Whether a student is taking an online course or an on-campus course, their hopeful outcome may be to complete the course successfully. For some students, taking a course online may prove to be a challenge. To help, the Clarion spoke to Elizabeth Burns, Distance Learning program coordinator at Sinclair Community College for tips on how to successfully complete an online course.<\/p>\n
She said it\u2019s important to be self-disciplined and willing to go above and beyond while taking an online course, because students are facilitating their own learning.<\/p>\n
\u201cDedication, willingness to learn, eagerness for the subject . . . It\u2019s very similar to an on-campus student, but it does require a little more autonomy, and for a student to be independent,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n
Burns advises students to buy a weekly planner and write down all assignments for the week, regardless of which course they are taking, to help keep the student organized.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be overwhelming when you\u2019re taking four to five courses and you have 10 plus assignments due for each class \u2014 be organized,\u201d she said. \u201cEven if you\u2019re not typically an organized person, it does help to have it all written down, and written down in a weekly format because you may have five assignments due one week and then just one the next week, so you know how to prioritize your time for studying and completing your assignments on time.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also advises students to reach out to other students in the classroom, so they may feel connected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think most students will learn more when they\u2019re engaged with other students in the classroom setting and online,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n
She said if a student is struggling in a course, they are much less willing to reach out for help out of embarrassment \u2014 a student should keep this in mind when considering taking an online course. Therefore, if a student knows that they may struggle in a particular subject, they should avoid taking it online.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents that struggle [with a subject] are much less willing to reach out when they need assistance. In an on-campus class, they might see other students that might have the same issues and misunderstandings and might be able to reach out that way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In addition, Burns said that students should ask themselves what they\u2019d like to get from their education.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a student is looking to foster strong relationships with other students, online may not be the best place for them,\u201d Burns said. \u201cI only say that because many of the other online students may not want to foster that same engagement. Some do, some are very involved\u2026 in either on-campus resources or in their community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burns said taking an online course can definitely be a better fit for some students \u2014 the way that a course is taught online is the same way that it is taught in a classroom, just in a different format.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes they (students) think the curriculum is different for online courses and many of our online courses are taught by the same instructors that teach on campus. The general syllabi is the same and the requirements are the same \u2014 it\u2019s just a different format of learning, and some students excel really well in that type of format and some students prefer on-campus and that\u2019s completely fine,\u201d Burns said. \u201cIt\u2019s whatever\u2019s most comfortable for the student and whatever fits their lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said an online course may be a great way to prepare students for the technology used in their career field \u2014 and the program is only getting bigger. Burns said there are more than 200 courses offered online and starting this year, there will be 30 to 40 new courses added each term, in addition to the whole degree programs students can complete solely online.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lot of students, especially here at Sinclair, it\u2019s an opportunity to finish their goals of completing their degree or certificate program without having to spend the extra commute time and also the time that is spaced out here on campus,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n
She said online classes have made it possible for some students to complete college.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main reasons why students often take an online course is for the flexibility of the offerings when they can complete the courses,\u201d Burns said. \u201cFor me and for the students that I work with, it\u2019s such a great opportunity because the majority of the students that I work with\u2026 they would not be able to finish their degree without our programs here \u2014 and that\u2019s a pretty exciting thing to see, knowing that they wouldn\u2019t be a college student if we didn\u2019t have our online programs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whether a student is taking an online course or an on-campus course, their hopeful outcome may be to complete the course successfully. For some students, taking a course online may prove to be a challenge. To help, the Clarion spoke to Elizabeth Burns, Distance Learning program coordinator at Sinclair Community College for tips on how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-2nm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9137,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9136\/revisions\/9137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}