My Degree Plan @ TESC and Progress

[Lady Grace of Pemberley]

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Liberal Arts Capstone @ TESC
Grade: A

Online Course: LIB-495
Professor: Randall Otto

My final grade was just posted for this course, and by the grace of God alone, I earned an "A." So excited right now! This course was, as my mom says, my Achilles heel for this whole college process, mostly because all the assignments were so vague and abstract and my professor was kind of unhelpful (in my opinion). I felt like I floundered through the entire course, never really sure about what I was doing. One of the things that really helped me was looking at other students' papers so I knew sort of what to do. Since you can really turn this course into whatever you want to, the assignments were necessarily abstract, but my brain didn't appreciate that so much. I re-wrote both of the first two chapters due to very low grades (as in, the lowest I've ever earned in college!), but unfortunately, my professor didn't award me a new grade.

Basically, you will be writing a research paper in five parts (one every two weeks, or one module). For the last assignment, you'll just put all those parts together, create a table of contents, abstract, and appendix, check your spacing, citations, font, etc., and you're done! I got a less-than-satisfactory grade for my final project, but at least my final grade was still an "A."

As far as citation methods go, use APA unless you are doing a creative project, in which case you should use MLA. I ending up going with a research paper on the history and influence of the Vaganova method of ballet, so I got to go with my favorite, APA.

The textbook for this course didn't seem to match the course - it was written more for the graduate school dissertation, which definitely got confusing at some points. However, the chapters were short and you don't have to read the whole book, which was a plus for me.

Written Assignment 2 was one of the most confusing in the class - and one of the most writing intensive. Since I was doing a research project, I just looked up websites that pertained to my topic and organized the information I found under subheadings that referred to my subquestions. My final paper is 56 pages long, and my Chapter 2 is 14 pages long. Make sure the data you gather is very specific to your topic in this chapter! I made the mistake of overviewing a broad topic (ballet) instead of focusing in on my exact topic (the Vaganova method of ballet) when I wrote Written Assignment 2 for the first time. I actually wrote this chapter twice. :/ Make sure to save some sources for your "results" chapter if you are doing a research project - I saved my more "professional" or "academic-looking" sources for that chapter (plus, I examined a documentary film and interviewed two people).

As far as the ETS Proficiency Profile, I got a bit nervous about it. Don't be - there's really no reason. It was laid out similar to a CLEP exam (actually, more like an ECE if you've taken one of those), except that it was easier. You don't find out your score, as it doesn't matter at all. As long as you complete the test, tell your professor that you took it, and post about your experience on the discussion board, you will get a "100," without question.

There are a TON of options topic-wise for this class. Honestly, you can write about whatever interests you. Since I am a ballet dancer, I am writing about the history and influence of the Vaganova method of ballet (a specific style of classical ballet). Be thinking about your topic before the class begins, because you will have to post your topic shortly after the class starts. Furthermore, you will have to submit around three topics in case your professor disapproves your first choice. Additionally, you most develop three sub-questions that answer the main question of your paper. These sub-questions are what you will base your research on. Here are some sample topics:

Research Projects:
Movie productions of the 1950s and their influence on current films
Reasons for gang membership and violent behavior
Effect of background noise on hearing-aid wearers

Creative Projects:
Violin teacher's curriculum for beginning violin students
Tourist guide to statues in New Orleans
Photo essay of murals on Philadelphia's buildings
Relationship between Dante's Inferno and the Bible

Applied Projects:
Problems with ground water in South Africa
Parent/Teacher guide to dealing with students suffering from obsessive behavior

Would I recommend this course? Yes, especially considered that it is required to graduate from TESC for some degrees. It was an interesting experience for me, as I have never written a research paper (at least like this) before. It was definitely a learning experience!

Would I recommend this professor? No. Although he did grade assignments very quickly, he wasn't helpful in responding to questions - I almost felt as if the more communication I had with him, the worse grades I got. He was very particular about the depth required for discussion post grades. Here's what he said:

Let me say a word about how I grade discussions. I grade on both the number of posts and the depth and extent of the post. Two posts of at least a couple of sentences with some depth is considered the minimum, which I grade in the C range. More posts with less depth will get a B range grade and more posts with greater elaboration will get an A range grade. I do not allow posts for credit to previous weeks of discussion, but only to the week of discussion the class is currently in.

On a side note, he likes all your assignments to be submitted in Word format. This really hurt several of my grades, because my iPad simply refuses to change any documents into Word format without COMPLETELY messing up the spacing. And Dr. Otto is very big on proper spacing.

I'm almost done with my only LSU course (Argumentation and Debate), and I'm also planning to take the Marketing Communications TECEP soon. After that, I'll only have the Public Relations Thought and Practice TECEP to go, and I'll be done! :hurray: