HOME - Bloglines Tips - Composer Tips - Writing Tips - Technology Tips
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HOME - Bloglines Tips - Composer Tips - Writing Tips - Technology Tips |
I've been teaching online classes like this one for over six years and it is a great experience - overall, people in these classes do really wonderful work, have a lot of fun, and end up with a good grade. That gives me a lot of satisfaction as a teacher, and I have a great time every single semester.
At the same time, there are some students every semester who really struggle with the course, and every semester at least one or two students fail the class. That is obviously frustrating for the students who fail (they waste a lot of valuable time and money), and it is actually a frustration for everybody in the class. Even more than a classroom-based class, an online class is a collective experience. If some students in the class don't do the work, it has a negative impact on the class in general.
So, I really want everybody succeed in this course - both for your own sake, and so that the course as a whole can be a success. To help you succeed, I've prepared this list of strategies for success. The list is based on my own experience working online, along with what I have learned from the hundreds of students who have completed my online courses in the past. I hope you will find some tips here that can be useful to you, both in this course, and in any other courses you are taking this semester.
TIME MANAGEMENT
Work ahead and avoid the midnight deadlines. Do you get stressed out by deadlines? As you can see from the typical weekly schedule in this class, there is work that is due every day of the week, Monday through Thursday, by midnight. This does not mean you have to put off the work until midnight. In fact, you can do the work up to two weeks in advance! The deadlines are there to help you from getting behind - but you will enjoy the class a lot more if you work a few days ahead. So if you can work a week ahead, or even just one day ahead, you will not get into trouble with the midnight deadline. That will save you a lot of stress and anxiety. Whatever you do, do not do the work near midnight. If you put off the work until the last minute, you are going to get very stressed. Do the work earlier in the evening, so you will have plenty of time to complete the assignment well before the deadline.
Work two weeks ahead and finish the class early. Do you have a heavy schedule this semester? If you work two weeks ahead, this means you can be completed finished with this class two weeks before finals begin. This can give you extra time in your other classes to finish end-of-semester projects and get ready for exams. So, start early: if you can get two weeks ahead in this class early on in the semester, that could really help you out in your other classes at the end of the semester! There is even some extra credit available just for working ahead, which I hope will give you even more of an incentive to take control of the timetable of the class FOR YOURSELF, instead of letting the semester calendar rule your life.
Work early in the morning instead of late at night. Are you a night-owl? Like most of you, I tend to work late at night, too - but at the same time, I know that I do my best work in the morning instead of at night. So, I do always manage to drag myself out of bed every morning in order to get to work on time. If you don't have a specific requirement to get up and get to work early in the morning - do it anyway! You will end up being able to manage and complete your work much more efficiently if you get an early start on the day.
TECHNOLOGY
Start technology assignments as early as possible. Are you new to blogging and web publishing? Don't worry! Most students in this class are totally new to blogging and new to publishing webpages. If that is the case for you, then you just need to get started on the technology assignments as early as possible. I can give you all the help you need... but you need to give me time to help you. If you put off the assignment until the day it is due, I may not be available right then to help you, and you may get very frustrated as a result. So please make sure you do the technology assignments a few days before they are due, especially if you know you are going to need to ask for help.
Make sure you have antivirus software. Do you have up-to-date antivirus software installed on your computer? If you are using a Microsoft-based computer operating system (Windows, Vista, etc.), viruses are an extremely serious threat. Every semester, several students get into trouble because their computer is infected by a virus and they have to get the hard drive erased and the operating system reinstalled, putting their computer out of commission for several days. As an OU student, you can get FREE antivirus software and free updates. Just go to the OU IT website, support.ou.edu or call 325-HELP to find out how you can protect your computer from viruses.
Know your computer alternatives. What will you do if you suddenly are not able to use your computer or cannot get on the Internet? (If you use Cox Internet, for example, there are periodic outages - it's bound to happen at least once or twice during the semester). So, especially if you are cutting the deadlines close, you need to have computer alternatives ready. Are you near an OU campus? If so, learn about the student computer labs and wireless access on your campus. If you are not near a campus, see what Internet access is available to you at your local public library. Another possibility: check out your local Kinko's or some other Internet access point you could use in an emergency. If you do not have any kind of computer alternative available to you (I've had students in this class stationed in Iraq, for example!), then make sure you work well ahead of the deadlines, in case you run into unexpected computer trouble.
Use bookmarks in your browser. Do you have trouble finding webpages that you used in the past? One of the best suggestions I got from students in this class last semester was to bookmark every webpage you use in your work for this class. Most browser let you organize your Bookmarks into folders, so you can create a folder for this class and save every single webpage you use when doing research for the class. That way, if you need to look up something later in the semester, you will be able to find the webpage you were using right there in your Bookmarks. I use Foxmarks as the system for organizing the bookmarks in my browser - it's great!
READING ASSIGNMENTS
Slow down and take notes. Do you tend to skim when you read? Many students get in the habit of skimming rapidly instead of reading slowing down and taking notes - but in reality it is faster to SLOW DOWN and take notes! So, get a notebook to keep by your computer and take notes as you read. The act of physically writing out those notes will help you focus on the reading so that you can actually remember what you are reading. If you read slowly and take notes, you will be able to breeze through the reading quiz on the first try and not have to go back and look for information you missed the first time around.
