by Suzanne Mathews

Created on: May 31, 2008   Last Updated: April 24, 2012

Now that you have made the decision to attend an online college or university, you are may be wondering what to do next. The best place to start is with an academic advisor. They will guide you around your virtual college or university campus and organize your class schedules, as well as answering other questions as you proceed with your studies.

Earning your degree online is not complicated it does however require your dedication and good time management. Create a workable schedule for home, work, and school to help you with time management.  If you try to juggle all these responsibilities without a schedule you will find yourself over whelmed and generally this leads to dropping out. I recommend purchasing a small appointment book to record assignments and other daily task. Order your text books early to allow plenty of time to arrive before each class begins beccause books stores have been known to back order.

Earning a degree online is also dependent on your grades. By following some of these grading guidelines you will be successful achieving good grades as well as getting the most out of your online learning experience.

1. Turn in all assignments on time. Use your appointment book to help you keep track of due dates. I find it easy to save my weekly assignments for each class on memory stick. Create a master file for each class; make a sub-folder for each week named for instance, "Week 1 Assignment 1" copy and paste the assignments to a word document. This may be easier for you to work from and you will have saved material to reference back to if needed.

2. Demonstrate your understanding of key concepts to do this you will be required to justify ideas and responses using appropriate examples and references from yoour text books, and other online class references or personal experience. Assignments vary from class to class; you maybe required to prepare essays, answering questions, or conduct experiments. All your assignments will require you to read your text books as well as online class lectures. Do not try to memorize everything, stick to the key words of your lessons.

3. Participate in the online discussions by asking questions, provide statements of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging a point of discussion, or making a relationship between one or more points of the discussion. It has been my experience; unless otherwise requested, Professors or instructors do not like responses to be cited from online material such as "Wikipedia." When responding to questions or assignments, be prepared to support your work with in text citations or online lectures. Online classes are fast paced therefore, I recommend checking in once a day.

4. Check spelling and grammar, write clearly and professionally. I recommend using software designed to critique your writing such as "White Smoke" Microsoft Word is ok however, it does not catch everything.

Let us review, seek an academic advisor, have a workable schedule, order your books timely, and lastly follow the grading guidelines. Follow these tips for earning your online degree and you will do just fine.

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