Online students are most probably different from people who are from a typical school setup. One reason why they may be studying online is because they have work to do. Not all those who end up getting an online course are merely working full-time but some may have an unfinished degree and just have to really get themselves working already for a family. Some of them may be stay-at-home parents, like moms, who care for their kids at home.
If you are an online student, you understand that this degree you are currently taking is not merely for purposes of having a diploma. This time around, it’s supposed to be a career investment. But it cannot be denied that studying online renders you more vulnerable to distractions. To help you develop some good online study habits, here are some practical tips you can use:
Develop a time management plan – When you have too much time on your hands, it can work as a double-edged sword for you. It’s good that you are left to your own devices to schedule your priorities but if you don’t do so before inserting a new activity in your life, you may end up messing up your duties. Start by listing down your daily schedule including all of your daily activities. Plot out how long it takes for you to finish each of them. This way you can have an evaluation of which activities eats up most of your time.
When you finally look over your activities, check if you equally spend your time according to the difficulty of the tasks you need to do. Make sure you log in the actual time you are spending for the activity so you can have a clearer sense how your time ends up used on a daily basis.
Make yourself familiar with the course – What often happens when we choose a course for the first time is that we end up having a superficial view of it. For example, we might mistake Computer Science as a course that allows us to explore the hardware of a computer when it fact in deals more on the programming side of using computers.
Courses offer a syllabus which outline the subjects and lessons you are to take that semester. Based from that, you can do some advance readings or research to help you become familiar with the points of discussion. You should also take time to explore the course page and click on the links. Check out the tabs and make yourself familiar with the software and other online applications you are going to use to study.
Be active in class – Just because you are learning online doesn’t mean you can’t raise your hand up to ask for a question or share something. Your instructors would be more than happy to accommodate questions from you and also clarify some points about the lessons which may be boggling you.
Online courses often have discussion boards for all the students involved. Be active on the said boards and make it a point to also know your classmates. More often than not, this would also be the venue where you guys can plan a get-together so you can see each other in person.
Taking on the responsibility of online study is something that you work on. You can also try to involve your family and let them know about your plans so that they can support your notion to succeed.
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