Posted by J.M. Striegel on July 12th, 2008
Not unlike your MP3 player, mobile phone, and digital movie downloads, online education offers instant and constant access to the halls of higher education. Aside from a few hours of maintenance on the servers every term, these online doors don’t lock and students can be found roaming the halls of their cyber school at all hours.
A large attraction to online education is the accessibility online learning offers. As long as you have the minimum requirements needed to access your classes and materials, you can study and submit your assignments from any location you choose. Some people don’t perform well in a traditional classroom setting. These individuals may find they would thrive in an online educational setting. The same holds true for the student who requires a specific study environment that wouldn’t be attainable if they were held to a rigorous schedule that only allowed them a certain window of time to study and participate in classroom activities.
Summer classes don’t seem half as bad if you access them while you enjoy a cool breeze on a hammock. Your plans to visit with relatives over the holidays can still happen. Now you have some work to escape to when you’ve had enough “reminiscing,” and they aren’t allowed to make you feel guilty for it. You won’t feel bad about sitting down to “class” when snow is covering the streets outside your door.
Education has evolved. From a café to the beach, online education has become an accessible and portable option that makes quick work of attaining educational goals. So go ahead, make your plans, just don’t forget to include your educational goals and remember to pack a power source.
J.M. Striegel
Posted by J.M. Striegel on July 4th, 2008
Think you can be an online student and not participate in the classroom discussions or readings? You should reconsider your position. Professors and instructors are taking advantage of the latest technology and using it to connect with their students online.
Webcams can help your instructor and fellow classmates “put a face with a name” and are used for everything from informal chats among classmates to formal class discussions and seminars. Online classes offer a great deal of flexibility, but some classes are taught in real-time settings online and you may need a high-speed internet connection to keep up with the video demands.
You’ll find that some instructors are more technologically savvy than others. Some include audio versions of their text lectures, allowing you the option to download the lecture onto a mobile device and continue to learn and study while you workout, run errands, or take a break from the computer. This method is especially beneficial for the student who learns best when hearing the material rather than reading it on their own.
Most online classes are conducted in a similar method to their traditional versions. There may be weekly readings that feature group discussion that requires the student to post their views/feedback in a specific chat area and respond to the comments of others. This participation shouldn’t be overlooked for it is often a large portion of your overall assessment and can become the deciding factor in a final grade.
The exchange of ideas within the walls (virtual or otherwise) of a classroom is nothing to shy away from. These discussions are essential to creating new ideas, increasing understanding of the subject, and improving critical thinking skills. Choosing to be an anonymous online student may not only be a thing of the past, but could very well hurt your grades and skill development.
J.M. Striegel
Posted by Jen Zeman on June 29th, 2008
Online degrees from accredited colleges and universities offer higher education opportunities for those who might otherwise miss out. The classes are extremely convenient since you can complete the coursework based on your schedule; there is no commute to a classroom for a three-hour sit-down lecture at a specific time each week. However, do not fall into the trap of confusing convenient with “easyâ€. Online courses are very challenging as you will have specific requirements due usually daily and weekly.  For example, you may be required to post responses daily to a specific forum your professor posts in addition to lengthy written assignments that are due that week. So, while you may not be “sitting†in a classroom three hours a week, you more than make up for that with work assignments scheduled with online courses.
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With that said, online degrees don’t appear to be for everyone out there. Online degrees are ideal if you are disciplined, hard-working, and very organized. If you have a difficult time completing work without the structure of physically meeting in a classroom (to be accountable for your work) or are easily distracted by other responsibilities going on outside of work and school, you will struggle. But it’s not hopeless! Work on your time management skills and prioritize your responsibilities and you can be quite successful with an online degree.
My next post will discuss the appropriate time management skills and responsibilities prioritization needed to help you succeed in achieving your online degree. Â
