IS101-3205, Spring 2025 has come to an end and it has been a glorious journey!
My final and longer than usual blog post consists of three sections:
1: Student Recognitions
2: Course and Professor
3: Past, Present, and Future
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Section 1 of 3: Student Recognitions
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+++++First: Statistics
Out of the sixteen (16) successful students:
Half are pursuing business degrees, two pursuing construction management, two pursuing computing and information technology, one of each pursuing real estate, engine technology, project management, and physical sciences.
Majority have sophomore or higher standing. All but one earned the highest letter graded. The nine men and seven women's range from 19 to 41. The oldest and youngest are both pursuing the same degree. The average age is 26.375, median age is 27, and the mode is 19.
+++++Second: Awards
IS101 has a standard course curriculum but each professor still puts his or her own stamps on the course. My signatures are (a) presenting topics and walking through demonstrations that the standard curriculum don't cover or don't cover to my satisfaction, (b) bonus quizzes & impromptu bonusses activities based my own experiences and requiring students to not only apply what they learned but to articulate their answers in a succinct and educational manner, (c) bonus assignments that give students the opportunity to transition their mindset and actions from a student answering a professor to a worker fulfilling business needs to his/her higher up who may not have the same knowledge or experience.
Christian had the best overall performance in the bonus quizzes. Up until the previous blog post, one week before the semester's end, Christian, Dilanga, and Jorge always clustered together within half a point of each other in their bonus quizzes journey. Christian alone earned the highest score BQ14 OLE, Average, URL, IPOS Perspective, Bloom’s Taxonomy and it is his performance on this capstone bonus quiz that separated himself from the trio.
The trio of Dilanga, Christian, and Jorge, consistently go above and beyond, most notably showing up to the classroom early to take the bonus quizzes. Of the fifteen bonus quizzes and two impromptu bonusses, each of the trio missed no more than two or three. It is no surprise that they also lead in other areas and ranked as the top three students this semester.
Jorge touched an audience's heart during the Q&A session for his A3 Slideshow Presentation as an audience spontaneously uttered: "I wish my father would take me fishing." The goal of any presentation is to persuade or educate. Forming an emotional connection or invoking a strong feeling from the audience definitely helps achieving one's goal.
Paulina was the first student to present her A3. When A8 Improved Slideshow Presentation came around, she who loves to travel occupied the pole position again. Once may be a fluke, twice is the beginning of a pattern. If there were more opportunities for Paulina to share her passion, I know she would make it a three-peat.
My two capstone assignments, A6 Spreadsheet Analysis with Trailer and A7 Mail Merge, are crafted to allow a student to demonstrate his/her attention to details, clear thinking & communication, and independence. Katelyn & Bezhan shined as the top two for A6 while Chandler & Skyla as top two for A7.
Performance and courage are not the only routes to receiving an award. Throughout the many interactions (in-person, virtual meeting, or text/phone call) throughout semester, Paulina and Geraldine always left a happy mood or uplifted feeling for me with their sunshine personality.
+++++Third: Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification exam scores
Nineteen students took MO-110 Word with Isabel and Conner earning a perfect score: 1,000 out of 1,000. Not counting the perfect score earners, Chandler and Arthur earned the highest score.
Sixteen students took MO-210 Excel with Conner again earning a perfect score: 1,000 out of 1,000. Not counting the perfect score earner, Katelyn and Chandler earned the highest score.
Fourteen students took MO-310 PowerPoint with Dilanga, Chandler, and Katelyn all earning the highest score.
When adding the scores from the three MOS Associate level exams, Chandler has the highest cumulative score.
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+++++Fourth: Individual Student Distinctions
~~~~~Jorge: 1 of 16~~~~~
Quiet, hardworking, always go above-and-beyond are how I would describe SeΓ±or Lima :-) Three instances etched a strong impression on me. After one classroom session, the first amigo told me that his employer asked him to work overtime on an early Saturday morning but he prioritized attending class first then putting in overtime after class ends. Another instance from Jorge is aforementioned award above. I will remember this one for a long time!
