WileyPLUS sounded like a great idea, essentially a timesaver tool to make the course material more accessible and the course more convenient. It does have its drawbacks though. The online textbook has been helpful in that I didn’t have to carry the book to class for lab, because we could look at it while doing lab online. However about not being able to access it on the train, was a true drawback. The point of having an online textbook is so that we can access it without having to carry the heavy print book. Having the option to download the online book would have been nice, so that we can have it saved for access on our laptops, smartphones or tablets while underground.
This was my first semester balancing a 35-hour work schedule with a full time student schedule, and I barely had time to breathe throughout. I do most of my studying on the train when I can actually take out the textbook if the train is not too crowded. This isn’t ideal but I am definitely planning on making things a bit more manageable for myself in the future. It was a good lesson to learn.
Bottom line, the online textbook was somewhat helpful. I feel I may have done exactly the same in the course with only the print book. As for the quizzes, they were also somewhat helpful. I found the wording and material choice of the quizzes a little difficult to comprehend, and this is reflected in my grades, but they were overall better than nothing. What was most annoying about them was not being able to edit a submitted answer. We didn’t get the grades for the quizzes immediately so I think in all fairness we should have been able to change answers if we wanted to before the submission time. For pros, the quizzes definitely let me take a look at the material before the class, so that’s good.
Rahmina Begum
