Today should mark the end of our “SQL Database” class at school. Well technically this class should have been over with a week or so ago, but that’s alright.

Apparently the “SQL Database” class was originally a straight up MySQL class with a focus on doing all things related from the command line. A few semesters ago, this all changed and it became a PHP/MySQL class set on top of XAPM. I really don’t mind the PHP bit, considering that’s what I do for a living, but I would have liked more time with MySQL. I’ve gotten a bit rusty in it over the years as my database focus has been Oracle.

Wait, did I say I would have liked to spend more time with MySQL? Remember that part where I said we were running a few weeks behind schedule? Yeah, so my class never made it past the basic PHP sections and into the MySQL stuff. Oh well.

Next we start on Project Management with Microsoft Project 2007. It may actually lead to me getting my CompTIA Project+ certification, for whatever that is worth.

Classes for the semester end on August 17th with finals the 18th and 19th. Then it’s on to my second semester.

It’s the weekend which is the end of another week of school, and with it should be the end of my 3rd class. We’ll see if it actually ends or if the instructor has anything special planned for us over the holiday weekend.

The Visual Studio 2008 class started 3 weeks ago, however we didn’t actually get our book until a week and a half into class. We’ve only covered three of the chapters, those he did has some “discussion questions” related to later chapters. Maybe we will get away with just reading the text and answering the questions rather than having to do any homework. Next up should be SQL, I believe.

Thursday was technicaly the end of the week as far as school is concerned. However, I have yet to receive my text book or any homework. With 5 classes this semester, each class is only 3 weeks long. Now that I have only two weeks left, that will either leave quite a bit out, or make the next two weeks Hell. Uggg.

I was actually looking forward to learning a bit about Visual Basic.

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, but I’m kind of disappointed so far with Fountainhead’s Online Programming degree so far. I’m sure I’ll be eating these words down the road, but right now I don’t feel like I’m getting my money’s worth out of the program.

Today marks the beginning of week six, and the third and last week of our second class “Website Design” or as it should probably be called the most basic introduction to HTML possible. I tried to sell myself out if this class and several others from the first two semesters on the account that I am a professional developer. Maybe not the best one, but I do make a living at it.

This semester is broken up into 5 classes, so each class runs for only three weeks. One would think that these classes would be packed full of assignments, but they haven’t. At first I contributed it to technical issues the school was having as it started a new round of students. But that should be long out of the way… and what I’m seeing if more than technical issues.

I have a friend that is in the exact same program that started about 8 months ago. Aside from different books, everything else is pretty much the same. In their “Professional Development” class they worked on resumes and did some team and individual presentations. I wasn’t looking forward to this, but accepted that it had to be done for a good grade. The class came and went, and all my class really did was work on a resume and read the updated version of “What Color is Your Parachute?” I swear I read a copy of this book in high school.

So, professional development came and went. Three weeks and all we did was a resume. Now we are on to the HTML class. Boring, I know. Each student is suppose to create a “web portfolio” and upload their assignments. Out of my class, I’m the only one that has done that. You can see the wonderfully bland school page here.

So far, we have covered a little on the basic theory stuff and in Chapter 2, we covered the basics of HTML. No mention of CSS, JavaScript, DOM, or anything really outside of <body>, <head>, lists, paragraphs, and the <hr> which you can clearly see in the assignments I have posted. Chapter 3 and 4 get into such complex subjects as links and tables.

My friend in the other class complained often that his instructor had them coding (and validating) everything to a strict doctype. While largely useless by forcing them to the strict doctype, they at least developed good skills for the future. We’re still talking about the deprecated bgcolor and align properties. I wanted to bang my head on the keyboard. Why are they teaching this???

I know I expected the first several classes to be an easy “A”. However, I had no idea that it was going to basically be a free “A”. I know, I know. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I’ll be wishing for days like this down the road when we are working on C#, VB.net, and JAVA. Maybe I should just go in and see just how many assignments in the HTML book I can get completed, if for no other reason than for the heck of it. Maybe I’d find something in there I didn’t know.