Online coursework has changed the way that students attend to their educational process. In fact, students who are enrolled in an online course or degree program often do not actually attend class at all, not in the traditional sense, anyway. Instead, these students often make time to fit in classes between errands, dinner preparations, and even sometimes in the middle of the night.
These examples demonstrate ways in which taking an online class differs from going to a traditional classroom. Therefore, first–time students in an online course should be mindful of the following five tips, courtesy of the International Career Institute. These tips give these non-traditional students an idea about how to be successful in an online course when they have only had experience with traditional classrooms in the past.
1. Take the Class Seriously
An eLearning Industry article reminds would be online students to treat their online class as a priority. Many people who sign up for online courses do not understand that the requirements for the class are the same as they would be if the students were taking a class taken in a traditional classroom. That means that the instructor expects students to participate in class and turn in all their assignments by the set deadlines. The difference is that the students and the teacher will communicate via technology like Skype or email in order to convey messages to one another.
2. Get to Know Your Peers
To avoid feeling isolated and to allow online students to have the ability to engage with their peers, many online classrooms have open forums. Students use these forums to introduce themselves, to ask questions, and to post links to helpful online resources.
Other ways that online course instructors encourage students to get to know their classmates are by setting up a Facebook page where students can interact or by encouraging online students to have a conference call with one another via technologies like Skype. These tools are often used for some form of group project to encourage more introverted students to get in touch with each other.
3. Understand the Terminology
According to eLearners.com, there are basically two types of educational set-ups that can occur in an online classroom. The first one is synchronous. This means that students and the teacher meet via some sort of video technology to have a lecture or to discuss class materials. These classes are called synchronous because students and the teachers need to be in class at the same time. (Class in this case is the video feed.)
And asynchronous classroom is where the teacher will post links to videos, online articles, forum posts, and other types of classroom materials that can be accessed at any time. This set-up does not require the students and the teachers to meet at the same time. This is ideal for those on a graveyard shift or who are attending online classes while taking care of small children at home.
The posted videos and reading materials replace the instructor as the primary mode of instruction. That means that if a student cannot access the material until after midnight, that’s okay. The teacher’s presence is not required for the student to learn.
4. Make a Dedicated Workspace
Unlike traditional classrooms where there is a dedicated space to meet – in this case the classroom – online students don’t have such a set-up. This is one of the elements that causes online students to stumble. They try to study in areas that are too noisy, and which have too much traffic. The most successful online students create a space apart where they can study without distraction. It’s wise to begin an online course with a dedicated workspace already in place.
5. Get Backup Technology
Although there are many benefits to taking a class online, including the fact that students can access the lessons at any time that’s convenient for them, there are some drawbacks. One of the primary drawbacks is technology, ironically. Computers and tablets can go haywire. They can get viruses. They can be destroyed when something accidentally gets spilled upon them, like a glass of water.
The wisest online students make sure to have good back-up technology. This means that these students back up all their work on an external hard drive and have access to another computer and the internet should anything go wrong.
Final Words
Online classes offer students many things that a traditional classroom cannot. They allow students to go to class without ever having to physically show up in a classroom. Online courses and degree programs, like those provided by the International Career Institute, allow students to attend class when their schedules permit. These courses give them the same information and indeed, result in the same degrees as traditional programs provide.
However, they do have some drawbacks. Technology could go haywire, the students may not believe the course requires the same discipline that a regular class does, or the online student might face too many distractions. The key to making an online course work for the student is to take it as seriously as one would take a class set in a traditional classroom.
