As I mentioned yesterday, I am doing a bit of a mental reboot, and I decided to start with my website journaling. I generally know what I have on the sites currently:
I might do some additional topics this year, but that’s the basic premise at least.
From the previous post, I also mentioned that I’m updating/upgrading/tweaking my journaling approach based on some resources about journaling. I went back and reviewed the “journal styles” that Scott Green wrote about in his book, “397 Journal Writing Prompts & Ideas” (2015).
I’m definitely in the personal journal side of things for ThePolyBlog.ca although there are elements that include a travel-journal-style.
For the PolyWogg.ca site, I said it was about professional writing, and maybe that wasn’t really the right nuance (although it captures some of the form and style). More pointedly, it is all about creative writing in whatever form…the only difference is that for the items on that site, I’ll likely collect and curate them into something more formal than a blog. Some of the elements even fit the “scientific / academic” journal style, but that could be for either site at times.
However, I don’t really do “gratitude” elements, and nothing on a friendship journal or prayer journal. I’ve tried, but they didn’t really resonate with me.
The journaling advice included the idea of stepping out of my normal comfort zone and writing about topics that are atypical, or working through a range of familiar topics.
As I get closer to my actual retirement date, which is now within the next 20 months and likely within the next 12, I’m starting to figure out what I’ll do in my so-called “third act” after I retire. Writing is a clear goal, no problems there. Kayaking, hopefully. Astronomy, definitely. Travel is an easy yes, but I’m still figuring out what form that will take — RV? series of trips? Hard to say.
For my “personal” websites of ThePolyBlog.ca and PolyWogg.ca, I have a decent handle (I think) on the two sites, how I will use them, etc. But I was thinking about new posts for 2026, thinking of including a bit more personal journaling, and so I picked up some resources from the library and elsewhere for some “extra” things to go back and revisit from my long ago planning days for the blog.
Scott Green has a book in The Blokehead Series, “397 Journal Writing Prompts and Ideas” (2015), and I’m adapting it a bit from the original premise. It is about keeping a personal journal or diary, and that is pretty much what my ThePolyBlog site is — my online journal. While the prompts might prove useful, it was more Chapters 1-3 that interested me, as it deals with the basis of journaling in general, elements of a good journal, and the benefits of journaling.
I wanted to see if it captured my “zeitgeist”, so to speak.
In chapter 2, Green says:
First and foremost, you have to ask yourself as to why exactly you are writing the journal, or the certain topic that you’re trying to write about.
For my sites, I think that breaks into two parts. First and foremost is why I write / journal at all; the second is why THESE topics.
Green suggests some reasons / benefits of journaling:
It clears your mind;
It helps you understand yourself better;
It helps you remember what you’ve gone through;
You get to remind yourself about the good things in life; and,
You get to improve (/practice) your writing skills.
The fifth reason is fundamentally why I write anything. Because I can and because I want to get better. So writing is practice, in any form.
The third reason — remembering — is there in part for certain things, like travel or my photo gallery. The fourth is for experiences I want to capture when the moment is fresh, so I can revisit them later. And mostly positive, so sure, remember the good things.
For me, the real reason is a bit of 1 and 2, together. Yep, it helps me declutter my brain AND understand myself better, but that’s not really “it”.
Overall, writing about my life or ideas helps me understand the world. By working through descriptions, by choosing how to frame the explanation, by simply journaling at all and figuring it out in my brain so I can put it down on the page, I process my world. By figuring out how to explain myself to “others”, I sometimes surprise myself with what I actually think, not just what I was more unconsciously manifesting.
Oftentimes, it is that “something” bothers me — an opinion I heard that doesn’t seem quite right, but I can’t quite figure out why. Or a story that doesn’t sit well with me. OR THERE’S SOMEONE SAYING SOMETHING WRONG ON THE INTERNET and I can’t let it go mentally. I don’t care about the “issue”, I only care about why it is triggering something in my brain.
