And we`re off! I got my ilearn access details this morning, and as luck would have it had a clear day ahead of me to study, so I got cracking straight away on the Induction Programme.

On logging in, I was surprised how easy to navigate the ilearn environment seems to be. I was expecting to spend most of the first two weeks in which I have to complete the induction course trying to figure out my way around, but it was all reasonably clear.

The first of the 5 tasks we have to complete is to read through the induction module and student handbook information – more complicated than the Daily Express, but not as difficult as my textbooks, so far so good. Next we have to set up our online profile, add a photo and a little bit about ourselves. I got stuck into that straight away and selected a reasonable picture of me and the family in Guam last Christmas (close enough to see me, not so close that you can see I am nudging closer to 40 than 30) and wrote up a little piece about myself. I prettied it up with a few emoticons and coloured the text in red and blue, you know, just to bring out my arty side, and then browsed some of the other profiles that have already been set up.

Oops! Oh my God! I am SUCH a dork! While I merrily coloured and emoticon`d my way through my profile, waffling on about how my hobbies include studying Russian, my favourite colour is purple and I dream of horseback riding the silk road, everyone else wrote a short, concise black and white piece introducing themselves and their careers with a smart professional photo. Me? I am posing with a giant Santa Claus and a Mai Tai (my third, although the Mai Tai is mostly hidden so you can`t see it, but my face says it all and so for that matter does Santa`s) What was I thinking??! When the other students see my profile I am SO going to get my virtual butt kicked behind the virtual bike sheds!

Oh well, what`s done is done, and I suppose every class has one. Out with the fluffy pink feathered pen, break out the rose-scented notepaper and on with the next task. And I`m not even a real blonde…..!

Task 3 is a short introduction to myself, my reasons for studying and what I feel I can contribute to the course (Mai Tai recipes, anyone??!) posted on the public discussion forum.

Task 4 requires reading a short case study and answering some questions in the discussion forum that everyone has access to. Before I started my own response, I read through some of the responses that had already been posted to see what ideas other people were coming up with and how they were writing their answers (got to hand it to the first poster actually, they posted their response with no-one else`s to go on, I would not have been that brave, I would have just waited until a few other people had posted!)

Anyway, now I wish I hadn`t read other people`s answers first – they all sound SO smart! They all have great ideas and really interesting takes on the subject (global credit crunch) – feeling ever-so-slightly intimidated now! But then I got stuck into my own answers, thought about things from the perspective of Japan and East Asia and bashed out something that may not win a nobel prize but is at least, I think, passable. We are not being graded on this anyway, so it is not as important as an assignment, but I still want to create a good impression, especially after my dorky profile!

Task 5 was a surprisingly easy to complete quiz, designed I think to make sure we understand the basic rules and administrative elements of the course. Having passed that, I am now waiting to be given access to the first official module – Managing Myself and Others. This is where the fun really starts…..!

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