The third is when I graded Bonus Quiz 11, the capstone to long arc of weekly bonus quizzes and realized that Jorge earned a perfect score, a rare feat for any bonus quiz, especially the capstone of the weekly arc. I can see the hardworking father shine with his quiet resolve beyond IS101-3205, whether in pursuing his Associate of Applied Science in Construction Management or in his workplace ^_^
~~~~~Christian: 2 of 16~~~~~
Misspent youth is what Christian jokingly shared with me as his fuel to achieve and improve the lives of his family. His attitude and achievements are no joke. The Computing and Information Technology (CIT) major was part of the pioneer group for A3 Slideshow Presentation. One ecstatic moment for me during the semester was when the second amigo replied "I want to..." and "why not..." to my solicitation for students to pursue MOS certifications beyond the Associate level. At the time of this blog post, the man with a misspent youth is leading the charge toward MOS Expert :-)
The transition from "I need to..." to "I want to..." is something many students never make in IS101. Given his ambitions demonstrated in the weekly bonus quizzes arc, I was not surprised he was the first to hunger for MOS Expert. When he becomes a MOS Expert, I know he will want to hit a MOS Homerun! Christian closed out the semester with a strong performance that earned him the aforementioned award above, separating himself from the other two amigos in the bonus quizzes arena. I know I will see the man with a misspent youth again ^_^
~~~~~Dilanga: 3 of 16~~~~~
With him having just earned an Associate degree, I was surprised at the limited above-and-beyond ambition Dilanga demonstrated in the first half of the semester. When he informed me that his 8-week course had ended, I knew why and his above-and-beyond performance exploded in the second half of our 16-week semester for IS101, joining the other two amigos :-) If one were to ignore the bonus credits, the quiet and respectable young man would actually rank one place higher in overall course performance!
Along with two classmates, Dilanga earned the highest score on MO-310 PowerPoint certification exam. Having to miss the final two classroom sessions to fly home, the Sri Lanka native worked hard to wrap up his IS101 coursework and hurriedly challenged MO-111 Word Expert and MO-211 Excel Expert. I look forward to seeing the Sinhala-speaker vindicating himself when he returns to Las Vegas ^_^
The three amigos: Jorge, Christian, and Dilanga separated themselves from their classmates with their full-range and excellent performance on the bonus quizzes and impromptu bonusses. The bonus credits elevated the trio to the top of the course performance, breaking the triple-digit barrier. The three digits to the left of the decimal point are identical for the three amigos with the two digits to the right of the decimal point as follows: 97, 46, 21.
~~~~~Isabel: 4 of 16~~~~~
A perfect 1,000 out of 1,000 is what the Accounting major scored on MO-110 Word certification exam. Though another student achieved the same, Isabel was the first to hit the bullseye! Her solid performance was not limited to the certification exam but the practice exams too. If one were to ignore the bonus credits, Isabel, would rank first in term of overall course performance :-)
Excelling in something one *has* to do is expected. Excelling in something one *chooses* to do gives one a chance to standout. May the future accountant choose to standout ^_^
~~~~~Chandler Donovan: 5 of 16~~~~~
Chandler Donovan -- he has two first names and uses either or both -- distinguished himself early on as he played leap frog with a classmate in occupying the pole position in the first few bonus quizzes. A7 Mail Merge is one of the two capstone assignments in my IS101 arsenal. The Computing and Information Technology (CIT) degree seeker produced a perfect A7!
