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Online Classes: Is Convenience Everything?
Are you having a difficult time fitting your classes into your already busy schedule? Have you thought about taking online courses? You don’t have to attend classes on campus. You can work from home computer at any hour of the day or night. Sounds like a great idea, right?
Reality Check: Online Classes Demand Time and Commitment
The reality of taking online classes is quite different from the widespread belief that these classes consist of a few e-mails, some web-surfing, and a couple of papers. As many students discover, online courses demand as much if not MORE TIME than regular classes.
The Anatomy of a Successful Online Student
Research shows that successful online students...
Don’t Be Frustrated: Be Ready!
This page will help you determine whether an online course is the best choice for you. Click on the tabs above to assess your readiness to take an online class. Don't spend a frustrating semester finding out the hard way that an online course is not for you.
How Much Time?
Many students have the misperception that because you don't have to come to campus for an online class that the course will not require as much time as a traditional classroom course. While it is true that taking the class online will allow you more ways to fit your class work into your schedule (perhaps even at times when you are most productive), this freedom comes with unique responsibilities.
Working On Your Own
Because an online course is primarily student-directed rather than teacher-directed, you should plan to work on your own to make up for what you would normally get from class discussions, lectures, and classroom workshops. There is no way to sit in the back of class and quietly listen to a discussion about a text you only had time to skim or didn't quite finish. You are responsible for responding to each of the assignments and potentially doing extra research to make up for the lectures and discussions you are not hearing.
Your Schedule vs. Your Pace
Working within your schedule does not mean work at you own pace. You will have regular deadlines for class assignments. Falling behind in your online assignments is a quick way to fail a course. While the flexibility in scheduling that an online course represents may be your best or only option for taking a class, understand that you will need to make a lot of time for it in your schedule.
Self-Motivation
To complete an online course, you will need to be self-motivated. People with busy schedules and lots of responsibilities both at work and at home often deal with things as they come up, putting out fires all day. Regular class times and face-to-face meetings with professors force us to budget our time and give us an incentive to complete assignments. No one likes to face someone to whom he or she owes something, whether it is work or an apology. Without the organizing structure provided by class meetings, it is far too easy to allow online course work to slip through the cracks.
Priorities
You are responsible for making your class work a priority and making sure that you reserve the time to get your work done and get your assignments handed in. In order to pass an online course, you will need to participate regularly and complete assignments on a schedule without constantly being reminded either by your professor or a class meeting. Procrastinate and you will fall behind and have a very difficult time recovering. If you are not good at organizing your time and know you will have a hard time making an online class a priority and building it into your schedule, then perhaps you should reconsider taking an online course.
Stop and think a minute about how you learn things. Do you get a lot out of reading textbooks and websites on your own, or do things only make sense once you hear a lecture and in-class discussion about them? Will written comments and instructions be enough to help you learn? The very nature of an online course requires you to do much of the work on our own. You will need to understand what you read well enough to be able to discuss it. Consider carefully whether you are ready to tackle the difficult tasks ahead without the benefit of a professor's in-class guidance.
Successful online students MUST...
Online students SHOULD...
Adapted from David Sidore, Macon State College
The University of Georgia has developed a comprehensive Student Online Readiness Tool (SORT) that students can use it to assess their readiness to take online classes. (Note: the Start button is the arrow in the upper-right corner.)
The Georgia Virtual Technical College website has developed very thorough readiness assessment tool called READI (Readiness for Education at a Distance Indicator). In addition to questions about learning style, time management, etc., it also tests technical knowledge, reading speed, and typing speed. It gives the user a detailed, 15-page printable report. When you log on to try it, scroll down the list of colleges and select "Undecided," then begin.