Tag: Walla Walla

Book Signing and Raffle at Book & Game in Walla Walla

Book Signing and Raffle at Book & Game

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I will be at Book & Game in Walla Walla on Friday, April 14th between 11am-3pm for a book signing and raffle. Come enter to win one of two $25 gift certificates to Book & Game!

My gratitude goes to Book & Game for hosting this event. Book & Game has been serving Walla Walla since 1989 and offers a wide array of books (including College Without the Campus), games, journals, curriculum aids, and cards. A map to their location is included below.

For more information, feel free to email me via the contact page. I hope to see you then!

Book & Game Co.
38 East Main St.
(Corner of 1st & Main Streets)
Downtown Walla Walla, WA

Black mortarboard from College Without the Campus

Leavenworth Pigeons

The Pigeonhole

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A few weeks ago, I met and visited with a peer who also lives in Walla Walla. She asked if I was working or going to school; I asked her the same. She told me she works at her church, has a part-time reception job, and is earning her psych degree.

Her response stuck with me because lately I’ve been thinking about my answer to the “What do you do?” question. Like this young woman, my response can also have three parts: writer of a book, HVAC shop assistant, and Etsy store owner.

I’m grateful that most people I talk to are open minded about my triple job description. This gratitude is why I’m writing this post: I want to learn to forget stereotypes when meeting someone. A person’s job does not define them. It does add to the description of the person, but that person is more than their job, more than their marital status, and more than any of the other general topics that come up in an initial conversation.

Of course we already know this. Yet, think about how much credit is given to a person when someone says, “My relative works at Google.” We don’t know this relative, but in my mind this person has just been given some clout. This could be deserved—after all, I hear it’s not easy to get a job at Google. This person put in the work! But, on the flip side, maybe this person got a lucky internship and was then employed. None of this is known.

Take me, for example. When I talk about each of my jobs individually, I can see my life being pigeonholed. If I say, “I’m an Etsy store owner,” this can seem like a hobby-type job, one that I probably do for fun and that doesn’t pay the bills. If I say, “I just finished writing a book”, this is usually received with excitement, regardless of what profit I’m making. For the first response, I can appear to be a moocher living frivolously; for the second, a persistent worker who completed a goal.

Either way, I am the same person.

So, if it seems your job isn’t bringing you credibility equal to what you’re actually doing, look at your goals. Are you making progress toward them? If you are, then you have all the credibility you need. And if you’re not finding the encouragement you’re looking for, reach out to those you admire and those who have traveled a similar road. These are the kindred spirits who know a person cannot fit in a pigeonhole.

Walla Walla Sunset

The difference between online classes and credit-by-exam tests

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Me: “Hi, I’m Hillary.”
New friend: “Nice to meet you. Are you going to school here?”
Me: “No, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State University in New Jersey. But I used distance learning so I could live here in Walla Walla.”
NF: “Cool—so you took online classes?”
Me: “Actually, I used credit-by-exam tests. I studied on my own and then took a test for college credit.”
Pause.
NF: “Oh, I see.”

In some conversations, I go into more detail, but often I feel that credit-by-exam tests are shortchanged in my meet-and-greet banter. Even if the person I’m talking to doesn’t have experience with CLEP or other similar tests, they seem to have a rough idea of what credit-by-exam tests are, but they aren’t exactly sure what’s different from online courses.

I totally understand. Distance learning is a broad term, and it’s been used over the years to refer to many things: correspondence courses where you snail mailed your assignments back to the teacher, pre-recorded videos of lectures, and, more recently, online courses.

These online courses have dramatically changed our education landscape and become nearly ubiquitous here in the US. In a 2012 survey of 2,820 colleges, 86.5% offered online courses.[1] Probably because of this widespread availability, online classes are the poster child for distance learning.

However, there is one key difference between online classes and credit-by-exam tests: one is professor led and the other is self-directed. For online courses, you have someone who will outline assignments and be available for questions. For credit-by-exam tests, you create your own schedule and seek out mentors or resources.

In online classes, you don’t have to worry as much about getting stuck on a problem or concept that you can’t understand. Also, you will be given deadlines.

In preparing for credit-by-exam tests, you may be challenged at times in learning the required material. (I highly recommend YouTube and forums for helpful explanations.) You will have flexibility in the time frame for test preparation.

So, the difference between online classes and credit-by-exam tests is who is the leader. Neither one of these types of distance learning is a quintessential solution to learning. But, fortunately for us students, neither is exclusive: you can take an online course while studying for a credit-by-exam test. The credit earned via distance learning can be a big step toward achieving a goal, whether that is a degree, expanded knowledge for work, or personal enrichment.

[1] I. Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman, “Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States,” Babson Survey Research Group (2013), pp. 20, 32 and 37: http://onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/changingcourse.pdf.

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