Along with a classmate, Chandler scored a near-perfect on MO-110 Word certification exam. Donovan scored the same near-perfect score on MO-210 Excel certification exam with a different classmate. Along with two classmates, Chandler Donovan earned the highest score on MO-310 certification exam. Unsurprisingly, the student with two first names ranked the highest in cumulative score in the MOS Associate level certification exams :-)
Focusing on his Network Essentials course took him away from the later bonus quizzes and bonus assignments, I am glad to see Chandler Donovan pursuing MOS Expert at the end of the semester. I hope to see him again to as he finishes what he started ^_^
~~~~~Paulina: 6 of 16~~~~~
An uplifted feeling is what I often have after conversing with Paulina :-) Always smiling and positive, she who wants to visit Pompeii was the first to present her A3 Slideshow Presentation to the class. When the optional A8 Improved Slideshow Presentation came up, the fluently bilingual seΓ±ora showcased her past visits to Mexico City. She has her trip planned to Pompeii at the end of this month. I hope Paulina will update her blog or share her adventures at the city frozen in time with the class ^_^
~~~~~Noel: 7 of 16~~~~~
"We fight first!" is what I learned from Noel :-) In the past, I have heard this from other United States Marine Corp personnel: "First In, Last Out." The Dallas Cowboys fan was the first student I met via WebEx before the semester began. The radiologist dashed out of the gate and always lead in doing the coursework ahead of schedule throughout three quarters of the semester. I wish Noel success in breaking into the real estate field ^_^
~~~~~Katelyn: 8 of 16~~~~~
Ambitious, professional, detail-oriented are what Katelyn impressed upon me. For her A3 Slideshow Presentation, she suited up to share her passion for The Monarch Butterflies as if she were presenting to business executives. For A6 Spreadsheet Analysis with Trailer, the case manager for a law firm produced a near-perfect result! Before the semester ended, the call of MOS Expert hooked Katelyn. Like two classmates, she found joy with MO-111 but not MO-211.
I know I will see Katelyn again on her journey to become a MOS Expert and whatever else she chooses to focus her time and energy on, she will succeed ^_^
~~~~~Bezhan: 9 of 16~~~~~
Quiet, studious, and passionate are adjectives befitting of Bezhan, who earned the second highest score on A6 Spreadsheet Analysis with Trailer. The reserved and polite young man lit up when he educated the class on how microprocessors are manufactured as his A3 Slideshow Presentation and his passion went to overdrive during the Q & A session of his A8 Improved Slideshow Presentation on Formula 1. I know Bezhan will earn his Bachelor of Applied Science in Project Management degree ^_^
~~~~~Skyla (Sky): 10 of 16~~~~~
Tall, artistic, and sharp are what come to mind when I think of Skyla who goes by Sky. The gamer and commission artist first caught my attention when at the beginning of her presentation, she purposely stood to the side of the large display screen instead of in front like most of us. For the second capstone assignment, A7 Mail Merge, the Texas transplant commanded my delight with the organic and near-flawless result she produced. Sky is the limit for this brilliant artist ^_^
~~~~~Ashley: 11 of 16~~~~~
A storyteller is how I will remember Ashley. Sharing her favorite TV show "Severance" as A3 Slideshow Presentation, the hilarious young lady capped off her presentation with a photo of herself shocked. The vibrant barista was the one of the first student to volunteer for the optional A8 Improved Slideshow Presentation where she enticed us with "Let's Assemble a Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino". Her improved slideshow is one of the best I have encountered in the history of A8! I see a bright future for the Las Vegas native as she approaches things with her happy personality and thoughtfulness ^_^
~~~~~Yahir: 12 of 16~~~~~
The youngest student this semester caught my attention early on as he was part of the pioneer group for A3 Slideshow Presentation and he worked in Granny Moses from my bonus quizzes during his Q & A session :-) Internship, full-time college student, volunteering kept Yahir busy and pulled him away from IS101 toward the end. I am proud of the avid dirt bike rider for re-focusing and finishing the course with the highest letter grade -- and the only acceptable -- letter grade! I hope Yahir not only remembers this but will always strive to meet this in his future endeavors ^_^
~~~~~Noam: 13 of 16~~~~~
"It's not how you start but how you finish" was the motto that I impressed upon the young phlebotomist. Various family and life issues swallowed Noam for much of the semester but the strong-willed young lady regrouped, focused, and powered through toward the end of the semester to join her classmates in the highest letter grade club :-) I wish the avid perfume collector success in breaking into the real estate field ^_^
~~~~~Geraldine (Getty): 14 of 16~~~~~
The chipper coca cola lover shared much of her life with me during A1 Accounts Setup and Professional Communication. Throughout the semester, Geraldine, who goes by Getty, shared with me her professional journey in Amazon. Whenever I conversed with the Los Angeles native, a sense of cheeriness and playfulness is often signed off with "okie dokie" :-) Toward the end of the semester, Getty got what she worked so hard for: a new and higher role at Amazon! I am so proud of Geraldine and wish her more successes in her future ^_^
~~~~~Conner: 15 of 16~~~~~
Conner definitely made his mark by earning a perfect 1,000 out of 1,000 score not only once, but twice! The avid snowboarder never set foot in the classroom after the two certification exams. I will remember this full-time worker and full-time student for his active participation during my Straight Average vs. Weighted Average walkthrough.