If I take speed cameras as an example, they bothered me. I wasn’t quite sure why. Safety? Good. Photo radar? Fine. Other uses? Fine. So why was it niggling at my brain? It took a bit for me to figure out before I eventually wrote about it in full. But writing about it helped crystallize my views. It helped me dig deeper into my thoughts around rights, minimalist government, efficacy in approaches, and limited use of heavy hammers where other tools work better. Writing helped me structure my thoughts more clearly.
In short, I do it primarily to help myself better understand the world. Secondarily, I write about stuff I already understand to help others have a possible framework to aid in their own understanding.
The question is…what parts of the world do I want to understand?
I confess, I committed cultural appropriation; I stole a Christmas tradition from Iceland.
Most avid readers have probably heard of Iceland’s Christmas Eve tradition, JĂłlabĂłkaflóð. Well, okay, they probably don’t know it’s called that. Nor even that it translates as “Christmas Book Flood”. But the idea is that people exchange books on Christmas Eve, and then spend the night curled up reading. Often combined with a hot beverage (like hot chocolate). Apparently, it is tied to WWII when lots of things were rationed or unavailable but paper was easily found, so books were a go-to choice. Equally interesting, the publishing industry in Iceland even gears up for it with new releases every year.
So did I write and release a book in Iceland? No.
Did I go to Iceland and get adopted by a book-giving family? Also, no.
Did I gift or read books by Icelandic authors? Wait, wait…oh. Also, no.
Okay, fine. All I did was buy a bunch of books for my usual shopping targets, give the books to them all wrapped up, and say they were from “Book Santa”. It’s a start. More like lazy cultural inspiration, I suppose.
The books I chose
I was inspired, in part, by the idea that the books themselves should be ones I, as the giver, should choose, not ones they asked for or were on their reading list. It should be “new” to them, perhaps.
Which means I failed entirely for Andrea. She had the book The Testingby Joelle Charbonneau on her “to be read” list on GoodReads, so I went for it. The book is set in the Great Lakes region, as a dystopian future, and is reminiscent of the series Divergent. The main character, Cia, is about to be tested for a Commonwealth graduate program of future leaders. The first of a trilogy, I went for it simply as one I knew she would like.
For Jacob, it’s a bit harder. If Jacob wants a book, we normally just get it. He often asks for certain books as gifts, which often as not are also part of series that he’s already reading. I didn’t want to do that though. I wanted the “surprise”. But he doesn’t have a large ongoing list like Andrea, so I went searching for something a bit more fantasy-like that had good buzz. Legendbornby Tracy Deonn is the first of a trilogy called The Legendborn Cycle, with books 1 and 2 out with good buzz / reviews and book 3 coming out in March. Add in the fact that it has ties to the King Arthur legend, and it was an easy “yes” from me.
After that, things got tough fast. I don’t have much experience buying books for other people, not even the remaining five on my short buying list.
I have some insights into my brother-in-law Dean from his TV and movie watching, and The Compound by Aisling Rawle seemed like it might interest him. It was another favourite of the year on some lists for contemporary / pop culture, and was even a Good Morning America book club pick, too. It’s a story about a young woman, Lily, who lives in a dystopian future (natch) and goes on a reality show for fame and fortune. The premise is a blend of Big Brother (living in a compound) and the typical Survivor twist (doing tasks to earn rewards for your team or yourself). Plus, of course, people get voted off the island out of the compound to whittle it down to the finalists. I snagged an ebook version for myself too and actually read it while I was in Peterborough. I don’t know if he has started it yet, but it’s quite good. It’s the first book by the 27-year-old author, and I’ll read more from her. Dean would probably have preferred it on his Kobo, but it’s not clear how easy that would be to gift to him electronically, nor how to wrap it on Christmas Eve. 🙂 Paper it was!
For my sister-in-law, Becky, it was a bit easier. She, Andrea and their mother frequently share and trade the same books, often with a historical bent plus some romance and/or mystery. Kate Quinn and other authors figure prominently in the swaps, as does WWII, women in non-traditional roles, etc. I chose Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry as it has all three in spades, although perhaps with a bit more romance than they would typically choose. The main characters are two authors vying to write a biography of a former-tabloid-star-turned-recluse, now in her 80s. The mystery is what happened back in the day, plus the romance between two very different authors. It was on many year-end lists, which seemed promising.
