First, I haven’t seen these many 1 stars since I did a Yelp search for Western Dental (my review pending). Taking online courses is how I finished my Associates Degree. It’s a great way to avoid the distracting, in class cult of personalities. So, online combined with E-books is one of the better brain-stormed ideas to be implemented by our underpaid and underappreciated teaching staff. Besides E-books saving trees, the reader has a book that’s a searchable document. There’s text-to-speech functions in many titles. Some titles allow copy and paste functions which is a big help for quoting in essays and “works cited” page. All in all, a win-win for learning efficiency. However, some people/companies aren’t satisfied with things running smoothly. They never heard: “if it isn’t broke. . .” They have to make it more complicated and difficult. Enter: “Cengage Learning Systems.” After my degree I took a year-long break. When I came back, the entire online learning system was revised. No problem, part of the learning experience, and usually change is good. I bought the Cengage version E-book as required by a course syllabus through Amazon. This E-book still resides on my Kindle (5 starz for Amazon). The E-book is great except no text-to-speech. This is the case for some text E-books. However, this Cengage learning system put the brakes on my known learning methods to the point that I had to drop my course. I rate myself as an intermediate level PC end user but I couldn’t figure out the Cengage system if my life depended on it. My problem was trying to use the related features for my particular course. And part of that problem is time. Time management is stressed for online students especially if it’s during a shorter semester. In other words, the allotted time is for the actual course assignments, not learning how to use the learning software. Since the Cengage disaster, I’ve found courses that use the normal educational Web tools and so far, avoid Cengage. Maybe there will be a “Cengage 101” course offered and I’ll give it another try. . . Maybe. P.S. Have a professor you really love, or not? Use the: "Rate my Professors" Website. Let him and her feel the love (or not). I way overdue to show my appreciation for a few of my mentors.
