CIS Courses Update

I've signed up for a web programming certificate at a local community college. I'm hoping to take most if not all of the required classes via the Internet, so that my already-extensive commuting can be somewhat curtailed.

My web programming skills are ancient dinosaurs in the face of today's XHTML and Web 2.0 capabilities. Alas, the mystified look on my face when I first discovered the new version of closing tags late last year, has been only surpassed by my perplexion at some of the unnecessary convoluted-ness that online CIS classes can take.

Case in point. One of my classes entails an introduction to CIS. I was unaware there was a proficiency exam for this course, else I would have shelled the $75 and done off with it. Nuff said right? It gets better. The class is separated into units, each unit comprised of several chapters and selected assignments are assigned from each chapter's very extensive post-chapter section.
As part of the assignment, there is extensive interaction with the textbook publisher's online activities created especially for this textbook and content matter. When we complete the particular chapter assignments, the professor asks us to complete and turn in our gradebook report in csv format. Except we're asked to do so upon completion of each assignment, versus turning in the grade report for the assignments for the chapter as a whole. Why? Who knows.

But wait. You have to pay very, very close attention to specific formatting and steps that the professor has developed for each assignment. For unit 1, I had to export the csv for the assignment results more than 6 times. It's a bit ridiculous considering there were only 4 chpaters in that unit. And worse of all, especially for my anal retentive side who loves to save files concisely...each of the csv reports needs to be uploaded using the SAME name file. It's your first name initial, your last name initial, the word report, and the .csv at the end. Bizarre.

Besides the dull throb in my temples after having to review once and over again what a modem is and what the little slot where the processor fits into onto a mother board -- which I've known since the 80s seeing my father construct his very own computers from scratch, not to mention studied in 1999 in my first online classes -- the added unecessary convolutedness related to submitting the (very easy) assignments is almost an insult to the student's intelligence.

In regards to the content, I like computer history. I did a science fair project on computer history in 1989 based on a traveling exhibit I saw at one of Chigago's museums back then. I've always liked to play with computers because I had at least one handy growing up--even though at the very early stages, I hadn't a clue even how to plug the darn thing into the wall without getting a shock.

Today being 2010 and all, I can't believe that CIS classes and textbooks expect 20-somethings to not have a clue about things like what a modem is, and what an internet service provider is, and what a browser does. Do we really need to go that far back into basics?

Have you ever had to take a computer class that you thought was more basic than your current skillset? What do you think about the state of CIS training these days? Are we on the right path?