For my niece, Grace, she’s into fantasy, and I know some of the other books she is reading. I wanted something a bit different, and I fear I might have gone TOO different. I chose Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab, who also wrote The Invisible Life of Addie Larue which was excellent. So why do I think it was too different? Well…it advertises itself as being about immortality and hunger and involves a woman in Spain in 1532, another in London in 1827, and another in Boston in 2019. Part character drama, part feminist critique, part horror thriller? I’m not completely crazy, as Schwab is a great writer, and the book did make a lot of year-end lists too! But a feminist horror drama? We’ll see how she likes it. It’ll definitely be different. Heck, even the publisher calls it genre-defying. Hah!
For my mother-in-law, Marney, I mentioned above that I know some of her reading tastes from the books she shares with her daughters. Historical, mystery, romance. I had three reasons for choosing My Friends by Fredrik Backman. First and foremost, it has this intriguing-sounding storyline about a famous painting that has three little figures in the corner of it that nobody ever notices. But the main character, Louisa, wants to find out the backstory of those three figures so she drives across the country to try and figure it out. History, art, mystery, it sounds cool. Second, you’ll notice a theme: it made several end-of-year lists for 2025. But thirdly? I tripped over Fredrik Backman as an author about 18 months ago when a video of him giving a speech at a writing convention went semi-viral. I’ve been intrigued by him ever since, and have other books of his on my reading list, just haven’t made it to them yet.
Of course, if you want to see the original video that sparked my interest, here it is. Not super polished, but still engaging and funny. “Being a writer is the best way to get paid for being insane.” Yep, I hear ya.
The “last” on my list was my father-in-law, Ron, and his was perhaps the easiest of all. He reads a lot of crime novels, as do I, as well as legal thrillers/procedurals. That made choosing The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose relatively easy, I just looked for one that I might enjoy myself! I don’t remember the author, but this is a re-release and re-edit of a book about a female trial attorney defending her husband on the charge of murdering his mistress. It got some surprising buzz, despite being a re-issue, and showed up well in a recent list I was looking at of legal thrillers on Amazon, seeing if there were other writers whose names weren’t Grisham, Turow or Bernhardt that I should consider. I do worry that the premise sounds a bit like Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow, played by Harrison Ford in the movie. Except in that one, he was the main character, a prosecutor now on trial and his wife was supportive, not defending him. I’ll see if I can snag a copy from the library to read too. Apparently, a sequel is coming out called The Perfect Divorce.
Now, here’s an interesting quirk. I said Ron’s was the last book, but that isn’t exactly true. I didn’t know who else might be there for dinner on Christmas Eve or over the holidays, when we might be opening the presents from Book Santa (Becky, Dean, and Grace didn’t arrive until Boxing Day). I needed one more book as the “extra” in case someone else arrived, so I could include them. Which in and of itself is a challenge. How do you pick a book for no one and everyone? Well, it wasn’t exactly no one, I did have SOMEONE who was a likely candidate, so I went with something I thought might appeal to them.
I’ll confess that I really like Jeffrey Archer’s writing style. I’ve read probably 20 of his books over the years, and always enjoy the fast pace and the breezy narrative. They are highly accessible, certainly never flag with pacing issues, and well, they’re not exactly heavy trodding. They’re relatively light and fun. I hadn’t realized that he had a series of detective novels for a character named William Warwick, but hey, why not get the first one? Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer seemed like a good compromise. As it turned out, we didn’t need an extra gift for a surprise guest. But I figure that books should NOT return to sender, ever, and Book Santa only exists one day a year anyway in this realm (hey, it’s my cultural appropriation slash inspiration, I can make up new rules on the fly!). So I gifted that one to Ron, too, as I know he has read other Jeffrey Archer books.
