A Day in the Life of an Online Student

An interesting video from online.bu.edu

What's New at BU?

To help this blog become a well-rounded resource for my fellow classmates at Boston University, I thought I would include a news feed that collects current stories about BU...

Check it out on the right side of the page!

Now searchable on Blog Hints!

I'm excited to announce that my blog is now searchable on the Blog Hints directory...


BLOG DIRECTORY, Submit blog free, Promote Blog, Best directory

Chronicle of Higher Education

Many of the comments on my blog have expressed interest in learning more about the education sector I work in.

I've included on this blog an RSS feed for the Chronicle of Higher Education, for those of you who might enjoy a daily snapshot into the always changing, always exciting world of higher ed.

Navigating the BU Library

My first class at BU - AD 715 Qualitative and Quantitative Decision Making - started out with a great tutorial about navigating Boston University resources. The most helpful of these was a guide to maximizing use of the library in our work.


One of my classmates who was halfway through his online studies at BU hadn't seen this tutorial, and mentioned how he wished he'd seen it during his first class. On that note, I thought I'd offer to send it to anyone who's interested. It's a succinct guide to using various databases and conducting effective searches for locating the type of information we need to reference for our coursework.

Please e-mail me via Vista if you're interested!

An introduction...

Greetings from Chicago, AD648 classmates!

My name is Scott Smith, and this is the second class I'm taking on the way toward a Masters in International Marketing Management. My experience with class #1 (AD715 Qualitative & Quantitative Decision Making) was that I virtually lived in Vista - hence the title of my blog! Looking forward to spending the next few weeks with you while we navigate the world of e-Commerce.

I'm originally from the West Coast - Oregon, to be exact - and attended the University of Portland. Somehow I managed to make it though four years at UP without taking any business classes except for one: Marketing 101. My career since graduation has involved a number of exciting roles, and marketing as been the common theme among them. Now that I'm in my 30s, I figured it was time to add some formal training in this area to my experience, and I'm happy to be doing it at Boston University!

I work in education. Started out in admissions at Portland, and then continued my career Down Under, working for the University of Technology Sydney. UTS is one of the leading polytechnic universities in Australia, and my role there was to manage international recruitment. For 20 weeks a year, I traveled between Korea, Japan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, and Ukraine, talking to students and organizations that represent them as they search for opportunities abroad. In 2008, it was time to return to the States, and I began working for the College Board. (If you took the SAT in high school, you know who we are!) The mission of the Board is to connect students to college success, and so we spend a lot of time in advocacy, government relations, and also provide products and services that help schools and colleges achieve their goals around getting kids ready for college, and succeeding once they get there. My job is to manage the College Board's constituent relationships and outreach strategy in four states - Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.

The College Board is beginning to expand its international presence, and I hope to be a part of this effort. International education is an exciting, growing, constantly evolving field. My goal is to build on the skills I've developed in both the Australian and American education sectors, and be a part of the effort to bridge countries and cultures via the student experience.

Outside of work, life is good. I live in Chicago with my partner and my dog, about ten blocks north of Wrigley Field. Great neighborhood, great city - and, today, lots of snow to enjoy!

I'm excited to follow each of you on your blogs, and to get to know you better via the discussions, etc.