A common myth about online learning is that you are completely alone. Actually, you have all the same resources available to you as you would in a traditional class setting. Instructors for online courses have office hours when you can email them with questions or concerns about the course. You also have classmates in the course you can email for help. There are also academic counselors at every school that help you figure out the right classes you should be taking to feel comfortable in your education. The library is also a good source for help as there are lots of tutors around that can help you understand the material or suggest better study strategies. However, for those that cannot make the long commute to the library, there are online tutoring sites such as coursehero.com and tutor.com.

A huge resource you’ll have as an online learner is, of course, the internet. The internet can help with research or help find forums where you can discuss with others how to better your online learning experience. With all this help available there’s no way an online learner can say they’re completely alone. There is lots of help to be given. All you have to do is reach out for it.

Online learning can be challenging for a lot of people. All the responsibility of learning is put on you. You can’t just show up and absorb the knowledge as you would in a lecture. Online learning requires a lot of reading and writing.  Readings may not commit themselves to memory as quickly as hearing a lecture and recording notes. Often times you may have to read things again and again until you understand it fully. While online learning is flexible with timing, allowing you to work when you need to, it takes a lot more time 0ut of your week than a traditional class would. This all can be overcome with great determination and perseverance. If you have the drive to get things done, then online learning may come easily to you. Online learners must be organized and time conscious to be successful. They must know how to manage their time effectively in order to meet the many deadlines. People who thrive in research environments will do well with online learning because much of it is research. It is up to only you to bring yourself to the level the class demands of you. However, if you are not fully committed to putting in great amounts of effort, then online learning is not for you.

Time management is one of the biggest struggles that students face when taking an online class. What I’ve learned from this class is that it isn’t as overwhelming as I thought it was. All assignments have a due date, but that doesn’t mean they should be done all at once right before they’re due. This is the mindset we often trap ourselves in. A better solution is to break each task up into smaller segments and plan to do those small segments over the course of the week. This may seem like more work at first, but it is actually less than doing it all at once. This also helps you stay more focused and committed to the task. Often times a huge task seems so daunting that we just skip it. By breaking this task into smaller ones it puts our minds more at ease and gives a person more confidence in their ability to do it.

Another key to effective time management is eliminating distractions. Distractions cause us to complete tasks much slower than we should. They waste time and should be eliminated immediately. Commons distractions are television and smartphones. Lots of people I know like to watch tv or listen to music while they work on homework. However, these distractions take some of your brainpower to process, brainpower that could be spent on the task at hand. When your brain is allowed to work solely on one project, the project gets done much faster. Instead of taking a whole day, it may only take a few hours. Personally, ever since I started doing homework in a quiet environment I’ve been getting it done much faster with a lot less stress over it since I’m not constantly wanting to take my attention away from it with these distractions.