Wait, there’s one more book
Andrea got me a book, too, so I could be part of the book flood. Except, like Jacob, I don’t really have much of a “book acquisition” list. If I want a book, I usually just get it. But we had both seen a book advertised on Facebook videos: Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. Funny enough, I had thought it sounded like a great idea for a book, and I wanted it, but never actually ordered it. The book is awesome. It has a wicked style in it, told by a narrator in first person past tense but who openly breaks the fourth wall every couple of pages in a fantastic way. I’ll do a full review, but I’m giving it five stars. There is a serious plot hole that the book glosses over in one spot, which the narrator kind of admits is not a great answer to the obvious question, but I didn’t even care. The rest of the pieces tie together in obvious and not so obvious ways, with callbacks, and misdirections reminiscent of a great magician. He does something with one line that he repeats in two places and while you’re looking for the trick, he does it right in front of your face, and you still miss it. It’s brilliant. In any other book, the plot point would be deadly; here it’s a minor sin. And yes, like the tradition is supposed to unfold, I read it over the holidays, staying up late to finish it. Even though I had a cold and was nursing an abscessed tooth.
I talked about the “new tradition” with Andrea, we’ll see if the books for others resonated with anyone. If not, maybe Andrea, Jacob and I can do it still, just the three of us. I like the idea of doing it almost like drawing names, though, that each person would have to get someone’s name and perhaps a suggested genre, but would have to find a book on their own aka no “lists” or suggestions. I suppose they would have to rule out authors they have everything by or something, I don’t know. Or again, maybe just the three of us.
I liked doing it, even if Icelanders might come for me.
I have been posting over the last week or so about possible study options for various topics in my retirement. Lifelong learning, and all that. One area that I would be interested in is astronomy, although I have some challenges figuring out exactly what form that study would take.
Formal Canadian degrees
I used a few index tools to look for astronomy or astrophysics programs, and I found about 15 or so options in Canada. I don’t need the degree, so I could take it from anywhere, but the prices frequently go up when you cross borders to be an international student.
None of the options in Canada are particularly great for online completion or even my situation.
Ontario Tech University (Oshawa) has four variations of Bachelor of Science degrees (AP, physics) or Bachelor of Science and Management (AP, physics). Queen’s (Kingston), Western (London), York (Toronto), St. Mary’s (Halifax), Waterloo (Waterloo), University of Calgary, and University of Alberta (Edmonton) all have Bachelor degree options. Waterloo throws in a minor, Western offers a specialization. All of them are generally four-year degree programs, standard science programs and curricula. I could probably do a series of AP / astronomy-only courses, skip the electives and other courses, as a mature student or something. But I’d have to do the application process, share my high-school transcripts and diploma and they wouldn’t care that I did an undergrad or grad degree because neither were in science.
Which is also the problem with two master’s programs — Queen’s and Waterloo (or the Ph.D. @ Queen’s). I have a friend who did an Medical degree at age 40 at one of two universities in Canada that have med degrees that don’t require a science undergrad to get in (Western and Calgary, she went to Calgary). Neither the Queen’s or Waterloo programs let you in without a science undergrad. Preferably with some solid algebra and calculus at the university level. My 99% in high school calculus was enough to bypass calculus at Trent for econometrics, but probably wouldn’t be that useful 40y after exiting high school.
So not online, four years in total, AND I’d have to figure out a way to take courses without all the extra science-y and math-y stuff.
Not much of an option.
Coursera has entered the chat
I took two courses previously through Coursera, including one on meta-literacy and one on video games from a cultural studies perspective. The meta-literacy was alright for the time; the video game one was remarkably substantive (I thought it would be a bird course, but it had some decent academic lifting going on).
Since then, Coursera seem to have altered its model a bit more, or at least the money and credentials side seems to have shifted. There are fewer full-credentialed programs than I remembered, as I thought there were more diplomas and stuff available, particularly for computer programming and such. I also thought there was a couple of science programs available, although I didn’t remember exactly how the “Coursera-hosted courses that are cross-listed with full universities” model worked. The video game course was offered by the University of Alberta for full credit if you wanted to go that route. I didn’t at the time. Now, I wanted to know what was available.
