I went back to the college today to set up my online classes and again I feel as if I should’ve just stayed home. It’s good that it’s set up and working now. Although the manner in which things occurred and as short and simple as everything was I feel like this is something to be done over the phone rather than requiring you to physically be there.
I was told yesterday to come to the college at one o’clock. I did so and again my teacher was not anywhere in sight. I thought to myself “Shouldn’t they have been here on time? They’re the one who scheduled the appointment!” and as usual I wasn’t in any hurry so I didn’t mind waiting. The issue here being I feel it’s a little improper to be late for appointments that you create.
Soon enough she came and she gave me paperwork to fill out. This is all well and fine however the paperwork she gave me was identical to the paperwork I filled out at the orientation. I can’t imagine why I’d need to fill out the same exact things twice but this makes me wonder if they’ve somehow lost my paperwork. I should have asked about it but at that point it probably would’ve made this whole thing a slightly larger mess and I thought I’d just go with it to make things progress faster.
As I was filling the papers out her superior came over and asked me when I was going to come in and work. I told her my plan was to get the online classes working and finish them as soon as possible. She asked “So ‘You and the Law’ is on the backburner then?” and I promptly replied “Yes”. She then gave me a look and shook her head while walking away saying “Oook” with a tone that felt as if she was saying ‘I think you’re making a mistake but it’s your life’. I appreciate that they say it’s a fast credit and easy to do but I know exactly how I want to do things so I felt like I was being questioned or even judged.
Because of the previously mentioned mess there were a few things I wasn’t sure how to fill out. For example I wasn’t certain how to fill out my last attendance dates to which my teacher said “Just leave it blank. I don’t have any problem with leaving things blank. Let the people in the office worry about it.” Now I don’t like to quickly form opinions about people but so far this entire procedure has seemed very unprofessional. Again I didn’t give it any thought and went on with it. The sooner I was out of here the sooner I could work at home.
While I was filling out the papers she set up my account and after I finished she showed me the website to go to. She suggested I write it down but I didn’t feel it warranted since the address was simple and I spend a lot of my time online. The page then loaded blank with a notice that in order to access the content you need a specific ActiveX control running. My teacher then began to explain in a very crude manner that this was something you might get and she didn’t remember what it was called and as soon as she said that I told her “It’s ActiveX. You could just tell your browser to allow it from this site and avoid future problems.” I’m no stranger to the internet or browser functions.
She quickly moved on and brought up the program interface and asked me which electives I wanted to take. She showed me which of the classes listed were electives and none of them sound particularly appealing so I just chose the first one I thought of. Then she had me log in on the computer in front of me and told me that the first class she had given me was health because it was a required class. Next she told me to try to access a part of the health class that was about halfway through the course. It worked and she told me to wait saying that I wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. After somewhat frantically looking through her admin console she found the correct setting to disallow me from access content out of order.
At this point she began to tell me how the classes actually work. Each segment listed on the screen has four parts. The first part is a test which if you score 80% or above you supposedly don’t have to do that segment of the class. If you don’t pass it then you need to read the chapter which is the second part. The third part is the ‘review test’ which doesn’t count for anything and is meant to prepare you for the actual test which is the fourth part. All of this concludes one chapter of study in a class. This was simple enough and I understood this easily.
Following this she told me that after every few chapters there is a ‘review test’ you are required to take. These tests cover all of the chapters immediately previous to it. I asked her whether these were just more practice tests (since she called the others ‘review tests’) or if they would actually count for something to which she quickly and laughingly replied “Boy you are dense aren’t you?” It was then that I was greatly beginning to lose my patience with her, this program, and the entire college. I’ve not heard very many good things about this college and the only reason I’ve gone to it is because there aren’t a lot of nearby choices. I wanted to stand right up and in my loudest voice possible give a response to that question she’d not soon forget. I wanted to see her try to make some snide comments about what I had to say but luckily for her I’m a patient man. Regardless I’ll not stand for such blatant disregard and unprofessionalism again. I’m willing to give second chances but not a third.
I’m not at all pleased with anything this college has to offer so far. I’ve not yet even started and already I doubt anything can happen that would change my mind about it. I was thinking about waiting until I finished so that when I tried to join the USMC I’d go straight to officer but if things keep up in this manner I’m seriously going to consider enlisting when I have the minimum fifteen credits just to get the hell away from here and find a much more professional learning environment.
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