How do we compare?

How to install Google Analytics

I did it! And you can too-it is easy to add Analytics to your blog to track data. Here's how:

Go to your gmail. Normally you would then click on your blog, but instead use that same box to find "Analytics." You might have to click "more" at the bottom, and maybe "even more" but it is there. Click on it.

When that page opens look at the right (where the circle is below), click  "sign in", then click "Google Analytics."

It will request about 5-6 pieces of information. One of those will be the url for your blog. Copy and paste the blog url in.

After filling in the information you will receive an "Analytic ID almost immediately." Copy it so that you can paste it in a moment.

Go to your blog. Go to your settings (the page where you re-do everything). Look at the botom of the list on the left. Click "settings." Scroll to the bottom. There is a spot to paste the Analytics ID in. Paste it. Save the settings at the top of the page.

Nothing changes on your blog visually but now you can cruise over to Google Analytics Just sign in and click on Google Analytics again) and it gives you up to date data either hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.

You did it!

Data

Data...

 

 

No not THAT Data.

 This data.

 

 My number of page views have grown each time I have posted. That could mean a few things. Maybe people are finding the posts more interesting as we go along. Maybe more people are stumbling onto the blog. 

What interests you? What causes you to follow a blog? What would you like to see on a blog like this?

Creating the Graduate Workspace

Hemingway had the Finca Vigia. Carl Sanburg had Connemara.When a visitor tours one of these places it is made clear that the environment contributed to the writing. As graduate students in communication, we write. A lot. What does your work space look like? What would make more efficient? 

We are online graduate students. What do you have to have on your computer? Are you a file freak, do you need a clean desktop or do you prefer lots of icons?

What words of advice would you share with an online graduate student that is just starting the program about their workspace?

A font of knowledge?

Fonts.
       
Fascinated with them?  Didn't notice them? Do they make a difference in what information is communicated to you?

I once worked with a graphic designer who stayed after every movie just to see the fonts that were used in the credits. It "helped her get ideas." Font styles change the way clothing styles change, it is as easy to recognize fonts from the 70's as easy as it is to recognize a pair of big bell blue jeans.

Research shows that we should think about our font choice because (like McLuhan said) "the medium is the message." Check out these links about fonts:

The psychology of fonts

A guide to choosing the right font

What the Purdue OWL has to say about fonts

Do you have a favorite font? Why?

Panic!!!

One of my biggest fears as a graduate student is accidentally hitting the "submit" button and not the "continue" button when testing.  I just had a small panic attack recently because I went to "Tests and Quizzes" and the page clearly showed that at some point I had submitted it. Panic. Sheer raw panic set in.

I must confess I have what I call "monkey fingers." Many times the pages in my draft look like a monkey has sat at the keyboard and pretended to type. I am a horrible typist, which is perhaps how I built my super-hero skill of editing other people's work  (but sadly not my own). So I believed I had sent off a jumble of half-outline, parts of words, and something that mostly only made sense to me. At some point I realized I was looking at my class I took in January. Idiot. Panic over...for now. The situation will arise again I am sure.

Before I started graduate school online my biggest panic was how was I going to find time for the classwork. I envisioned getting up an hour earlier every day, at 4 a.m. to work in the time. That has only had to happen once. Some how the time has just been made and it has worked out.

 But it is not just my problem. Many students experience feelings of panic and anxiety in graduate school. This is your mind on grad school is a blog that examines how graduate student stress was addressed at Berkeley. 

All of my blog followers are graduate students. What is YOUR biggest panic now and before you started grad school? How are you coping with those fears?

 

Creating Community in an Online Grad program

My first experience in graduate school had some distinct differences from this online experience. The first program required my physical presence, and with that presence came the joy of meeting new friends and colleagues. Some of those friends I still have today. I would see the same people in the book store that I saw in class and waiting for lunch and out of the close physical contact came new friends and a community. There was comfort in that community. I knew who could show me the painting technique that the professor had demonstrated, but that I had not fully understood, by stopping by the Scene Shop in the late afternoon. I knew if I went for a bagel there was a good chance that I could visit with a professor and get a question clarified. There were spots where students congregated and I learned which place suited which need I had at any given time. These were my friends, my community.

I know where to get instructions that the professors leave online.  But how do we build community online? 

There are some assignments that seem to build community better than others. Most of the assignments require some online interaction and they certainly build communication skills. But I do not always walk away feeling I have community or friendship from team events. And yet I feel I have at least one person that I would say is a good friend from the program and numerous friendships that are building, so clearly even online friendship and community are possible. In my case, building the start of my little community has started the way it did with my last graduate experience. Stopping during assignments to say " How is it going?" "Did you find that (whatever it is) to be difficult too?" and "Can you help me with this, I am lost."

Community online is built the way all community is built, one interaction at a time. And just like real life, we may not end up being friends with everyone we meet, but we won't know till we put the time in to see.