Distance learning

Just finishing Week 1 in the University of Pittsburgh MLIS summer term. I am part of Cohort 10, and I am doing this program through distance learning, which is a testament to the wonders of the Internet.

I've never taken a class online, much less a whole degree. The MLIS material is fascinating to me -- I am excited about the school's approach (that library science is fundamentally a communication science) and I like the book lists so far (Yochai Benkler!). Based on the first lecture in LIS 2000, this program seems thoroughly post-modern. There is some re-imagining going on here of what is a library and what is information today.

However, one observation, and I'm sure I will adapt to the virtual classroom interface, but one drawback from virtual orientations is that there is quite a bit of frustration and time taken to understand the online system. We are using Blackboard and some of it is unintuitive, making navigation frustrating. For instance, I have to go through what feels like 25 clicks to find everything I need: assignments, discussion boards, reading lists, lecture videos, etc. And times this by two, since I am taking two classes this term. There should be a master page that simply says: HERE IS WHAT YOU ARE TO DO THIS WEEK and have on there reading assignments, writing assignments, links to the reading and writing assignments where necessary, links to that week's lecture, required discussion posts with a link to the thread, necessary software with links to the downloads, announcements, etc. All those items can be found on Blackboard, but they are in about 10 different places.

The interface will take familiarization, and I'm sure it won't take long. But starting out in a virtual classroom has been tricky.