Great news!  I needed revisions on this task.  Ok, that may not sound good, but this time 'round, the grader gave me very specific feedback on my paper.  He (I seriously think it was a dude) told me things that needed revising and things that I did well.  The HR graders were much more vague and only commented on things that needed changes.

I submitted this paper at 2AM on 11.27 and received it back by 9AM on 11.29.  Not bad considering it was a 29 page paper.  (Have I mentioned how much I despise double-spacing?  Apparently I got smarter since I added two pages to include my revisions.)  The feedback was so specific that I resubmitted the paper by 12:30 and although I'll be somewhat holding my breath until I get the official notification that it's ok (or not), I'm going to forge ahead with the new class beginning this afternoon.

Right now, I'm thrilled!  I really feel like I learned a lot with this paper since I was able to use my own business and analyze it in a way that I didn't know how to, previously.  This is knowledge that I'm already applying.  This is what I was hoping for in a business school.  I appreciate the immediate applicability of the work.

Forward!

Oops I did it again!  I promised myself that I wouldn't stay up late again to finish a project but guess what?  It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy that I have where I just don't feel like I've done enough, or suffered enough unless I threaten an all-nighter.  I remember when I was in high school and  I had an exam coming up.  Of course I didn't bother to study in the days leading up to it.  No, where was the fun in that?  I figured if I could say that I was up all night studying that maybe somehow the knowledge would have seeped telepathically into my brain.  I remember I tried different tricks(well except actually studying) for trying to help memorize.  I tried reading while standing, reading while having candles lit (the olfactory senses are supposed to help with memory), I tried drinking tea...Nothing seemed to work but!  If I could at least say I'd been up all night, and not gotten any sleep, then I'd have an excuse for not doing well...or I'd squeak by and no excuses were needed since I'd just gotten the positive reinforcement I needed to do it again.

The deadline for ECommerce was not until Dec. 20 but because I'm frugal and perhaps also because I'm tired of always being DFL, that's runner-speak for Dead F'n Last, I set a goal of trying to have my task submitted before Thanksgiving.  I was actually doing pretty well.  I had finished writing my draft by Wednesday evening, and had planned on editing and submitting it on Black Friday so that I could take the weekend off.

Unfortunately life got in the way Friday, and football happened on Saturday (GO BIG RED!) but my hubby convinced me, at 10PM that I could still get the damn thing in by Saturday night (or Sunday morning).  Since he's way smarter than I am, I believed him.  The coffee-mocha with real whipped cream and sprinkles may have also helped.

This class consists of a single paper, and the instructions are not very clear.  They're actually really vague.  I emailed the course mentor about it, but I got his stock answer, "Have you watched the video?"   I'm super annoyed by this guy, Wolfie (he's from Michigan) since that's his answer for most questions.  Later, I posted a question in the communities forum and specifically said that what I was asking was not addressed in the video and I received yet another cop-out answer, "Well, you don't need to include that then".  *groan*  If you're in this class, I empathize  with you.  The mentor for the previous class, HR rocked once I actually spoke with him on the phone.  Also, the course notes were terrific.  Basically, ECommerce is about a dozen separate tasks, that are to be combined in to a single paper.  

Here are some tips to get you started:

• Watch the damn video and take notes (yes, Wolfie has a funny accent, don'tcha know!)
• Break the paper down in to 12 smaller tasks.  
      Part A has 9 parts to it.
      Screen shots of your website
      Excel spreadsheet with your competitor analysis
      Website sitemap (which I did in a table in Word)
• Ignore the COS on this one.  There are just too many damn words they loose effectiveness.  The Activity Guide is much more useful.
• The paper should be 15-30 pages, double spaced, 12 pt. font (Mine was 29)
• Try not to get discouraged when you read something from the online COS and it doesn't seem to match the task you think you're on.  Part of the reason it took me so long to edit was that I wrote paragraphs as I read along, but they didn't actually match the order that the Task is written in.
• Yes, the instructions are vague.  It's a good think we're allowed to re-submit it 4 times if needed.  (Hopefully not!)
• The recommended length of time to work on this is 120 hours.  I looked and, I worked on it at least a little, every single day, it took me 19 days.
• Yes, some of the books are out of date.  One of them was written in 2001!  It's not entirely their fault, another book was written in 2009 and it, too is already out of date.
      
  I'm forcing myself to take a two day hiatus.  Why is it that when I submit a task, it feels so good that I want to dive in to the next one?  It must be like childbirth, the fact that I have a horrible memory, or a combination.  Wish me luck that I don't need to do any revisions.

