Education

Some experts said that online education could fill the gap in our needs. It piqued my interest. I had been a technical salesman for nearly twenty years till the spring of 2014. My inspiration for sales was fading. I wanted to become a programming engineer. I serendipitously found the website coursera.org, which provides many online courses taught by university professors all over the world. It seemed that I had struck gold. I registered for a python programming course right away. From then on, I started my online learning journey.

The online programming course includes instructions and a hands-on project. I attended online instructions three times a week, and I handed in my programming code for the evaluation after every unit ended. I also participated in discussion forums to talk about assignments with my online companions. I did all these tasks seriously, and I wasn’t absent for three months for the whole classes. I got the certificate for this course after I went through the final test online. It appeared that I was moving towards my goal through my diligence.

Several days later, an email from coursera.org said that I could gain a BSc in Computer Science if I completed 8 compulsory modules worth 360 credits in a specialization. The specialization includes a series of courses: programming I&II (I have finished programming I), computational mathematics, discrete mathematics, web development, algorithms, data structures etc. The tuition fee was USD8,000. It was high priced for me. Mathematics and algorithms seemed so difficult that I doubted whether I could have persisted over one year’s learning. So I had to nip my thought in the bud and continue my sales work. I missed the opportunity of building new structural knowledge and skills.

In May 2018, I had planned to take a Business English course. Before this, I attended the NAB show, which shows the media productions in the Las Vegas exhibition center every April. I found my English still poor when I communicated with English speakers. When I went back to Guangzhou, I explored coursera.org and investigated the course “Business English for Non-Native Speakers Specialization”. It includes basic, writing, effective speaking, and cross-cultural communication, all parts related to business English. I paid USD500 for the tuition fee. It was necessary to strengthen my overall ability in English. I started with the basic course. But only studying online for two weeks, I couldn’t log into the website and application anymore, though I tried to use VPN tunnels. Half a month later, a new internet regulation was revealed that forbids citizens from accessing unauthorized overseas video websites. That was the reason for non-access. What a pity. I had to stop my online language courses. I lost the opportunity to improve my skills again. If I had a second chance, I would have fixed it.

I wanted to grab the opportunity of learning as much as I could. During the pandemic periods, I had to work at home. I had more leisure time since business activities were dropping. One day, I tried to log into coursera.org. To my surprise, I could access my account successfully. My learning inspiration was fired again. But it showed the Business English Courses had been invalid for over 16 months. Fortunately, I found an interesting course—The Modern World, Part One: Global History from 1760 to 1910—instructed by Professor Philip Zelikow, who mainly talked about the huge divide there was between the traditional world and the modern world. Live classes were closed, but all video clips and text scripts of the past online events were saved, and an online discussion forum was opened, too. When I submitted a question, I got a reply from other learners a couple of days later. I enjoyed it very much. I downloaded all the videos. They were so interesting that I watched them again and again, although I didn’t get the certificate because of missing the live events.

I had the second chance to restart my online English classes at the end of this April. When I moved to Yorkton, fortunately, I successfully registered a LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) program that is free with an online learning option. Under my professor’s online instructions, I correct my pronunciation, practice more writing, and review grammar rules. Including daily speaking, it’s an overall practical process of learning English. I’m seeing improvement, especially my writing. I firmly believe I can achieve my goal this time.

Looking back at my past experiences with online classes, I think that I can develop my new skills through online education. Progress builds my confidence that helps me overcome difficulties in learning. Under my self-discipline and diligence, I need to strengthen my persistence to build structural knowledge. I also need to practice more advanced methods.

I agree with the opinion that online education could fill the gap in our needs. Nowadays, most youngsters dream of studying their favorite majors at universities. But the reality is, only a few of them have the chance to enter campus, and not every student on campus can have their preferred major. Adults’ working requirements change more often than before. Sometimes we may change our jobs, sometimes, our job requirements need to be upgraded. Whether we admit it or not, the knowledge gap must exist in our life. Online education can fill that gap. It probably widens our careers, brings us inspiration, makes our lives more interesting. I sincerely hope everyone’s hard studies will pay off.