Basically, there are about 128 astronomy courses available in Coursera in English. At least, that’s what the search engine on Coursera itself says. Unfortunately, if I search for astrophysics, I get a slightly different total AND some of the courses are supposedly in English but as I scan through, some are either in another language (like Italian) but with AI generated dubbing (pass) or they’re in another language with subtitles (also pass). If I use the astronomy search results only, it tells me there are:
47 beginner classes;
36 intermediate classes;
18 advanced classes; and,
26 mixed-level classes.
With 49 different educational partners in total, of which 36 have either only 1 or 2 classes offered. For recognizable names, CALTech offers 2, Yale 5, Rice 13, and, drum roll please, the University of Colorado at Boulder has a whopping 27 classes. WTF? Here’s their list:
Course Title
Level
Comment
Pathway to Space
Beginner
Politics, comms aspects
Space is Everywhere
Beginner
Comms
The Business, Politics, Policy, & Players of Space Programs
Beginner
Politics, comms
The Sun and the Total Eclipse of August 2017
Beginner
Visual research
Our Place in the Cosmos
Beginner
Intro overview
Universal Theories
Beginner
Intro to universe
Getting There and Going Beyond
Beginner
Intro to spacecraft
The Physics of Emergence: Introduction to Condensed Matter
Beginner
Intro to materials
Modern Topics in Condensed Matter Physics
Beginner
Intro to materials
Phases of Matter: Solid, Liquid, Gas and Beyond
Beginner
States
Optical Engineering
Advanced
Stretch as it contributes to telescope optics for visual observational astronomy
First Order Optical System Design
Advanced
Visual astronomy
Design of High-Performance Optical Systems
Advanced
Visual astrronomy
Optical Efficiency and Resolution
Advanced
Visual astronomy
Spacecraft Dynamics and Control
Advanced
Design/engineering
Spacecraft Formation Relative Orbits
Advanced
Building/engineering
Advanced Spacecraft Dynamics and Control
Advanced
Building/engineering
Kinematics: Describing the Motions of Spacecraft
Advanced
Applied theory
Kinetics: Studying Spacecraft Motion
Advanced
Applied theory
Spacecraft Relative Motion Kinematics and Kinetics
Advanced
Applied theory
Spacecraft Dynamics Capstone: Mars Mission
Advanced
Applied theory
Control of Nonlinear Spacecraft Attitude Motion
Advanced
Applied theory
Spacecraft Formation Flying and Control Capstone Project
Advanced
Applied theory
Advanced Capstone Spacecraft Dynamics and Control Project
Advanced
Applied theory
Attitude Control with Momentum Exchange Devices
Advanced
Applied theory
Spacecraft Relative Motion Control
Advanced
Applied theory
Analytical Mechanics for Spacecraft Dynamics
Advanced
Applied theory
I confess that the group of courses is NOT what I was expecting…three courses on journalism, politics and the nature of the space race? Two general-interest / introductory courses on the universe are “normal”, I expected those. I did NOT expect 4 courses on optical design elements (presumably linked to telescope mirror quality) nor 14 on spacecraft design and operations.
Sooo, that’s not the right route. I went back to the original list, exported the list of courses to Excel, ran some reconfigs on the data to put it in a table, and voila — 128 entries of which 4 are fully free, 59 have a free trial, 64 have a “preview option”, and 1 is just simply “new”. The time durations and levels are a bit more granular:
Beginner: basic course of 1-4 weeks = 14 courses, moderate investment of 1-3 months = 32 courses, and serious commitment of 3-6 months = 2 courses;
Intermediate: basic course of 1-4 weeks = 15 courses, moderate investment of 1-3 months = 18 courses, and serious commitmetn of 3-6 months = 3 courses;
Advanced: basic course of 1-4 weeks = 9 courses, moderate investment of 1-3 months = 8 courses, and serious commitment of 3-6 months = 2 courses;
Mixed: basic course of 1-4 weeks = 1 course, moderate investment of 1-3 months = 23 courses, and serious commitment of 3-6 months = 1 course.