~~~~~Arthur: 16 of 16~~~~~
Polite, quiet, and hardworking are what I remember of Arthur. The Philippine native never set foot in the classroom after the two certification exams. I know more important priorities occupied the full-time worker and full-time student's time and focus. I wish Arthur the best in his future endeavors.
~~~~~Angela~~~~~
Angela made a deep impression on me at the beginning of the semester when she shared her life story with me in A1 Accounts Setup and Profession Communication. For the first half of the semester, she who rides a Fat Tire Beach Cruiser played leapfrog with a classmate in occupying the pole position on bonus quizzes. Before she disappeared, she shared good news that only a woman can share. Had she been able to remain in IS101, I know she would have joined the three amigos! I hope Angela is able to resume her higher education pursuit as/after she enjoys bringing a new life into this world ^_^
~~~~~Xavier~~~~~
Xavier disappeared early on after taking the first certification exam. During his final in-person appearance in the classroom, the respectful and intelligent young man shared with me that he wants to follow the footsteps of his uncle or father. I hope Xavier success in that, and any, endeavors he puts his time and energy to :-)
~~~~~Others~~~~~
Six other names on the class roster either officially withdrew, had insufficient focus, or disappeared long before the first certification exam.
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Section 2 of 3: Course and Professor
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+++++First: Course Breakdown
60% of the IS101 Introduction to Information Systems course is based on the digital platform LabSim from TestOut (now part of CompTIA) where students learn by reading text, watching videos, and practice in hands-on laboratory simulations.
20% of the course grade is based on the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification exams.
10% is from macro-enabled Excel workbooks that our digital literacy program director, Mark Taormino, created before we started using LabSim four years ago.
10% is from me with my own topics driving discussions in our learning management system, Canvas, and giving students a forum to leave a professional digital footprint on the World Wide Web via Blogger.com.
Outside of the required 100% above, I also give my own bonus quizzes, impromptu bonus activities, and bonus assignments, totaling 39%.
+++++Second: My 3 Signature Thoughts
I began teaching part-time in higher education in Fall 1998 in a non-academic setting after earning my Master in Business Administration (MBA) degree then in an academic setting since Fall 1999. Building on my experiences from both academia and the business world, I constantly evolve my lecture presentations, demonstrations, bonus quizzes, activities and assignments. This semester, Spring 2025, I shared these three thoughts on our final classroom session this past Saturday:
Signature thought 1 of 3: Just because it's convenient or what you are used to, doesn't mean it's the best or even appropriate.
Multiple students -- most people, I would say -- never or don't bother to form a habit of memorizing an important website's address and simply use Google to search for that website using a general search criteria when they need to visit the website. Then students/people simply click on the first search result without reading through the search results, often taking them to not the website they intended.
