Online Courses, Not for the Faint of Heart

Home schooling is becoming the popular craze in the United States. Each year, more parents opt to home school their children and college students choose more online courses instead of face to face classes. Most students feel that online courses are easier to manage than the face to face classes, especially those that work full time. What students fail to realize is that online courses are usually double or triple the work because of the lack of weekly lectures. Although students enjoy the ease of online courses because they can complete their work on their own schedule, students need to recognize that consistency, organization, discipline, and dedication are characteristics and skills that are necessary to succeed in an online course.

Consistency is key in any course, but more so for online courses. Consistency means setting up a study schedule and sticking to it. If a student is not consistent in their studies, their work will reflect those inconsistencies. Being consistent benefits the student greatly because they have allowed themselves appropriate time to complete their work. In the end, their reward is hopefully a good grade for all their hard work.

Another important skill is organization. Knowing right where to go when studying is really helpful. Putting together a binder of quizzes, homework, and notes is a great way to start organizing any course. If a student uses a computer to complete their lessons, a great way to organize is to have a folder labeled “school” with sub folders of the various courses. Organization will contribute towards a better grade for the student. Unorganized students tend to receive poor grades because they are unable to study effectively.

Students who are disciplined will be very happy with their online experience. Discipline takes practice, refinement, and much work. No one is born with discipline and many never learn it well. However, for school, it is very important. Discipline goes along with consistency. Students who consistently study are disciplined because they have trained themselves to sit down and complete their work. Discipline requires the student to tune out everything else except the task at hand.

Without dedication, people would not go far in this world. Whether a student or a business person, success lies in dedication. Dedication means leaving friends or a favorite television show to study. Dedication means working until the project is complete. Dedicated students are students who make the good grades. They know what they want and they buckle down to make it happen.

While there are many other skills and characteristics that are important for an online course; consistency, organization, discipline, and dedication all work very strongly together. Students who use all of these together will advance farther than the average student in their online courses. It takes a very dedicated and disciplined student to sit down and finish a task when there is no live teacher to turn the work into. Online courses are not for everyone, but those that have the skills will do very well.