My CSUMB Learning Journal

 Part One: Set Your Educational Goals My main academic objective at CSU Monterey Bay is to graduate with two full-stack apps designed and delivered, one individually and one jointly. These applications should have continuous deployment pipelines, automated testing suites, and version control. My goal is to obtain two industry-recognized certifications concurrently with my degree program: the CompTIA Security+ certification by December and the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner by August. In addition to enrolling in a Security+ bootcamp and completing at least 85 percent of the practice tests and AWS modules every two weeks, I'll be keeping a strict timetable to track my progress. I will know I have accomplished this goal when I can confidently demonstrate an application that implements best-practice security measures and allocates cloud resources on AWS without consulting my notes. Part Two: Extended Career Goals To get practical experience and expand my professional network, I w...

 Part 1: Study Tip Improvement Databases are the foundation of almost all applications, and CST 363 shows you how they operate. After covering the relational model, entity-relationship design, and normalization, the course goes on to discuss stored procedures, transactions with ACID guarantees, and expressive SQL queries. Indexing, query-plan analysis, and basic tuning are highlighted in the labs so you can observe directly how schema decisions affect performance. In order to understand the trade-offs between consistency and scalability, you will also receive an overview of the document and key-value NoSQL paradigms. This basis is essential for CS majors: creating data models that withstand real-world expansion, analyzing concurrency issues, and preventing injection attacks are all fundamental skills in data science, software, and security. According to our team, a mini-module on cloud-managed databases (AWS RDS, Azure SQL) could improve the course.  Part 2: Ethics Module Refl...

  Part 1: Review and Reflect Learning Strategy Top 3 Strengths: Active Listening: I excel at fully concentrating, understanding, and responding thoughtfully during discussions, which enhances my learning and collaboration. Goal Setting: I consistently set clear, achievable goals, which helps me stay focused and motivated throughout my academic journey. Time Management: I effectively allocate my time to balance academic responsibilities, extracurricular activities, and personal commitments. Top 3 Areas for Improvement: Note-Taking Skills: I aim to develop more structured and efficient note-taking methods to better retain and review information. Critical Thinking: I seek to enhance my ability to analyze and evaluate information critically to strengthen my problem-solving skills. Public Speaking: I plan to build confidence and clarity in presenting ideas to groups, which is essential for academic and professional success. Part 2: Preview Time Management Sk...

 This week, I created my learning journal blog, which I’ll be using throughout my time in the CSUMB CS Online program to document my progress and reflections. I also spent time exploring how the program is structured, including the accelerated 8-week course format and the importance of weekly collaboration with team members. I began navigating Canvas to understand how assignments, discussions, and materials are organized. In addition, I joined a team for group assignments and reviewed the netiquette guidelines to ensure respectful and effective communication in this online learning environment. Overall, this week helped me set a strong foundation, and I’m excited to continue building skills and connections as the program moves forward!