Valuable information and skills I have obtained during this class are academic integrity, netiquette, APA style and formatting, and critical thinking. These skills are not only vital for course work, however, they are acceptably life learning skills that people will be required to utilize at several points in their lives. Most adults are still learning these skills either on their job or in their course of study in an undergraduate or graduate program. Academic integrity is a behavioral skill that includes a mixture of trust, fairness, and respect.
Showing and having respect for one another as well as yourself is a concern students should maintain. Responsibility is another strong value of academic integrity. Showing ownership and taking the blame when situations occur will show strength and compassion. (The Center for Academic Integrity, 1999). During my graduate program, I will show honesty and fairness by giving credit to other sources. In a career setting, there are various different attitudes and personalities that one will have to learn how to adjust to be around and tolerate.
For myself, working in information technology in the healthcare industry, I remain in contact with several doctors and nurses that sometimes can be demanding. As a professional, building a rapport with my co-workers creates a safe and pleasant atmosphere. By doing so, you gain trust and respect from one another. Looking back on the course, netiquette is another skill that will be useful during my career. Netiquette is the do’s and don’ts of online communication which can be email, online courses, and social media.
Having online etiquette demonstrates having a sense of dignity and being morally and ethically respectful to the individual you communicating with via internet (The Sage Colleges, 2014). Throughout my program and career, I shall be mindful of my comments and tone as I do not want to show signs of offense or negativity. As an online student, I value respect. Learning to respect one’s opinion and not give off negative feedback is imperative to me.
We are all adults and are expected to be not only professional nevertheless, cordial. It’s okay to disagree on a subject, yet you must take other’s feeling into consideration when voicing your position. I also value giving credit when credit it due. When I reference someone else’s information, I cite the source. Being honest and having academic integrity are valuable characteristics of a successful online student. However, critical thinking is a prominent skill that I happen to still be developing.
Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. I will practice this skill in both my graduate program and career by being critical in the sense of analyzing ideas, observations, experience and reasons, exploring the evidence and carefully considering whether something makes sense and is accurate. Critical thinking is an essential skill to master because you will attempt to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way, which is why this skill is needed in graduate school.
People who reason critically and consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, and empathically in life (Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2013). APA is the recommended and required writing style adopted by Baker College in the graduate program. I am familiar with this writing style; however, I am still in the learning process. Baker College offers resources such as “APA: The Easy Way” and “The Publication Manual of American Psychological Association” to assist students in formatting and writing style with essays and research papers.
Both of these resources will aid me in identifying the types of articles that appear in scientific journals such as, empirical studies, literature reviews, theoretical articles, methodological articles, and case studies (American Psychological Association, 2012). Each one of these skills will be valuable and useful throughout my graduate program and career. As I mentioned before, I am still in the learning process and my goal is to soon overcome and achieve these skills. These skills are what creates a successful online graduate student while being the foundation of a having an outstanding career.