Of course, obviously, I wouldn’t be taking them all. I just wanted to do a deeper dive to know if it was a viable option. Most degrees are 10-12 courses across a spectrum, and while I’ll have to figure out which ones are basically variations of the same course, I think there are a few that are pretty good starter ones for me to consider.
The rest? The new, or at least current, Coursera cost structure is very different from what I expected. As I mentioned earlier, I noticed fewer degree programs, and previously, I was only looking for free courses to audit or pseudo-audit. However, I basically have three ways to consider the classes, and none of them would seem amenable to anything to do with an educational allowance under WFA from work.
Option 1 is to pay per course — most are about $70 each. Some keep the costs down by marking things with AI, which makes me a bit leery. I was also surprised to see some courses showing up as being in English but actually in a language like Italian with AI-driven dubbing. Nope. But $70 is generally okay as a start. The ones with free trials or previews have decent “look inside” options to see what the course looks like, type of modules, etc.
Option 2 is to pay per month — somewhere around $80 or so Canadian, but as an “all you can eat” buffet of courses. Of course, the limit for yourself is more one of time and availability. I’d love to start courses immediately but I wouldn’t have the time yet.
Option 3 is actually better if I were fully retired. If you pay for the year, the price drops to about $560, or about $48 per month (instead of $70 or $ 83). That’s not bad — a year’s tuition for 3-4 classes compared to $280 doing them individually doesn’t look as good, but if I were to do 3-4 at the same time or a series of ones that are 1-4 weeks, I could crank out a few and come out ahead. Basically, if all the classes were only $70 each, I’d need to do 8 in a year to come out ahead. Although some of the classes are NOT only $70…technically they START at $70, but some go as high as $120 or $130. I think I’ll be tempted to try a couple of the ones I want for sure, and then figure out afterwards how many I might want to / can do at a time.
Soooo, I have a list of 128 courses that are nominally “astronomy or astrophysics” related, and I might pick 10-20. Or I could go a different route.
The Great Courses
I also wanted to see what I remembered from the offerings on the program, “The Great Courses”. I’ve done part of a psychology class with them, as well as some photography work. And when I run “astronomy” through their list of offerings, I get 30 courses. But they are not the “same” type of list as that of Coursera. Although maybe it isn’t quite as simple as that.
For the list of 30 courses at The Great Courses, there are ten that are pure astronomy:
Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd EditionÂ
My Favourite UniverseÂ
Introduction to AstrophysicsÂ
Life in Our UniverseÂ
Black Holes ExplainedÂ
The Life and Death of StarsÂ
Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the UniverseÂ
Experiencing Hubble: Exploring the Milky WayÂ
Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the UniverseÂ
What Can the James Webb Telescope See?Â
Four general intro classes, some stuff on black holes and stars, a bit on dark matter, and then moving into astrophotography and imaging of the big space telescopes. Not quite enough rigour for me on the formation and structures, but it’s a start.
The interesting thing is that they have 14 “history” courses that include some bits of history “of” and “with” astronomy:
The Remarkable Science of Ancient AstronomyÂ
Great Heroes and Discoveries of AstronomyÂ
The Birth of the Modern Mind: The Intellectual History of the 17th and 18th CenturiesÂ
The Olmecs: Mesoamerica’s Mysterious First CivilizationÂ
The Queen of the Sciences: A History of MathematicsÂ
The History and Achievements of the Islamic Golden AgeÂ
Secrets of the OccultÂ
The Middle Ages around the WorldÂ
Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica RevealedÂ
Conquest of the AmericasÂ
Greece, Rome, and the Birth of Western PhilosophyÂ
Introduction to Greek PhilosophyÂ
The Other 1492: Ferdinand, Isabella, and the Making of an EmpireÂ
The Greek World: A Study of History and CultureÂ
And then there are six other classes that I pegged as “science”:
Radio Astronomy: Observing the Invisible UniverseÂ
The Joy of ScienceÂ
Great Ideas of Classical PhysicsÂ
ChaosÂ
Einstein’s Legacy: Modern Physics All around YouÂ
Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd EditionÂ
Now, what did I mean by “Coursera doesn’t have the same courses”? They do have the introductory astronomy classes. And I’m sure they have courses on ancient history, including Greece and the Roman Empire. But Coursera doesn’t consider any of those history or mythology courses to have anything to do with astronomy. But the material absolutely does, of course, as the growth of various nations around the world developed science and philosophy together, often intermingled with religion and politics as well. All were trying to answer the fundamental questions about the nature of our existence in relation to the broader universe.