Read out loud. Do you ever read out loud? Believe me: the absolute best way to get yourself to slow down as you read is to read out loud. Plus, reading out loud is such a pleasure! Do you have a tendency to nod off as you are reading? To lose your place on the page? To not understand what you are reading? If you will slow down and READ OUT LOUD you will find that these problems disappear. Plus you will enjoy the reading much more if you let yourself enjoy the actual words, one word at a time.
Use a dictionary when you read. Do you look up words you don't know as you are reading? There are some great online dictionaries that you can use while you are reading, such as dictionary.com and onelook.com. Get in the habit of using the dictionary and writing down the words that you look up. Student vocabulary level is one of the biggest predictors for school success.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Proofread by reading out loud. Do you have trouble proofreading your own writing? The only way you can really proofread your work is by reading it out loud, word for word. If you have a 300 word writing assignment, it will take you approximately two minutes to read out loud. That is not a lot of time - but the benefits are huge. So please, as a favor to me and to the other people who will be reading your written work this semester, proofread every assignment by reading it out loud first. You will be amazed at what a great technique this is for improving your writing.
Use a dictionary with your spellchecker. What do you do when the spellchecker gives you an alternative spelling you are not really sure about? A spellchecker can only check to make sure that words are correctly spelled - it cannot check to make sure you have used the correct word to begin with! So, if the spellchecker suggests a spelling correction to you but you are not 100% sure about the proposed word, look it up in the dictionary first. You will save yourself a lot of embarrassing mistakes by using the dictionary this way.
Visit the Writing Center in Bizzell Library. Have you been to the Writing Center in Bizzell? It is a fabulous resource where you can get individual one-on-one tutoring - FOR FREE - to help you learn better writing skills. Usually the best time to go see a tutor is after you have received written comments back from me but before you have started to revise the assignment. When you visit the tutor, you should take a clean printed copy of your current version of the assignment (you can print out your webpage and take that with you), along with a printed copy of the comments you have received back from me, plus a list of the specific writing problems you know you need to work on.
COMMUNICATION
Learn people's names. Do you have trouble learning people's names? In any class, whether in the classroom or online, it can be hard to get to know people's names. So please make sure you use people's names when leaving comments for them in the Comments folder at Desire2Learn - it's a very important part of interacting online and a good way to start learning everyone's names. If you start off the message with "Hey Alicia" or "Hi Josh," you will be able to get to know the other folks in class as individuals, which is really important in a fully online class like this one.
Be aware of communication etiquette. Do you have a lot of experience with discussion boards, or is this something new to you? As you probably have learned from email and instant messaging, a written message has a different tone than a spoken message. So please be careful in the messages you leave for other people; read the message out loud to make sure it sounds okay. Also, please don't overreact to a message that someone leaves for you; it is easy sometimes to take something the wrong way, totally by accident. In general, OU students are really helpful and polite online, but if there is something you think is a problem, you need to LET ME KNOW right away, and I'll help get it all sorted out.
Save your emails for this class. Is your email inbox a total disaster? I definitely know what that is like, and I spend a lot of time just keeping my email under control. To do that, I tag all my emails for future reference, keeping them in separate folders. You will find it a lot easier to manage this class if you create a folder in your email program where you can keep all the emails related to this class. You should save copies of the emails that you send to me, and you should also save copies of the emails that I send back to you. It really helps to keep them in a separate folder - that way you can save all the emails for this class until the end of the semester, and then just delete that entire folder when the semester is over.
LIFE IN GENERAL
Reduce clutter. Does your work environment tend to get totally cluttered by the end of the day? If you let your real space or your virtual space get cluttered, every task will take you much longer to complete. If you can reduce the clutter, you will find it so much easier to focus and get your work done. So, clear off your desk, or put things into stacks on the desk. Turn off your stereo or TV or radio, and turn off your cellphone and any IM or phone applications you have running on your computer. If you spend thirty minutes focused on your study tasks you can then have time to watch TV or talk on the phone later... after you have finished your work.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Are you spending hours at a stretch in front of the computer? As an online instructor, I am in front of the computer all day long, every day. Ugh! When you are trapped in the front of the computer, it often happens that your whole body tenses up... and when your body is all tensed up, so is your brain. Get unstuck! Just just close your eyes, take a deep breath, and relax. Breath very slowly, in out in out in out, letting go of all that accumulated tension. Then stretch out your arms, spread your fingers wide, and let your head drop back and STRETCH. It takes just a minute to get yourself ready to get back to work.
Don't panic. Have you read Douglas Adams's genius book, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...? If so, you already know that the very best advice in any situation - including an online course - is: Don't panic! Life is full of unexpected events - and the same is true of online courses. But don't worry: there is really not anything that is going to happen during this course that you need to panic about, I promise. If there is a problem, please let me know right away, and I am sure we can find a good solution. But whatever the problem is: don't panic! Just stay calm and send me an email... we'll be able to find a solution, I'm sure!
