As I blew out the candles to celebrate my eighteenth birthday, fear suddenly gripped my eyes and I ran to my room to scramble for my laptop. I completely forgot about my first day of “class”. An online class was new to me; however, knowing myself, I would not want to miss out on earning college credits before officially beginning my first semester. So, here I was with a piece of cake on one side of me and a classroom on the other. This course was the only cost-free course which Stockton would offer to incoming freshman and although the course did not seem all too appealing, I later found it to be extremely insightful. Without further stalling, on June 29th, I began the course, “GoGlobal: GSS 1236 393” with Professor Rodriguez who later turned out to be my instructor for my freshman seminar. This online class focused on instructing the class on the world and discussed different aspects of it from economics to population to information. The class was split into three different classrooms with a different professor to monitor each one to look over the assignments and discussion board. The course was approximately one month and a half long and assignments were due daily from Monday to Friday.
The topics covered were: Introduction, Population, Resources, Technology, Information, Economies, Conflict, Governance, Globally Citizenship, and Summary/ Integration. The purpose was to transform the students into globally informed and moreover globally involved citizens; a goal which I am positive was achieved based on my education from the course. For each topic, there was a lecture with videos and articles to supplement the information and three types of assignments: New York Times Blog Posts, Discussion Posts, and Global Villager Blogs. Following each topic was a quiz and after five topics, there was an examination that consisted of all open-ended questions. My favorite assignment was the Global Villager Blog since it involved researching a particular area of the globe and seeing how certain economic or health factors would affect an imaginary character which was created by you. The perspective was added when this character was compared to other characters or even the average college student. The assignment truly helped build on research skills and writing performance in my opinion, since a well-constructed response reflected on both the character and the writer.
All in all, the course was very informational and useful to take, although this was only a one-time opportunity since incoming freshman are the only ones who have a chance to enroll. Best of all, in the comfort of one’s home and in their own manageable time, an individual was able to complete their assignments with no worry. I would recommend this to anyone, regardless of their major, since it expands their mind on ongoing global issues and allows them the chance to contribute with political action; this begins with writing a letter to the senator. Finally, since my villager was from Madagascar, I even felt like I was able to visit the country by stepping in her shoes.