Once I retire, I’ll have to narrow the options further, but at least I have a good starting point. Which, I realize, is what I’m doing right now…trying to figure out some of the options. I’m seeing which ones are viable so that if/when I have to make a decision, it will be clear what the options are to consider. I’ve even ruled a few things out as I went, which is huge. Enough to get my brain around it at least.
Athabasca University offers its full-course catalogue as online courses, and given their range of offerings for the interdisciplinary program at the MA level for law-related studies, I thought I would do a deeper dive into what they have listed.
Undergraduate courses
They have some 754 courses listed across 69 “sub-faculties”, although I confess that most hold little interest for me.
Accounting — 10 courses, not bad, and I could see some interest for one on not-for-profit accounting as well as principles of auditing, but not something I’m willing to pay for probably. I’ve done that stuff in my career, could do something online on Coursera for a refresher.
Administration — This looks a lot like my undergrad program, with 11 courses. None attract my interest, just noting they’re there.
Anthropology — There are 25 courses and a fairly robust program. Not anything I really want to spend time learning, but nice looking program.
Art History — Three courses, two by time and one on Canadian visual culture. Very interesting looking, but not compelling.
Astronomy and Astrophysics — I was super excited to see that they had a category for this, even if it ended up only being three courses. Until I saw that two of them are just project proposals, meaning only a single course, which is an intro to Astronomy. Could be worth taking, but there are lots of free versions of equivalent material online.
Communications Studies — 22 courses and like anthropology, a pretty decent selection. Mass media, communication theory, computing, information literacy, social movements, pop culture, cultural policy, etc. There’s a decent-looking one about Digital Storytelling, albeit a bit basic.
Computer Science — Not surprisingly, there are 42 courses listed for undergraduate-level work. It’s not a bad listing, but there is better out there. It covers the basics, plus a bit more, but not what I’m looking for, a little too bland.
Criminal Justice — While I had already looked at the law-related graduate courses, there are a few at the undergraduate level that look interesting, such as victims of crime, the psychology of criminal behaviour, civil liberties and individual rights, offender rehabilitation, and sex crimes.
Education — There are 8 courses listed, and I wasn’t expecting to be that interested. But there are several that might be kind of enlightening, including a history of the Canadian learning society, the purposes of adult education, training & development in organizations (all three close to my day job) and a fourth on law and ethics in education.
English — wow, I was NOT expecting 35 courses. Novels, short stories, poetry, plays, drama, Shakespeare, America, composition, links to film, and six or seven in creative writing for different forms.
Philosophy — There are 17 courses, with five or six tied to ethics, any of which would be interesting, although potentially repetitive.
Physics — There are 8 courses, and none go anywhere near the astronomy side. Very disappointing.
Psychology — I am very excited by 41 courses in Psych, more than enough to keep me busy if I wanted to spend two years blasting through some courses after retirement. They even have ones tied to the study of career development, learning, adult development, learning through life, and even one in forensic psychology. They all look awesome.
Religious Studies — There is a good one on comparative world religions, as well as one on death and dying in comparative religions. There are 3 more, but nothing compelling.
I skipped over economics, finance, governance, history, HR management, labour, sociology, and legal studies, although all of them had some interesting options.
Graduate courses
For the graduate courses, they have 335 over 85 sub-faculties. Here are the ones that interested me enough to dive deeper:
BOLT — Short for Blended and Online Learning and Teaching, at first glance it seemed cool. In brief, I thought it was the policy and issues surrounding online learning. Except of the 9 courses, 5 are directly tied to K-12 issues, 3 more are relatively K-12 in scope, and one that is a bit larger in focus. I would love to look at issues such as the complete history of Athabasca University being established, running online platforms, engaging with standard learning advocates, professional education seekers, etc. Even teachers, professors, and professionals who all assume they know how to teach in a digital world even if they don’t. They have a doctorate option in distance education, but more aggressive than I’m looking for, really.
