My schedule included

CSC 421 – Applied Algorithms and Structures

CSC 447 – Concepts of Programming Language

CSC 453 – Database Technologies

But that’s not the interesting part.

What’s interesting is that I took these courses online and collected data on how long I spent watching each lecture. This let me optimize my study habits and see which courses I needed to devote the most time to. The color corresponds to the color above.

Right off the bat, I knew that CSC 421 will be taking a majority of my time. A very heavy course: algorithm analysis, design, implementation, NP-completeness, and the like – things which I know I can get better at.

Overall, for the other two courses, I was saving 80-90% versus being in-class. The materials covered in these courses were not new to me, so I could get by by watching the “interesting” parts of the lecture, reading the book, and looking at the slides.

I wound up with an A and an A-, for CSC 447 and CSC 453, respectively.

CSC 421 was one of those courses that is really tough, but you where you learn so much. I probably could have benefited taking this course in-person, but I still managed to save some time. Since this is the first time I’ve ever recorded data like this, it’ll be interesting to compare to next quarter (where I am taking an in-person course). All said and done, I wound up with a C+ in CSC 421, bringing my GPA for the quarter to a not-too-shabby 3.33.