Reflection on the objectives and study material of Module 1

- with reference to my own learning experience

The first sections dealt with basic skills like handling files and experience in practical tasks such as sending email, participating in online conferencing and use of the principles of 'Netiquette'. These were aimed at introducing skills that would, hopefully, lead to the establishment of an active online support group to help students during the rest of the course. I found the First Class computer conferencing software to be a challenge but straightforward to master.

Next, came the introduction of ‘new’ software packages. This sharply highlighted the wide range of different levels of experience present on T171 - some students (myself included) were already familiar with them while others were encountering them for the first time. The emphasis was on learning skills necessary to be a confident computer user, including coping strategies for when things went wrong and useful techniques for learning on your own. Ten years of using computers gave me plenty of experience here.

The third section about HTML was interesting. I was already a confident Web user and aware of HTML but had never used it. The course material enabled me to do this and I soon realised that HTML was not as complicated as it first seemed! I enjoyed the challenge of creating web pages - eventually rejecting an editor in favour of hand-coding using Notepad, which gave me more familiarity with the inner workings of HTML.