Monday, April 23, 2007

Finally: A real online forum for Harvard Extension School students

A regular topic of discussion at the Extension School is the need for an online community. I've heard other students talking about it in person, usually before class. HESA has made promises, but these were never followed through. I've talked about it on Harvard Extended with other students, and thought about setting up a bulletin board, but never got around to it.

Well, someone has finally stepped up to the plate and created an online forum to discuss issues related to the Extension School. It's called, simply, Extension Student, and it's pretty good. It has the basic attributes of a discussion forum -- you can create a discussion, respond to other's comments, modify your profile and hide your identity. The basic requirement to join the community is a Harvard FAS or Post Harvard email address, which are available to all Extension School students and alumni. However, non-students may browse some of the topic areas, which is great for people who are interested in learning more about the HES programs and community.

I've visited Extension Student and responded to some of the threads, and I encourage other members of the community to check it out as well.

I've also asked the creator of Extension Student, a former classmate of mine, if he's interested in being interviewed about this project, and am awaiting his reply.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the mention of (and link to) the Extension Student site.

As a student with the Extension School, I have been impressed with the instructors and the courses themselves, but I have regretted that I have limited interaction with my fellow students.

I Lamont said...

Thanks, Ken. Hopefully this forum will help create a larger sense of community. It's already a great resource -- I've found out things that I didn't know about the program (for instance, HES students can join certain clubs that I thought were limited to College students) and it's a great place to get answers to HES-related questions.

Anonymous said...

Oh, by the way, congratulations on getting approval from your thesis advisor on your thesis!

Have you started to day dream about all the things that you are going to do with your free time after you have completed your degree?

ExtensionJourney said...

Since, the extensionschool.com and philfac.com has closed. I have setup a new website (forum) extensionjourney.com

ESF said...

Previous users of the prior forums have come together to start extensionstudentforum.com it may be worth a look see.