When reflecting on what I learned from this course, I came to understand and appreciate that completion would take time and patience, which was hard to accept at first. I had not used WordPress since my freshman year of college, and therefore, hadn't retained the skills I would have learned then. It was important for me to create a new website for this course, so I had to dig through settings and plugins to find helpful tools. In the end, this was all extremely rewarding because it enabled me to feel more confident about the structure and features of my website. As a result, I was able to be dedicate more time to assignments over trying to work through technical issues.
If I were to redo this course again, I would definitely ask for outside help rather than trying to figure everything out on my own. Since I was relatively new to WordPress, I spent many hours trying to learn how to use it. While useful in the end, I regretted not asking others to help me work through problems instead of just asking the internet why things weren't working correctly. Outside of the technical aspects, I struggled to come up with strong ideas for writing prompts. Therefore, I wish I had asked others for help with possibilities instead of doing multiple rewrites for hours, which were a waste of valuable time. If I ever did re-take this course, I think I would definitely be more intentional about asking for help, instead of struggling alone.
This course allowed me to complete many fun and challenging projects, all of which allowed my creativity to really shine. In terms of the most exciting project, the final project was definitely it. This was because of the sheer ridiculousness I got to play with, as it was truly an absurd occurrence. It was easy to make fun of the protesters involved, allowing me to focus on George Washington’s reaction to the craziness and emulate how an outsider would feel. Outside of that, I got a lot of joy out of finding very specific images for my video, as I wanted to make sure they were as realistic as possible, and not AI- generated.
In conclusion, this class presented many difficulties and enjoyment, whether it be making my own sound effects or struggling to write about different TV show characters, I truly enjoyed this class. It allowed me to really expand on my knowledge of WordPress and experiment with its interworkings. I also got to interact with my peers on discussion boards, which really created a strong connection between us, even when it was virtual. Along with that, I learned how to use different platforms for different assignments, such as Band Lab and Flickr, both of which I had never used before. Furthermore, I am very glad to have taken this course and will look forward to applying the skills I learned towards the rest of my college journey.