Before starting the mods, I had heard it all. I had read all so many Rate My Professor reviews for the classes. I had talked to people I knew who already took these classes. My advisor told me the mods make up the hardest semester of my college career. Add this to a pandemic and all of my classes being online, and this wasn’t far from the truth.
I transferred from CMCI, so I took all of the mods at the same time as BCOR 1015 and BCOR 1030. This didn’t add too much to my stress from the mods, as there ended up being many other transfer students and sophomores in my classes, so I felt right on track. There was some content from these classes that overlapped, and it burnt me out a bit that I was only taking business classes, but this couldn’t have been avoided if I wanted to graduate on time.
Now, this doesn’t mean by any stretch of the imagination that the mods were easy. They are the hardest classes that I have taken thus far. This is due to the change in pace from normal classes, as well as the difference from looser content of communication classes to more concrete ideas. I was used to being able to explain my ideas and having them accepted as long as my explanation made sense, and this is not the case with business classes.
Additionally, most of the classes involve math, even if they aren’t accounting or finance. I wasn’t expecting this, and this made the transition a bit harder too — I hadn’t done much math in my freshman year classes.
I think that without all of my classes being online, I would have done a lot better in them. It was hard to pay attention when I was surrounded by roommates and in the same room all day long. Since the mods are so fast-paced, this meant that zoning out for even one or two classes would impact my comprehension much more than in a normal class.
This ended up being my downfall in the mods because of pandemic burnout, and I wish I could have taken advantage of the information available in the mods more.
I think that the mods are difficult, but I don’t know if this would have been the hardest semester of college for me if I took them in person. None of the content in the mods is incredibly complex, especially when you’re being taught by some really awesome faculty. It’s easier to foster friendships and pay attention when you’re in person, and I feel that that is something I lost this semester.