MSIDT Boot-up Camp

Ater being accepted into the California State University, Fullerton MSIDT program, the first real event (after paying for everything) way one of the two mandatory days to appear on campus – the Boot-up Camp.
The first challenge was that the Boot Up was scheduled in late August, which was smack dab in the middle of a family vacation to Hawaii that had been scheduled for a year. There was no way I was going to miss vacation, so I made arrangements to fly home for a day to attend, and then fly back again.
I got into town around midnight on Friday night, and headed over to the campus on Saturday morning for the camp. The other 29 member of Cohort 13 all showed up, and we spent the day meeting the director, a few members of the faculty, and other essential staff that we should know to help us out in the course of our studies.
We received a handbook for the program, as well as a thumb drive with the book and all of the presentations for the day. Part of the planned activities was to head over to pick up our ID cards (discounts at Wienerschnitzel and the movies!) and to look around the bookstore.
Better yet was meeting one of the instructors for the first term, having the opportunity to sign up for a mentor. They also introduced us to the Moodle/Titanium e-learning course management system (which is used for everything), learning more about how the library works, and a few presentations on the APA format, Turnitin and plagiarism. This gave me a lot better idea of how things were really going to go, and put many of my fears to rest. I had not been in college for a long time, you know.
But the best part of the day was meeting my classmates, so that it would be easier to put a face to a name as we interact through the forums and shared projects that are a daily part of or tasks while learning about instructional design. By the way, I did not feel too bad about having to fly in after this, wither, as there were students from all over the country: central and northern California, Washington DC, New York, and even Hawaii.
There will be one other mandatory meeting in Fullerton, which will be a one day midpoint checkpoint symposium at the end of three term segments in early October of 2015. This event allows the students to see how they are doing relative to their professional goals and learning outcomes, as well as confirming the final project and related subjects.
In case you were wondering, neither one of these activities is free, or even included in the regular tuition costs. The cost is $345 for the boot-up camp and $228 for the midpoint symposium, and they are both billed along with the first term tuition.
We wrapped up by the scheduled 5:00 end time, and I headed home to catch my Sunday morning flight back to paradise. It was worth the extra effort and really helped to get me more comfortable and enthusiastic about the program.
Thanks for checking in! Next time we will be taking a quick look at how much this program will actually cost to complete.