Online classes are a great way to continue your education with a busy schedule. Many people work full-time or have kids, making it impossible to find time to go to college full-time too. Although online college is an amazing opportunity, it can have its own struggles that everyone should be aware of before signing up. Here are some things you need to be prepared for before you begin your online classes.
Need to Self-Motivate
It can be difficult to stay motivated when you’re taking online classes. It’s easy to let life get busy and forget to log in or simply not have time after a long day at work. You might tell yourself that you will just do extra work on your day off, which ends up piling up until you’re overwhelmed. When you have to physically go to class every day, it’s much easier to stay motivated because you feel like there is more accountability.
Make sure you have the ability to keep yourself motivated. If it’s a struggle that you face, you need to come up with a schedule that works for you and even ask someone else in your home to hold you accountable if you think it will help.
Technology isn’t Perfect
Technology can fail any time for many different reasons. The website can go down, causing you to miss deadlines. The professor can choose not to let you have an extension. If the problem only lasted one day but you had a week to work on the assignment, he or she might use it as a lesson not to procrastinate. It’s important to begin working on assignments as soon as possible so you don’t find yourself in a time crunch.
Your internet at home can also stop working. You need to have a backup plan in case this happens. Some ideas for a backup plan include having a Wi-Fi hotspot on your phone, a family member nearby, or a business you can go to with free Wi-Fi, such as Starbucks or McDonald’s.
Group Projects are Tricky
Although you’re taking online college classes to set your own schedule, there will be times when you need to be flexible. One reason is because group projects are assigned from time to time. When you’re doing a group project, you can’t expect everyone to adhere to your busy life. Everyone else in your group has a busy schedule too. You need to consider people are in different time zones and just as stressed as you are. Make sure you work with your group and move your schedule around as much as possible.
Easy to plagiarize
It’s so easy to plagiarise these days. It’s the age of technology and there is information all over the internet. You can find all of the answers you can need right in your computer. Some people are tempted to plagiarise because with a simple copy and paste you can finish your assignment. However, it can lead to a zero grade for your assignment and even be dismissed from the school.
Your professor will always run a plagiarism checker, so don’t let your temptation get the best of you. They even have tools to find plagiarism for things that aren’t on the internet. For example, if you use someone else’s paper who attended the same school and took that class in the past, it will show up as plagiarism, because that paper is in the system.
Plagiarism can also be done accidentally. You might find what you need for a paper online and rewording articles can be difficult. Sometimes things seem worded so perfectly, you can’t think of another way to say it. You might even use phrasing someone else has used and not even know it. Make sure you run your own plagiarism checker before you turn in any assignments.
No Traditional Instruction
When you go to a traditional college, it can be easier to learn tough subjects. The professor talks through the whole class and explains everything in a way that makes it easy to learn. If you have a question, you can put your hand up and ask it immediately. You can learn from questions other students ask that you haven’t even thought of yet. When you’re learning online, you need to be prepared to learn by reading your textbooks. Instructors will lead class discussions, but it’s mostly or all in text, too. For some people, it’s difficult to grasp concepts this way. For others, it’s not difficult at all.
Going to college online is a fantastic way to continue your education and better your life for yourself and your family. Just make sure you understand these common struggles so you can prepare to overcome them.
[Source:-The libertarian news]
