Online classes sound super convenient. Many would sign up thinking that they don’t take that much time at all. The truth is it all depends on your professor how much time you will spend on homework. Some professors want a lot, some want a very little, others have found that happy medium. If I had known someone who was taking all of their courses online before I signed up these are the five things I wish they would have told me.
- 1. The reading is important, but don’t let it drain your time.
You have to read the chapters, articles, web pages, or whatever else is assigned to understand. Many times these materials take the place of lectures in some online classes. Without reading the material you will not understand the subject fully. That being said, you do not have to memorize everything word for word. Read the readings in a “skimming” way. Make note of or highlight important points. An excellent way to spot important points is to read the assignments and discussion questions for the week before doing the reading.
- 2. APA style is easy to master.
I say this because I have checked the style manual, a few thousand times and then I found a fool proof method (almost). Save your work that you have completed in APA. Take one paper that you have check, and rechecked, for APA style correctness and “SAVE AS” in Word “APA PAPER TEMPLATE”. Then each week when you begin to write your paper, open a Word Document, go to “File”, “New”, “Create from Existing” and then select “APA Paper Template. This will open the template paper. Delete old content, replace the date, professor name, change the title on the cover page and page one, correct the header, and replace the references with the new references. Then click “Save AS” and title it appropriately. The original template will stay intact and you don’t have to remember to format every little thing on a new document each week.
- 3. Son of Citation Machine and ProQuest “Cite” is rarely wrong.
I hate, repeat hate, making citations for paper. I always goof up something even if I am looking in the style manual. No web site will be correct 100% of the time but as long as you proof the final product, it is a great way to get a little help with the citations. In the Library for your school if you search for articles in Ebsco Host or ProQuest you can click on the “Cite” button and get a fully formatted APA citation. If you are doing research from actual books or other web sites then search for “Son of Citation Machine” and choose APA format with the latest edition and choose the media form you are using. Fill in the blanks and get a formatted citation to copy and paste.
- 4. Work Ahead instead of Behind
Many online courses last anywhere from four to ten weeks from start to finish. This is a very short amount of time if you fall behind to play catch up and chances are whatever got you behind to start with will keep you from catching up. That is why it is better to get ahead of the game than to lag behind. Set aside an hour or two a few days a week, I do Thursday and Monday because those are the days I have items due. If homework time is from 8-10pm that night I do not stop until 10pm even if I have finished the assignments for that week, I work ahead, writing the discussion posts, reading, and working on papers all days or weeks before they are due. This prevents the last minute mad dash to finish a 12 page research paper in two hours and last minute emails to professors begging for an extension because the laptop battery died and my paper is stuck in purgatory somewhere.
- 5. Online Books Stink
No, I am not some book purist who thinks that the written word should always be bound and printed. I own a Kindle and I love it. Academic books online are what stink. When you are trying to read four chapters a week about Macroeconomic theory it would be better to be able to curl up on the couch with the book in hand to look at the charts and graphs than be tied to a computer screen staring at the words and never really digesting them. Plus it has been proven that paper reading speed is faster than screen reading speed. Try reading 200 pages a week about business law and tort reform and see what a difference it makes. It is also difficult to go back to find information in an online book form than flipping through pages, at least in my opinion. So when confronted each class with the “Order Materials” button, it may be worth the extra $20-$50 to buy a used copy than to get the e-book. Plus I have actually saved a ton of money by renting books rather than buying the e-book.
These are just the highlights of the things I wish I had known four years (and four degrees) ago when I started school online. I think that the list will vary from person to person but in general these are the things that have made the biggest difference in my long, long, long pursuit of higher education.