Yes, it's actually raining here in Austin today.  We have not seen this much rain in months.  It drizzled for a few minutes a few months back, but the thunder that is outside is enough to make me jump from my seat.  (Ok, in all fairness, that's not actually saying much.  I jump every time my husband sneezes, too.)

Ive been working on the task for EBusiness, the third class (after Education Without Boundaries and Human Resources) since last Wednesday.  It's not Tuesday and I've not gotten much done.  I'm not sure if I'm getting burned out or the fact that I watched the course mentor's webinar-intro-thingy where he stated that this one task typically takes people 120 hours to complete.  120 hours?!  "You cannot be serious!"  (Gotta love John McEnroe!)  Yes, I realize that I probably spent at least that much on my HR class that had 3 tasks, but this seems like so much more.

I have not excuses though.  At first my excuse was that I was still waiting on getting Task 3 back, possibly for revisions, but then I passed, so I don't have that anymore.  Have you ever felt like you had a question, but you weren't sure what exactly it was?  I emailed the course mentor.  Wah-wah!  "Duh, have you seen the webinar?"  Yeah, dude, I have.  

I gave myself almost the entire weekend off since J and I were running the San Antonio marathon, our combined 100th marathon.  (No, not my first, and his 99th thankyouvery much.  I contributed 44 to his 56.)

I'm just so confused.  This task seems so huge.  Basically, it's to create a marketing plan for a business.  The task seems like to do it justice, I'd need about 6 months to complete it, and that will make me miss my deadline of late December.  

Oh and I just noticed that there is no actual marking or entrepreneurial class.  Weird, huh?  A class on entrepreneurship would really fit with this model of students who can work independently.  

Oh, and I have my call with Kelly in a few minutes.  The lady is nice and all, but she sucks the life out of me and I probably won't be able to do much after speaking with her.  Often, she calls 15 or even 30 minutes after our scheduled time.  We hardly ever talk about school, and I despise the fact that it seems like we have to talk for an hour.  I really wish that WGU was more flexible in allowing me to contact her with questions, or not having a minimum length of call.  I appreciate her cheeriness and encouragement, I just wish that it was more focused on how she can better help me, rather than her being able to check a box off.

Oh well, one step forward is still a step ahead.  So I go, chip, chipping away at the task.

Forward

I did it!  I passed the Human Resource class at WGU!  What a great way to start off my Friday.  I really thought that since this task had so many components, that it would be returned.  

My husband still thinks that I spend too much time doing the tasks and I think he's probably right.  I do sense myself feeling somewhat burned out at this point because of the intensity with which I've been working.  I definitely need to pace myself better for the next class, EBusiness.

I think that I also need to figure out what the minimum is that I can do and still pass.  No, it's not that I'm lazy (ok a little) but if most people pass by answering a task in half a page, and I'm adding so much detail and citations that it's taking me 2 pages, then maybe I can lighten up a bit.  The rubric was pretty useless on these tasks.  The difference between "adequate" and "substantial" is so relative.

Since I'm not short on opinions, I made sure to include my feedback about the rubric on my evaluation that I received shortly after I received the email saying that I'd passed the task.

Now, I feel that I can fully concentrate on starting EBusiness, which only has a single task...with several parts.  I feel like Thornton Mellon, Rodney Dangerfield's character in the movie, "Back To School".  Hopefully it's not that bad.  Wish me luck!

Forward

Yowzers!  Well, it's in.  By "it" I mean Task 3.  My wonderful hubby stayed up with me until 2AM last night (this morning) to ensure that I would submit the task by my goal date.  Ok, so technically, it was submitted the day after my goal, but only by 2 hours!  No, my hubby did not do the work for me, nor did he proofread anything.  He sat on the sofa in my office and read while I typed away.  I know that I would have rationalized and submitted the task today (ok later today) if he hadn't been there to cheer me on.  I just really didn't want to let him down.  

I worked hard, I mean really hard on this task.  This one involved making a 15 slide power point presentation all dealing with human resources and performance appraisals (individual and team) and succession planning.  Oh, but the presenter notes were not supposed to just be a few words, essentially those "talking points" were supposed to be the paper, just broken down.  I think I pulled out about an 8-10 page "paper" on this one.  I worked for a solid week on it.  During that week, I barely ran, and I didn't even see any football.  Ok in full disclosure, I couldn't actually watch my teams, (Go Big Red!  Go Pack!) because neither game was broadcast deep in the heart of Texas.  This was actually a relief since I didn't feel obligated to watch.  Despite one team losing 2 games in a row, I still feel that I'm I'm not watching live (like on Tivo), I still somehow have power via the TV to influence the game.

