects on task, on budget, and on time as best they can.  Another thing we learned about is Ethical Frameworks and how they can be applied to argue different sides of a topic....

          This week I learned more about study skills and how it boils down to why you want to do it, which for some might be about getting their degree and for others might be grade-based working for that A.  For me, it is both as I am striving to keep all A’s as I progress through this program.  That is one of the goals I have set for myself and I am planning to stick to it. When it comes to effective study skills, I have found many that are beneficial to me when it comes to online courses.  The value of a schedule is my number one as I find it helps me to have my study sessions scheduled on my calendar so I know I can’t schedule things during those blocks of time.  How to use my time is another skill I find I have done a good job with.  I feel confident making priorities and sticking to them and knocking out the top priorities first.  I also usually do well with Taking Notes and I use Google Docs to do so.  This has a...

This week I learned about how to be successful in an online class environment.  I learned that scheduling study time and sticking to the schedule is important so that I don’t fall behind.  I also was taught about the culture of CSUMB and how they are committed to multilingual, multicultural, and gender-equitable learning.  I learned about the different types of sources I can find and use in my research papers.  Plagiarism can get a student a failing grade in that class or even dropped from the program.  So I read a detailed reading on plagiarism and how to avoid it and cite sources properly using ALA format. I took quizzes on these things to show that I had learned the information.  Then I had to post links from my Blog and LinkedIn page to the Team Roster and connect with Professor Tao on LinkedIn.  I also created a video of myself giving a brief introduction on who I am and some of what makes me an individual.  I also had to spend a lot of time ...