Why go to the Library?

Last year, I was in the ONU library all the time.  I didn’t use it a lot for studying actually, but to print my papers and find sources.  I had quite a few larger research projects that required some scholarly sources so I utilized the Library’s resources and search engines for that.  However, I rarely studied there.  I know some people that spend hours upon hours in the library studying.  I’ve never done that.  I always preferred to do my studying in my room, but that’s just me.

This year though, I’ve found myself in the library only twice.  Once was required by a class and the other was to pick up a book.  There are reasons for this though.  This year especially, an overwhelmingly majority of my assignments have been online through Moodle, Turnitin and by just posting blogs like this.

What it really reveals (I think) is how school policies are shifting to more convenient methods.  Take Moodle for example.  Yes, it can be extremely frustrating at some times, but once you master how to use it, it really is a great resource.  It conveniently (if your professor posts the proper information, that is) has a syllabus with all due dates and class policies and assignments, has the places you post these when the time comes and can give you immediate access to your current class grade.  This eliminates the laboring process of calculating all of the grades you’ve received and multiplying them by a certain percentage.  Nobody likes doing that.  So, at least in my opinion, Moodle is a good resource for both students and professors. 

Turnitin is more a Professor’s tool.  Regrettably, people do cheat on some assignments.   Specifically, they plagiarize and steal from someone else’s work.  Hopefully at a school like Ohio Northern University these problems are very few and very far between, but they’ve happened nonetheless.  Turnitin measures the originality of a paper someone turns in.  I actually use it sometimes to measure how well I’ve paraphrased in my paper by trying to achieve the lowest percentage of similarity possible.  Basically, high percentage equals you cheated and low percentage equals you didn’t.  

I’m not really perturbed by this change in what has been my regular school routine over the past two years, which was write the paper, print it out and the hand it in.  Now though, I can receive more feedback via Moodle and the professor doesn’t have to carry around a giant stack of papers either, so it is sort of a win-win for both parties.  It’s just another change I’ve noticed in my life as a junior at ONU.