by Teddy Ward

Created on: February 19, 2008

Going to school online can be a fulfilling yet very challenging endeavor for someone to undergo especially adult students with full time jobs who are returning to academia after being out of the loop for several years. I graduated with a business administration degree from an online university and the most important tips I can offer to someone that will help them succeed at an online university is participation, preparation, staying positive, and utilize the resources.

Participate - Put your all into each class and no matter how insignificant it feels the information you have to share is you will more often then not be surprised at how helpful your insight is to the other students. Not only does your insight benefit the class the participation itself makes up a good percentage of your grade.

Preparation Be prepared and don't be afraid to work ahead. Every class I took while going to school online provided us with a syllabus at least a week or two before the beginning of the class. Use the syllabus to your advantage and start reading and doing the assignments ahead of time. Working ahead always had me better prepared for the class discussions and team projects that were tasked with each week. Being prepared reduces the stress of assignment deadlines and hectic class schedules.

Stay Positive Make sure to always stay motivated and positive. The classes can get long and frustrating at times but keeping a positive attitude in class and about the class will make each assignment and project that much easier to work through. Not only will it make it easier for the student it will also help the rest of the class be motivated. The hardest classes I had to take were the ones where the motivation levels were low and negative attitudes were high.

Resources Utilize the tools and tutors provided by the school to help with papers and projects. Most of these tools are provided for free by the school and can be amazing resources to the students. The different tools I would use extensively were those provided as part of the schools writing center such as the grammar and spell checking tools. Since everything you do needs to be communicated in writing making sure your writing is clear and understandable is very important.

Many other tips and tricks are out there that can be used to help a person earn his or her online degree but the above tips are the ones that I found to be the most useful. Working a full time job, raising a family, and returning to school full time is not an easy endeavor to take on but it is possible to do. I took it on and I succeeded in earning my degree. It was challenging, stressful, and exhausting but it was also a very positive and rewarding experience.

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