Crawl, Walk, Run; First Lecture; First Trio of Student Presentations

Since my inaugural blog post for IS101-3205, Spring 2025, we have completed the first portion of Phase 1 (Online & Computing Essentials) where students (a) set up the foundations for their success, (b) acclimated to LabSim and discussions in Canvas, and (c) demonstrated their work ethics.

A2 Blog Posts, Articles, Videos, Comments was launched to give students a forum to demonstrate their professionalism, build rapport with their classmates, and leave a digital footprint of their IS101 journey on the World Wide Web.

I kicked off the second portion of Phase 1 (Microsoft Word) with my first lecture: L1 Hardware, Troubleshooting, End-User Cyber Security. The following week, a trio of students lead their classmates in A3 Slideshow Presentation.

Paulina showcased her desire to be a future tourist to Pompeii: A City Frozen In Time. What painted a smile to my face was her initiative to use the artificial intelligence ChatGPT to generate a clip art of herself as an upcoming tourist in Pompeii after I polished her draft slideshow. Though all three from the first group of student presenters will receive bonus credit, the very first one always stands out for me.

Yahir educated us on his passion for riding off-road in Off-Highway Vehicles. The young man brought a sense of professionalism with an OHV Injuries & Deaths 2021 Report from Consumer Product Safety Commission. Despite arriving late and missing Bonus Quiz 3, the quick-witted OHV rider worked Granny Daisy Moses, who made an appearance in BQ3, into his Q & A session after the presentation.

Christian shared the significance which (movie) The Butterfly Effect had on him. I found polishing his draft slideshow the easiest because of his clear and logical organization of his slideshow. I love his closing: "If given this ability and knowing the cause and effects, would you still go back to change your future?"

Click on the image for a larger/clearer view

Click on an image for a larger/clearer view

Looking back in the first month IS101-3025, Spring 2025, these are the student distinctions:

Paulina was the first reached 100% on Bonus Quiz 1 - Syllabus before the semester officially began. Fifteen classmates joined Paulina in reaching 100%: Noel, Katelyn, Yahir, Geraldine (Getty), Jorge, Skyla (Sky), Angela, Chandler Donovan, Dilanga, Isabel, Christian, Arthur, Jericho, Bezhan, and Ashlyn.

Angela alone earned the highest score on Bonus Quiz 2 - Self-Reliance and Self-Responsibility.

Chandler Donovan alone earned the highest score on Bonus Quiz 3 - File E. & A. and Special Characters in File Name.

Chandler Donovan repeated the same feat on Bonus Quiz 4 - Display, Shift/Ctrl, Boot-up, Binary, IPOS Life Cycle.

Several students have not only kept up with the semester timetable in Canvas, but worked ahead in their coursework in LabSim. Two students stood out from this elite group. Noel slowly and consistently worked ahead since the semester began. At the time of this blog post, Isabel overtook Noel by a hair.

Looking ahead to the second portion of Phase 1, students will focus on Chapter 4 Microsoft Word, which is longer than the first three chapters. Typical expressions from past students are "I didn't know Microsoft Word can do this" and "I didn't know this is how to do this feature properly".

Often, some students realized this long before Chapter 4. One student learned to use the Alt-Tab shortcut keys to quickly toggle between different windows instead of always minimizing and restoring/maximizing windows. Another mentioned learning to use right-alignment instead of simply adding spaces or tabs to move the text to the right side. I hope students will not only take note but practice and adopt the proper/better way of doing things.

Reflecting a bell curve, majority of the students are keeping up with their coursework. Some have fallen behind while some are working ahead. I hope those who are behind will be able to graduate from crawling to walking then run with Isabel and Noel toward the upcoming MO-110 Word certification exam that will mark the end of Phase 1.

Students,

Please share your thoughts on these four questions in your comment:

 (1) How well or not well do you think you have done in IS101-3205, Spring 2025?

 (2) What would you do differently going forward?

 (3) How are you preparing for the upcoming MO-110 Word certification exam?

 (4) Anything else you would like to share with the world?