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:
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.