My journey through the coursework associated with this class has been interesting to say the least. I don’t think I have ever toiled as long or as hard as I have for the projects assigned in this class. Overall however, I am very proud of the work I have accomplished in this class. I gained valuable skills in website creation and improved my research techniques through the creation of my research project and civic engagement project websites. At first I thought the tasks to be daunting to the point of impossibility, however, I think I managed to complete all the tasks to the best of my ability. One of the most valuable lessons I learned in this class is the value and importance of persistence. There were many times I felt overwhelmed with the amount of work and effort I would have to expend in order to produce work that I would be proud to put my name on.
One of the things I struggled most with in completing the research project was collecting data that would be worth including in the project. I spent about a week formulating a survey in Google Forms that would be brief enough to garner an adequate amount of responses yet also produce enough data to be able to present. In the end I don’t think I had an “N” that was substantial enough to draw a rock-solid conclusion, however I think there was educational value in the attempt. Despite declaring Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology as my primary major, I have never done this type of independent research including original data collection before. Now that I am working in a pharmacology lab on campus, I think the experience I gained struggling to interpret my data will serve useful.
As far as the civic engagement project goes, I think my biggest struggle was keeping the focus of my attack on Big Pharma as opposed to the healthcare field as a whole. Going into the website creation, I knew that I wanted to present my literature review and page content as solely an indictment of the pharmaceutical industry. However, I was worried that presenting the CMS datasets in a certain way could cause my site viewers to mistrust all doctors. This was my biggest fear, as I know that physicians sacrifice an immense amount of time and resources to be able to heal people. In the end, I think with my disclaimer, wording on page content, video, and presentation of CMS datasets, I was able to keep my attack strictly on Big Pharma and corrupt doctors. I think I was able to effectively transmit the message that not all doctors receive hefty payments from the pharmaceutical industry, and that just because some do, it doesn’t mean that they are bad doctors. By far, the most useful thing I learned in this class actually came from researching the effects of drug firm promotional efforts. As someone who wants to eventually become a physician, assuming all goes well with the application process, I think I will be at a huge advantage knowing the various methods that pharmaceutical companies use to sway doctors into prescribing their products and knowing the results of studies that have investigated the efficacy of these measures.
Another thing that I found useful in this class was the reading associated with it. Many of the texts were quite dense and complex, but I found value in struggling through them and wrapping my head around difficult theories to gain a better understanding of participatory culture. I enjoyed reading both sides of the argument about the benefits and drawbacks of Web 2.0, social media, and the like. Reading opinions from the PC Handbook and responses from the Marxists in Fuchs’s book was quite enjoyable and eye opening. Part of the reason I signed up for this class was because I took Professor Bauerlein’s class last semester about participatory culture and the digital revolution. I was happy that I was able to continue my education about the subject and learn more about the historical context of movements to increase participation dating back to the ancients.
One aspect of the class that I did not enjoy was presenting information in the form of comic strips. While I understand the appeal of presenting something visually as opposed to textually, I don’t think that the comic assignments were particularly helpful. The reason I think this is that you can only present a limited amount of information in a comic strip. Additionally, an unexpectedly significant amount of time gets wasted in actually manipulating all of the elements (characters, props, scenes, etc.) to present the information. In my opinion, the ratio of time and energy spent creating the comic to the educational value it has makes these assignments not worth the trouble. I think there are better ways to present information in a fun and visual way, such as the infographics, videos, etc. that we created.
Overall however, I enjoyed the projects we created, as I had never done any like them before. I was able to not only learn course material but how to use new technologies, which I found stimulating and much more enjoyable than assignments given in standard English classes. One the things I am most happy about after taking this course is that the work I have done can live on permanently on Weebly’s servers as opposed to being relegated to dusty filing cabinets, trashcans, or one of the thousands of folders I have on my hard drive. I am very excited to show my family, friends, and colleagues the work that I have done in this class. I am glad that my efforts in this class will not simply be reduced to a grade on a transcript that I will probably never look at in a couple years’ time.
One of the things I struggled most with in completing the research project was collecting data that would be worth including in the project. I spent about a week formulating a survey in Google Forms that would be brief enough to garner an adequate amount of responses yet also produce enough data to be able to present. In the end I don’t think I had an “N” that was substantial enough to draw a rock-solid conclusion, however I think there was educational value in the attempt. Despite declaring Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology as my primary major, I have never done this type of independent research including original data collection before. Now that I am working in a pharmacology lab on campus, I think the experience I gained struggling to interpret my data will serve useful.
As far as the civic engagement project goes, I think my biggest struggle was keeping the focus of my attack on Big Pharma as opposed to the healthcare field as a whole. Going into the website creation, I knew that I wanted to present my literature review and page content as solely an indictment of the pharmaceutical industry. However, I was worried that presenting the CMS datasets in a certain way could cause my site viewers to mistrust all doctors. This was my biggest fear, as I know that physicians sacrifice an immense amount of time and resources to be able to heal people. In the end, I think with my disclaimer, wording on page content, video, and presentation of CMS datasets, I was able to keep my attack strictly on Big Pharma and corrupt doctors. I think I was able to effectively transmit the message that not all doctors receive hefty payments from the pharmaceutical industry, and that just because some do, it doesn’t mean that they are bad doctors. By far, the most useful thing I learned in this class actually came from researching the effects of drug firm promotional efforts. As someone who wants to eventually become a physician, assuming all goes well with the application process, I think I will be at a huge advantage knowing the various methods that pharmaceutical companies use to sway doctors into prescribing their products and knowing the results of studies that have investigated the efficacy of these measures.
Another thing that I found useful in this class was the reading associated with it. Many of the texts were quite dense and complex, but I found value in struggling through them and wrapping my head around difficult theories to gain a better understanding of participatory culture. I enjoyed reading both sides of the argument about the benefits and drawbacks of Web 2.0, social media, and the like. Reading opinions from the PC Handbook and responses from the Marxists in Fuchs’s book was quite enjoyable and eye opening. Part of the reason I signed up for this class was because I took Professor Bauerlein’s class last semester about participatory culture and the digital revolution. I was happy that I was able to continue my education about the subject and learn more about the historical context of movements to increase participation dating back to the ancients.
One aspect of the class that I did not enjoy was presenting information in the form of comic strips. While I understand the appeal of presenting something visually as opposed to textually, I don’t think that the comic assignments were particularly helpful. The reason I think this is that you can only present a limited amount of information in a comic strip. Additionally, an unexpectedly significant amount of time gets wasted in actually manipulating all of the elements (characters, props, scenes, etc.) to present the information. In my opinion, the ratio of time and energy spent creating the comic to the educational value it has makes these assignments not worth the trouble. I think there are better ways to present information in a fun and visual way, such as the infographics, videos, etc. that we created.
Overall however, I enjoyed the projects we created, as I had never done any like them before. I was able to not only learn course material but how to use new technologies, which I found stimulating and much more enjoyable than assignments given in standard English classes. One the things I am most happy about after taking this course is that the work I have done can live on permanently on Weebly’s servers as opposed to being relegated to dusty filing cabinets, trashcans, or one of the thousands of folders I have on my hard drive. I am very excited to show my family, friends, and colleagues the work that I have done in this class. I am glad that my efforts in this class will not simply be reduced to a grade on a transcript that I will probably never look at in a couple years’ time.