Online College Success
Online college has made it possible for many adults to earn a college degree. These are often people who did not, or could not, attend college when they were younger. The convenience of being able to work on their assignments when it fits their schedule has given many who had given up on college a second chance. However, according to Roper (2007), these college students “may face significant challenges in developing a new set of skills for this type of instruction” (p. 62).
I am one of these students. My first attempt at college was twenty-three years ago, before online college was an option. But like it so often does, life got in the way of my plans; I found myself a divorced, single mother of two with no time for college. …show more content…
191). I am going to consider each of these factors individually.
• Personal traits: Are you easily frustrated? Will you miss face-to-face interactions with an instructor and other students? Are you a procrastinator? These are not good traits for an online college student, though they can be overcome if one is motivated enough. What is needed for success is determination, self-discipline, and to be goal oriented. You can’t succeed in an online college course by cutting corners any more than you could in a traditional classroom. The difference is that you must make your schedule and then you must be self-disciplined enough to stick to it.
• Lifestyle factors: How much do you work? Are you married? Do you have children? Everything that affects your time must be considered when choosing to take online courses. Do you have time to take a full load of courses and devote the time needed to be successful? And do so without negatively impacting the quality of your work and relationships? If not, do you have time to take fewer classes at a time? The fewer classes you take at a time the longer it will take to earn your degree but that is preferable to ignoring your other …show more content…
64). I have not yet reached the point where I need to be more motivated but I am sure this is only because this is only my second semester. So far knowing that I will not be satisfied with anything below an A has been enough motivation. I have decided to reward myself with each course I complete with an A. I don’t know yet what that reward will be. I may even go a little crazy and come up with a reward for getting a B!
I have found that each course I take is different as far as the time it takes me to complete assignments. Therefore the following schedule is very tentative. It could even be called a best case scenario. As I stated earlier, I will have to fine tune it as needed. One thing I do want to add is that I set a reminder every hour to get up and move around. This is something that I have to do because of my health issues. I often use this time to review my notes, though not always. The main point is that on the days that I am engaged in classwork all day I get a lot of breaks.
Sunday 11:00-1:00 Read & Study
Online college has made it possible for many adults to earn a college degree. These are often people who did not, or could not, attend college when they were younger. The convenience of being able to work on their assignments when it fits their schedule has given many who had given up on college a second chance. However, according to Roper (2007), these college students “may face significant challenges in developing a new set of skills for this type of instruction” (p. 62).
I am one of these students. My first attempt at college was twenty-three years ago, before online college was an option. But like it so often does, life got in the way of my plans; I found myself a divorced, single mother of two with no time for college. …show more content…
191). I am going to consider each of these factors individually.
• Personal traits: Are you easily frustrated? Will you miss face-to-face interactions with an instructor and other students? Are you a procrastinator? These are not good traits for an online college student, though they can be overcome if one is motivated enough. What is needed for success is determination, self-discipline, and to be goal oriented. You can’t succeed in an online college course by cutting corners any more than you could in a traditional classroom. The difference is that you must make your schedule and then you must be self-disciplined enough to stick to it.
• Lifestyle factors: How much do you work? Are you married? Do you have children? Everything that affects your time must be considered when choosing to take online courses. Do you have time to take a full load of courses and devote the time needed to be successful? And do so without negatively impacting the quality of your work and relationships? If not, do you have time to take fewer classes at a time? The fewer classes you take at a time the longer it will take to earn your degree but that is preferable to ignoring your other …show more content…
64). I have not yet reached the point where I need to be more motivated but I am sure this is only because this is only my second semester. So far knowing that I will not be satisfied with anything below an A has been enough motivation. I have decided to reward myself with each course I complete with an A. I don’t know yet what that reward will be. I may even go a little crazy and come up with a reward for getting a B!
I have found that each course I take is different as far as the time it takes me to complete assignments. Therefore the following schedule is very tentative. It could even be called a best case scenario. As I stated earlier, I will have to fine tune it as needed. One thing I do want to add is that I set a reminder every hour to get up and move around. This is something that I have to do because of my health issues. I often use this time to review my notes, though not always. The main point is that on the days that I am engaged in classwork all day I get a lot of breaks.
Sunday 11:00-1:00 Read & Study