Advice for a new IU student

My advice right off the bat would be make sure you will be able to keep the time commitment. It really is not very much time needed to do the coursework, but you must understand you are expected to keep up in class. Now how do you keep up in class? Set a specific time of day to do your discussions, set an alarm or write it down somewhere you look every day. That will take care of your dailies, as to your discussions and assignments set a few longer specific times every week to clear them up. I do mine on Wednesday (discussions) and Saturday/Sunday for Assignments.

When navigating Canvas, the syllabus page is your best friend. You can quickly access everything you need to do in the class. The syllabus and the live session panel are my most used parts of canvas because they allow me to rapidly move through my schoolwork, reduce my time consumed which helps me maintain interest in the lectures or assignments longer!

With the grades to keep them up you just need to listen to your instructors, try your best, study hard, and always be down for constructive criticism.

Making friends in school is a little tricky with online classes. I guess you could make friends through the discussion pages, but I think that the clubs offered by the school address this better. In the clubs they actually have specific places you can talk to other students.

(Canvas, ND)

References

Canvas. (ND, DN ND). Canvas. Retrieved from Canvas: https://cehe.instructure.com/login/canvas

My Designer Inspiration

My favorite web designer from the AIGA list is Jared Dias from New York City, New York, USA. His site designs have interesting visual elements that do not detract from the overall legibility of the site and the overall sites them selves have great User Interface and User Experience design principles. The reason I like this so much is I am a firm believer in keeping a site simple while still keeping it interesting or up to modern day trends for design appearance. Jared Dias is a web designer who mostly works with WordPress sites. In fact, most of his published work are themes for WordPress.

I am inspired by the functionality and aesthetic of his designs they maintain the simplicity needed for a site to be usable but also allow for a great amount of creative freedom on his part for the imaging and other visual design he implemented. I also like that he is not limited to one type of website. On his Aiga design page he has several different types of sites listed, everything from Ecommerce to Construction. This is what I strive for in the future, to be able to apply my skills to a vast variety of websites not just any particular type. I think that this level of diversity makes him a higher valued designer and eliminates most of the limitations for the type of work he can accept. (Dias, ND)

References

Dias, J. (ND, ND ND). Retrieved from Behance: https://www.behance.net/jaredsdias/projects

Why I chose Independence University.

I chose Independence University by chance. I was called by what I at first assumed to be a spam number and after a few minutes of terrorizing the poor man I realized he was genuinely interested in assisting me to find schooling. I had just completed my HSED, so I was some-what expecting calls like this. I told him a bit about my background and how I wanted to get into software development and web design. After discussing a few options, I had him forward me to Independence University to talk to someone directly about courses.

In the end I chose Independence University because it matched my schedule at the time perfectly. I was working a regular full-time job (now I work 70+ hours a week) and I had time for the little class requirements that they had. Overall, my experience has been exactly what I was looking for, a great course that is informative but not so intensive that I can’t work on top of it.