Time Management
Study skills are crucial for online courses both for faculty members and students. Indeed online classes come with some hefty advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, distance learning offers an outstanding opportunity for nontraditional students and anyone who's busy to fit higher education into their schedules. However, these classes require students to be disciplined, and not everyone is up to this task. If you're going to invest the money (as these classes can be expensive) and time (which you probably value quite a bit) into an online course, you need to develop some strong online course study skills. Here are some tips to help you make this experience a success. Time management is a struggle for all students, but nontraditional students often have especially difficult juggling acts. If you've got a full time job, a family, and/or other obligations, working in school may feel overwhelming. Some tips for the students:
• Make a study schedule. At the beginning of the semester, set aside a certain number of hours each week to work on the course. Unless there is an emergency, stick to your schedule! Make sure you set aside enough hours, and -- difficult as it may be -- spend these hours working exclusively on school.
• Make a study space. Most people work better if they have a comfortable work place set aside. This doesn't need to be a luxurious home office, but try to set aside at least a private corner of your home for school needs.
• Avoid distractions. Home comes with lots of distractions, some of which are easier to avoid than others. If your child is sick while you're trying to study, of course this "distraction" will take precedence. However, you can avoid the TV, web surfing, and talking on the phone. If your time is at a premium, you'll have to work extra hard to avoid distractions.
• Get family members on board. People don't always take online classes as seriously as traditional ones, and may not understand that you need to be left alone during your study time. Let partners and kids know, in no uncertain terms, that your studying is an important priority. Other family and friends also need to know that if you say you can't get together because you have school work, you mean it.
• Avoid procrastination. Easier said than done, of course, but if you're a very busy person, you really need to get your work done efficiently and on time.
Yetunde,
Absolutely! Time management is a great topic to discuss in the first couple of weeks!
Shelly Crider
I think it will be a good idea to call a student that is behind on their work especially in the 1st 2 weeks to discuss the importance of proper time management and make up a schedule to help catch up.
Vimlarani,
You have posted some excellent guidance on effective time management strategies. Making a schedule and sticking to it is a vital component to time management. If we do not stick to the schedule, it is easy to procrastinate, keep putting things off. This will lead to stress and possibly poor grades. So, we definitely want to use these time management techniques if we want to be successful online learners.
Cristy Norton
Rosalind,
This is such a good post! I do see stuents trying to fit classes into their free time when they really need to be setting time aside for their education.
Shelly Crider
I agree, it is important to have a discussion or chat on time management. Many students start online courses with the expectation of fitting the class into their existing schedule/life without realizing they actually need to alter their daily schedule to accomodate school and studying. Without a good time management plan, the student can easily be half way into the week before they have begun to work on their assignments. This could result in delays and rushing to finish assignments and tests and leading to a poor performance.
Kimberley,
"rush work"....we have all done so and it is nice to have someone to help with time management.
Shelly Crider
Time management is one of the hardest things for online students to understand because it is easy to put things off to the next day. I think that it is better for students to stay a little ahead in an online course. For example, I encourage my students to read the assignment before they complete it and get familiar with the instructions. I also send out an email explaining the assignments in more detail a least two days before the assignment is due. This, I hope, will get my students ready and eager to begin their assignments early and avoid last minute "rush work".
Stephanie,
Good point. Students will start out strong, but will lose sight of timelines due to "life" experiences.
Shelly Crider
I think having a discussion with the students at the start of the class about time management is a good way to help the students learn to balance their online classes while dealing with life issues at the same time.. I have students that tell me that they didn't have time to do their assignments because they work full-time or two jobs, they have a spouse and children. I understand because I have experience the same things. It helped me when I had a study schedule and stuck to it. It also helped when I started doing my assignment early in advance to have them on their due dates. I would be very stressed when I tried to do my assignments at the last minutes.
I think you provided a wealth of good tips in terms of time management. For my students, I have an entire chat session devoted to discussing how to create and follow a study schedule. I also stress the importance of using assignment lists as checklists to ensure they meet assignment goals.
To add to your information on making a study space, research shows that if an individual studies at the same time and place, information is more easily retained and recalled.
I also discuss time management each week as repetition helps students to learn and remember important tips and reminders.
Vimlarani,
Having a discussion on time management with your class at the start of the term is awesome way to open student's minds.
Shelly Crider