COMP — They have 41 courses, of which about 10 look interesting. But to be honest, I can’t tell. I don’t know what I need yet.
Graduate counselling and applied psychology — There are 18 courses, and like their basic psych program, some interesting elements outside of the counselling element. Like health psychology and “the vital role that health psychology plays in helping people make lifestyle changes, cope with health-related issues, and maintain a positive identity if the face of chronic health challenges.”
Governance — They have four courses, including governance and leadership (meh), innovative public management (maybe), global governance and law (intriguing) and privacy and transparency in a networked world (cool).
Legal Studies — They have six courses that are weird — when I looked at legal issues earlier, it was all around political economy and political studies approaches to interdisciplinary issues. This “heading” is all about drafting legislation, which is highly technical.
Interdisciplinary Studies — They have 33 official INTD courses, but almost all of the courses could be included as electives. You could even build your own MFA degree (Writing the self; creative non-fiction; digital storytelling; narrative possibilities; and what I tell you may not be true (autobiography in a different lens).
MDDE — Building off what was above in BOLT or other distance education, there are 34 courses tied to a M.Ed. in Open, digital and distance education. If I were doing it for work, two-thirds of the courses would be relevant. Foundations of adult education; experiential learning; technological apps; adult education and lifelong learning; international issues; mobile learning; and AI are just some of the courses that would interest me.
So, is that “it”? Just a list of courses?
No and yes. 🙂
No, it’s not it. But “yes”, it was a good starting point to see if they have a bunch of courses that interest me, and they do. Assuming courses run about $2K each, if I did get a 17K education allowance from the government upon retirement, I could do 8 classes or so at their expense. I confess that’s kind of attractive. There are at LEAST 50 that I would consider. Prioritizing would initially seem a challenge.
Unless…
I consider an actual degree. Like the M.Ed in Open, Digital and Distance Education. It definitely ranks up there on the substantive side with a MA in Legal Studies or even an MFA. The content would be amazing to have time to dig into, and would help future books I have planned on skills in Canada and adult learning.
If I went the thesis route, it would be five core courses, two electives and a thesis (worth four courses). If I went the coursework route, it would be five core courses, five electives, and a Capstone project. (11 courses in total).
Let’s see, then. For the core curriculum courses, the first would be obvious (an intro course). The second, research methods, is one I would try to get out of actively. I’m not paying $2K to take an intro to quant and qual research methods or how to critique research. The eval is also just three assignments plus participation in discussions. Snooze. The third is about foundations of instructional design, and is a bit about basic pedagogy with addons for the ODDE components; seems okay. Then it gets interesting. I have to make two decisions. First, I can EITHER take a further course in ID tied to ODDE or a course in leading and managing ODDE. Ah, ID it is. Then, I can either take a survey course on current tech apps OR technology in ed and training. Umm…aren’t those the same course? Oh, nope, they’re different. The first is how to use the technology, the second is how to plan for implementation. Planning it probably would be.
Then I would have between 2 and 5 electives. High on my list is adult education and lifelong learning.
This course will explore different adult education theories and philosophies, including “for-credit” learning in formal education; workplace learning; informal, self-directed learning; and public pedagogy (i.e., informal learning that takes place in public spaces, popular culture, and political struggle). We will also consider the role and purpose of adult education for the individual and for society. Readings have been carefully selected from older, foundational literature, along with readings that explore more recent issues in adult learning. The readings will help us consider contemporary issues and realize that the study of adult learning has its own history.
Athabasca University course description
It’s basically me. That’s what I’m looking at with these courses. Except from a societal perspective. I would gladly sign up. There are others on mobile learning.
If I get money to study, it could be worth it. If I don’t, maybe a course or two.
However, there are others I could consider as well. I don’t NEED a degree (M.Ed or otherwise), and you can take individual courses as “non-program” students. Decisions, decisions.
