No one wants to fail, and although failure is sometimes avoidable, failing a class at this level of education is especially hard to swallow.
If you haven’t tested out of it, a required course for all students to take is Intro to Information Technology, and I failed it. That was really, really rough to deal with. Here’s my take as to how to avoid it now that I’m retaking it, and what I wish I had done differently when I first took it.
To begin with, the class is excruciating. I fancy myself a fairly tech-savvy person, so being explained a bunch of stuff I either already knew or I knew I didn’t have to know was nearly painful. This class also has the issue of feeling very impersonal. The class I’m taking is online and run through Pearson. Not only have I paid to take this class, but I’ve paid extra to take it online, and I have paid more to download this third party service. The entire class is automated. Assignments are graded instantly by computer algorithms, lessons are from digital reading and training is done through step-by-step video game tutorial style. I don’t know why we even have a professor.
Both the pacing of the class and the lack of communication culminate in my ultimate issue: a lack of motivation. If there’s no one checking my daily progress, and if I hate the class anyway, why bother investing my time and energy into making an A? This was my attitude for far too long, and it’s the reason I failed. It is certainly my own fault I failed the first time, but ETSU could also do more to improve a class its entire student population must take.
There needs to be a reason to take a class besides it simply being a requirement. For instance, we may all have to take English, but that doesn’t mean the school doesn’t try to have a quality English course for non-English major students. Likewise, ETSU shouldn’t have such an awful Intro to Information Technology course. Having an automated system is smart, but it also comes off as lazy and lackluster. There’s nothing supportive about the class I’m taking now, though I paid extra to have it count for my credit.
I honestly don’t see the class ever improving since ETSU will likely not see a fiscal reason to, so the only solution for all of us is to just trudge through it. The work is not hard, but it is tedious and boring. Just get it done on time. Do not give in to laziness and bitterness like I did, and make the first time you take the class is the only time you have to take this class.
