February 9 Online Resources Assignment Toggle navigation

NUR 3010 Assignment February 9th
By: Nahum Figueroa 

Part I – Student Orientation to what it is like to take an online course

When I enrolled into this course I did not know that this class was partially-online. I personally did not want to have any online classes because I love the classroom experience for the simple fact that it allows me to see and interact with my professor and my peers face to face. However, I am not afraid of trying new things and learning new things so for that reason I whole-heartedly look forward to this experience of a hybrid course.
I have been a CUNY student for several years now and the Blackboard platform is used throughout all the CUNY schools and for this reason it is that I am no stranger to Blackboard at all and I can confidently say that I already know it inside and out. I know any CUNY student can say this. However, I am aware that some students may not be from a CUNY college and for that reason Blackboard may be completely new for them.

This five-minute student orientation video brought up one very important point that will really help me with this course and future online courses: time management. This course is writing-intensive, and let us not forget that we also have two exams, so in order for any student to succeed in this course, excellent time management skills is of utmost essence. I believe that this will effectively prevent the amount of the required assignments from becoming overwhelming. The second good point that the student in the video brought up is that Blackboard is an interactive technology and nursing involves a lot of technology, so being involved in this platform in our classes is a good opportunity for us future nurses to become even more comfortable with utilizing technology for our everyday work.

The student in the video kept reassuring us the viewers that Blackboard is very simple and self-explanatory. Unfortunately, he did not show how to access any links or how to do anything on Blackboard; therefore, I do not feel like I learned any new information of real substance. He kept saying over and over again how easy and self-explanatory Blackboard is, but never actually taught us how to use it. Luckily I have used Blackboard for years so I will be able to keep up to date with the course!

Part II – Beginner’s guide to Blackboard

In my opinion, incorporating technology in nursing education is very appropriate considering that we currently live in a time and country where technology rules almost every single facet of our lives, from our alarms to wake us up in the morning to how we chart in the hospitals. Technology governs this world and nurses use technology every day at work, so it only makes sense that technology is incorporated into our nursing education for nursing instructors and nursing students to use. I completed my AAS here at City Tech and Blackboard was used for the entire duration of the program and this platform proved to be of extreme utility for me because through Blackboard our professors were able to communicate to the entire class through announcements, posted our grades, posted all required assignments, links to videos, and much more. Blackboard works and it works well and I am glad that it has been incorporated into nursing education throughout CUNY.

I visited the link  http://websupport1.citytech.cuny.edu/websupport1/It/online/students/index.html and I found it to be very helpful. In this webpage there is a PDF document that explains how to use everything in Blackboard. It also has a schedule of when Blackboard workshops will take place at NYCCT this semester. I found this link to be of good use because whenever I am unsure of how to do something on Blackboard I know that I can go to this link and read about how to do it.

Part III – What and where are your online resources

I went to the NYCCT main page and I browsed through the many student resources available. I found two that I believe my classmates will find very useful.

The first student resource I would like to share is The College Learning Center. The web address is: http://websupport2.citytech.cuny.edu/learningcenters/. One invaluable part of this resource is its tutoring services, whether it is in-person or even online! They tutor science, math, accounting, computer programming, English, architecture, engineering, and many more. They also have workshops for math and English. Furthermore, they also have a Computer Literacy Program and in this program anyone can come and learn about how to use a computer. This is free to all NYCCT students.

The second student resource I would like to share is the school library. Here is the website: https://library.citytech.cuny.edu. The library is probably one of the most important places for most students. Here you can find any book you need to borrow to take home or make copies of or scan to read on your computer at home. It does not matter if the book you need is located in another CUNY school – you can order it and it will be brought to our library within a week for you to borrow, and you can borrow books for weeks to take home. Did I mention that you can renew the books for months? Just do not forget to renew the book or return them by the due date or you will be charged for each day that the book is late. Here you can also chat with a live librarian who will help you find whatever resource you need and who also will answer any questions you may have. This library resource is an excellent resource for all of us.