Tomorrow I have my hour long jibber-jabber session with my mentor, but besides that, I plan on watching TV, going for a run and not thinking about school.  I need a break.

Forward!

Whew.  I wasn't expecting this.  As a matter of fact, I've been avoiding checking my WGU email account because I knew I'd be distracted when trying to work on Task 3, when I found out that Task 2 needed revisions.

Fearing that I'd miss something important from my mentor, Kelly.  (Like when she announced that because she lives in AZ, and they do not "celebrate' daylight savings time, my call will now be 1 hour earlier than it has been.) I reluctantly checked my WGU Gmail account this morning and found the following subject line, "Notification of Evaluation Completion", and I know what that means: no revisions!  What a relief.  I really thought I'd be getting this one back.  Even when I spoke to Kelly, I mentioned something about the font I'd used (Ariel, not Times New Roman, which I abhor) she mentioned that Ariel might not be APA compatible, so I was certain that I'd be getting it back for something.  I'm still trying to learn what the minimum is that I can do, and still pass.

While I do not want to need revisions on every single thing that I turn in, and I'm glad they didn't for something as stupid as using the "wrong" font, I also want to feel like I've earned the passing score.  I must admit that I am not 100% committed to drinking the WGU Kool Aid.  I want to believe that it's all legit, and I do feel like I'm learning things, and I know I'm putting in as much work as I would at a b & m (that's bricks and mortar school, fyi) just without the hassle of being on someone else's schedule and the headache of trying to drive in Austin at rush hour (which could be 2:30 in the afternoon).  I'm optimistic that this is indeed a "real" school, but I still have my eyes open to the fact that despite my hard work (and it is!), it may all be for naught when I graduate.  (Wow!  That's the first time I've ever allowed myself to say "when" not "if" I graduate!)

Still, I am learning things, even things that I don't necessarily agree with (see yesterday's post) but it would be that way at Kellogg, too so I can't cry foul for that.  Still, I hope, I really, really hope this master's is recognized and respected at least as much as a degree from McComb's at the University of Texas-Austin.

Forward!

I'm currently working on Task 3 of the HR module right now.  The first part is all about performance reviews.  As I've mentioned previously, I have several year's worth of work in human resources.  In my most recent position, my primary responsibility was compiling all of the performance reviews for the company, so I have some real experience in this part of HR.


I'm currently reading Chapter 7 of the etext, "Managing Human Resources" and I'm getting a wee bit frustrated.  It keeps talking in absolutes, "If X then you should Y."  HR is such an inexact science(?) and those of us who've worked in it know to never, ever speak in absolutes because we never know when something we said might be used against us.  Human Resources should be called the CYA (cover your ass) Department because that's essentially what they are paid to do; try and save the company from being sued by an employee.  I used to use so many, "well it seems like"s, and "it appears as if"s, and "if that were true..." that I could barely make a definitive statement about anything.  

My hope is that the other readings will be less about making general statements, and more about "things that we could do" because in HR, there are rules, #1) Never, ever put bad news in writing unless you are 100% certain th, #2) be consistent; whatever you're doing, wrong or right, do it for everyone (that way an employee can't claim that you discriminated against him/her) and #3) never, ever speak in absolutes!

Ok, enough procrastination.  Forward!

I'm really not feeling confident about this task.  I had planned on having it turned in before the weekend, so that I could start Task 3 by Sunday, but that didn't happen.  This task had a lot of details (whah!) and took a lot of thought.  It's difficult to measure or even define ethics since everyone on the entire planet may have a different perspective, and guess what?  We're all right.  

My main motivation for turning it in Monday night (yes, Halloween) was that I knew that I'd be talking to Kelly the next day and I didn't want to tell her that I hadn't yet turned it in.  I admit, I kind of like having someone to be accountable to.  Although we talk about lots of non-school stuff, it kinda makes me trust her more, like I can let my guard down since maybe our conversations aren't being recorded.  She's good at playing the cheerleader and she's really helped me to feel much less isolated.

I've decided that I'm done trying to connect with the WGU Austin Facebook folks.  I'll just have to get my social fix elsewhere.  I'm also not really liking the WGU Community boards (located inside the WGU Student Portal) since a lot of the folks on there seem to try and one-up each other.  Not my cup of tea at all.

I'm starting Task 3 today.  I took yesterday off, except for my call with Kelly.  It was the first day off since actually starting work at WGU .  I'm going to try and take my own advice and not do any revisions on Task 2, should it come back, until after I've submitted Task 3.

I'm still hoping to make my Nov. 10th deadline for completing this class.  What a relief that will be.  I spoke with Kelly about it, and she said that it's not a big deal if I'm a few days late.  Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Forward!