When the question is "How many patients did we treat last year?", one cannot simply add the number of patients treated in each month of that year just because monthly reports are readily available. So when a patient was treated in January and then was treated again in June and then again in November...
Signature thought 2 of 3: Remember the WHY, not just the SENSATIONAL.
Years after graduating college, a former classmate and I reminisced and a question came up: "Remember professor XYZ directed us to look at p*rn websites?" After walking down memory lane, I recalled that professor XYZ directed us to look at p*rn websites not for the photos or videos but to examine how they optimize their hypertext markup language (HTML) and javascripts in their webpages because those websites have the heaviest traffic while dealing with large file sizes from numerous images and videos.
To my students: to hone your senses in discerning deepfakes, find deepfake p*rn videos of a celebrity and scrutinize them against what you know to be real videos of that celebrity. Why p*rn? Same reason for the heaviest/heavy traffic as above. Years after Spring 2025, will you remember why I suggested you to find and scrutinize deepfake videos of your celebrity?
Signature 3 of 3: Artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content: learn to TAILOR it and learn to SPOT it.
Do you just blindly accept a suggestion from the spell/grammar checker? Do you use an AI tool such as ChapGPT to generate writing/artwork for you and present it in as your own original work? To people who know your capability/style, would they be able to tell the difference between what you produced vs. what an AI tool produced?
Deepfakes aside, can you tell if a photo is generated by a human or algorithm? If someone thought a piece of work was produced by you but it really was by an AI tool, would you tell them? Here is one possibility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv1HUd8rsG4
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+++++Third: What is Around and Ahead of IS101?
During our semester together, I picked up information from attending Computing and Information Technology (CIT) department meetings:
(i) MOS certification(s) is/are a standard in some high schools.
(ii) Some higher education institutions in the Southeast made MOS certification(s) as a graduation requirement.
(iii) Some higher education institutions have their IS101/digital literacy course as four credits instead of three credits as it is in Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE).
(iv) I learned that we do have this course: CIT105 - Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. It was first offered in Fall 2023, one semester after ChatGPT was released to the general public at the end of 2022. One hot topic in digital literacy discussion is teaching students how to use AI tools properly. I'm not sure how things will play out, especially considering the next piece of information.
(v) Most earth-shattering: IS101 will be rolled into CIT Department's Software program as the Digital Literacy program will be no more after this semester.
The first two pieces of information also reminded me of something I heard in the past: at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), IS101 is offered only in online-only modality with a capacity of 150 to 200 students. I did a quick search and see that Great Basin College (GBC) is also online-only with no capacity mentioned. GBC only offers IS101 in 8-week sessions instead of 16-week semesters. I was not able to access comparable enrollment information for Nevada State University (NSU) or University of Nevada, Reno (UNR).
Focusing within our own NSHE institution, College of Southern Nevada (CSN), the Spring 2025 semester offered 45 sections of IS101 with 22 student capacity for each section except mine as I agreed to take on two additional students before this semester began. I can easily point out three different experiences for my 24 students vs. the other 900+ students taking IS101 this semester:
(a) I am one of the few professors that promote and assist my students in pursing the MOS Expert distinction (MO-111 and MO-211) and beyond -- I term it "MOS Homerun" (MO-400 and MO-500).
(b) Instead of holding all the MOS certification exams at the end of the semester, I hold each exam as soon as LabSim work for the that exam is completed. I appreciate the logistic savings for the online-only section professors and students of only having to come to a CSN campus at the end of the semester but I see no reason to have my students wait until the end of the semester, especially when the exams are independent of each other.
(c) I believe I am the only professor to have my students leave their professional digital footprint on the World Wide Web (via Blogger.com) in addition to discussion threads in our learning management system, Canvas, which is visible only to the class and designated CSN personnel.
Reading through my students' final blog post and comments, I see they also appreciate my proactive reaching out to them before the semester began and holding a phone call or WebEx meeting with them :-)
Narrowing the focus to just IS101 from me: how do my students' experience this semester differ from my students from past semesters? This semester, I heavily trimmed the videos and the frequency of blog posting and commenting in A2 Blog Posts, Videos, Articles, Comments. If my students were to find blogs from my past students, they will see far more videos and blogging activities.
