My first online learning schedule faced me as I decided to get my Master of Education degree after 30 years away from the academic setting. An added complication was the fact that my husband's health condition was requiring increasing amounts of attention each day and I was his only primary care person. I would like to share with you the things I found to be useful to me as I struggled to meet the demands of this 10-month accelerated learning experience.

My first change of habit had to be to DO IT NOW no putting off or letting things each day pile up. Whatever came to be done I worked on right then, seeing it was at least started and a finishing time was scheduled. This could be particularly challenging as my first priority had to be to care for my husband as his needs demanded (which leads to the next management item).

Soliciting my husband's cooperation on this project was essential. I would highly recommend anyone take time to sit down with others impacted by the learning commitment you make - find out what level of support, understanding, and commitment they can also offer to you. For us, this process had to be repeated several times during the course of the year due to adjustments in his needs but I always kept him involved in the decision making process.

Once these two elements were in place I began organizing my estimated times of doing assignments. With children or other adults present (especially with illness) this is especially hard to put into a firm routine, so flexibility must be a key word in your vocabulary. However, a daily amount of time to be spent must be found within each 24-hour period so things do not get so backed up as to be overwhelming down the line.

Often, I found it very useful to break my work times into small "chunks" of work. It is really amazing how much online work can be done in a few minutes here and there!

Seeing the whole process as an opportunity for the fun side of life, engaging in "live" interaction with other classmates, and forgiving yourself when things don't happen as planned, are all part of managing an "online" existence. Keeping sight of the professional goal or purpose will also ease the tough spots when the real time stressors start piling on like the pile of dirty dishes, dinner waiting, and an assignment deadline within a matter of hours! Sometimes, just sharing my accomplishments with my husband was uplifting and surprisingly refreshing as time pressures mounted.

I would have never succeeded at completing the task I had brought onto myself if I had not exerted the extra effort it took to build a relationship with each of the eight professors involved. I found the school to be particularly helpful in their willingness to keep the steep learning curve very manageable by letting me know of options I had open and was not aware of when "frustration" tried to set in.

Despite the four hurricanes that plagued us that year in Florida, my husband and I got through the effort with a great sense of satisfaction at being able to look forward to each day positively, adding to our skills of time management, and enjoying the personal improvement and sense of accomplishment online learning had provided!

Learn more about this author, Kak McAlister.
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