Published: November 16, 2022 by Kesheena Doctor
Enrolling in the next semester is one of the most difficult times in a student’s college life. You may not know what classes to take, what the course load will be, or if you’ll like the teacher.
As an undergraduate student, I had great difficulty scheduling classes to make sure I graduated on time. In my senior year, I finally figured things out, but it wasn’t without a lot of twist and dismay. For graduate school, I was much better prepared and am much more confident in my ability to complete my MLIS course in two years as planned.
Decide on a career path
If you are starting I’m at school or are in your freshman year, I recommend reviewing the career path if you haven’t decided on a career yet. If you have just started your higher education, write down the paths that interest you. The iSchool has a
Community profile page where you can find out more about what current and former students are doing in the profession. If you’ve taken a few classes, think about the assignments you liked and hated to help you make your decision. I am currently taking NEWS 202 and I found out that I’m only interested in vocabulary design, so I’m probably not going to want to go the data science route. If you’re still undecided which path to take, the iSchool has a tool
to compare courses that respond to several paths. Once you’ve decided on one or two career paths you might want to pursue, I highly recommend that you plan your schedule for the duration of the program, noting any courses that you might be interested in and would like to pursue. they are only offered in certain semesters. If you are unsure about your background or courses, contact an academic advisor for assistance.
iSchool Lesson Planning Resources
There are many tools available to iSchool students to help reduce the stress that can accompany lesson planning. I suggest looking over Course Catalog for an overview of all the courses iSchool offers to MLIS students. The iSchool also offers many tools in their
Consulting Toolkit to help students choose their courses, no matter where they are in their MLIS journey. You can use the iSchool Unit Planning Tool and check course rotations. If you have only taken one or two of the required courses that all iSchool students must take before enrolling in electives, there is also a tool to find electives that do not require one of the required courses.
If you hesitate between some courses, you can also consult the
program of previous courses to decide if the course meets your interests and if the course load is manageable. Also see Required Reading Materials. It’s also often a great way to find out if the class is what you’re looking for. Instructor Review faculty profile is also a good idea to find out what excites the instructor and if your professional interests align. You can also contact other classmates about lessons. I asked classmates, members of class project groups and
first generation
group members on the course. They provided me with a great student-led resource for courses, a Facebook group where iSchool students can use to get class recommendations.
It’s a good idea to also make sure that the schedule you offer meets the iSchool requirements. skill requirements. The iSchool offers two different tools to help students plan, the
MLIS course descriptions and the MLIS Core Competency and Course Cross-Reference. When I was planning my schedule for iSchool, I used the lesson planner spreadsheet in the
Student Success Planner to calculate my skills. I made a copy of the spreadsheet, which became my draft, and entered the courses I was interested in and their skills into this spreadsheet. After a few tentative schedules, I finalized a good plan for my chosen path, academic librarianship. I then copied the final plan into the Student Success Planner, but saved my draft in case I decided to move or choose other classes in the future. I have found this to be an effective way to track skills while planning my lesson schedule, using the tools already provided by iSchool.
Selection of courses for the upcoming semester
Once the next semester course and registration dates are available, you can finalize your course schedule. I also recommend having alternate courses in case your first choices are filled out before you can enroll. If one of your desired courses is full, join the waitlist. You never know if other students will drop out of the class and a place becomes available. You can save time on registration day by pre-selecting your courses and saving them to the shopping cart available in the student registration tool.
As the next semester approaches, don’t worry too much about your upcoming classes. Remember that you can change your mind at any time before the drop deadline. If you start a course and find that you don’t like the subject, consider it a learning opportunity in your MLIS journey. You still have the experience to put on future resumes, add to your e-portfolio, and gain more experience on the information organization profession.
Good luck with your registration for the next semester. If you have any questions or tips to share, please comment below.