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Section 3 of 3: Past, Present, and Future
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This semester, I came across this compilation video: Dark Sides of Artificial Intelligence by 60 Minutes, containing four episodes, each a little over 13 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgUjLcxJxVg
Who is Minding the Chatbots | Lesley Stahl (March 5, 2023)
- Authoritative bullsh*t
- Intelligence <> sentience
- Race to the bottom
Humans in the Loop | Lesley Stahl (Nov. 24, 2024)
- Labeling ‘right’ from ‘wrong’
- Overworked, underpaid and exploited
Unveiling | Anderson Cooper (December 15, 2024)
- Nudify websites
- CEO: real or AI-generated photo of a person?
- Fooling payment websites
Deepfakes | Bill Whitaker (October 10, 2021)
- Training the AI model
- Can you tell the difference between real vs. fake?
If my Spring 2025 students were to search for my past blogs or encounter blogs from my past students, they would see more videos and posts in those blogs. Here are some of the videos from my library that I have shared with my past students:
(1) The Story of Electronics with Annie Leonard, Why "Designed for the Dump" is Toxic for People and the Planet
By The Story of Stuff Project
Nov. 4, 2010
(2) Ransomware
By Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Aug. 15, 2021
(3A) Cryptocurrencies II
By Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Apr. 23, 2023
(3B) Cryptocurrencies I
By Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Mar. 11, 2018
(4A) AlphaGo (Official Trailer)
By DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google
Sep. 19, 2017
(4B) AlphaGo (Full Movie)
By DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google
Sep. 9, 2017
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Since my previous blog post, the final week of the semester yielded these highlights:
The three amigos (Jorge, Christian, Dilanga) took the final two bonus quizzes with
Christian alone earned the highest score on BQ14 Object Linking & Embedding (OLE), Average, Uniformed Resource Locator (URL), Input-Process-Output-Storage (IPOS) Perspective, Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Christian, Chandler Donovan, and Katelyn followed Dilanga's footstep in pursing the MOS Expert distinction. This trio found joy with MO-111 Word Expert certification exam but not MO-211 Excel Expert exam. After the last student left the classroom for the final time, I took the MO-211 (Office 365) out of curiosity to see the difference from when I took and passed the MO-210 (Office 2019) on Jan. 23, 2021. I did not expect to pass this time but did not expect to be close to passing either.
Dilanga will return to Las Vegas from Sri Lanka in August. The fire in Christian and Katelyn still burn bright. I don't like not passing. So I will prepare for a re-match with MO-211.
Before the semester officially ended, I reviewed A9 Query Options and IF Statement with Jorge. As BQ14 elevated Christian to the top of bonus quizzes performance, this optional assignment propelled Jorge to the top of the overall course performance.
The IF statement part of A9 intrigues Christian. The way to satisfy A9 via a single document vis-Γ -vis three haunts Katelyn. A9 will help with an exam objective in MO-111 for Dilanga. Several exam objectives in MO-211 are used in A10 Workbook Investigation.
Two days after, during my WebEx with Jorge, he indicated that he wants to continue practicing in LabSim even after IS101-3205, Spring 2025 ends. I pointed him toward Chapter 7 Microsoft Access and Chapter 8 Microsoft Outlook. I hope he will aim for MO-400 Outlook and MO-500 Access.
Jorge, Christian, and Dilanga, all earned the highest score on BQ15 CountIF. BQ15 is based on the students' answers to the 13 job hunting & interviewing tips/reminders from an article I assigned for reading. With this, the three amigos not only stayed together from BQ1 to BQ15 but broke the triple-digit barrier.
The Spring 2025 semester has ended but my willingness to help my students has not. I look forward to helping my students in their future pursuits ^_^
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