For a lot of people, having an online class can be a huge change from normal lectures. In many online classes, there are no lectures at all! There are also no friends to remind you of due dates or help with homework. Follow the tips below to stay in tip-top shape, even online!
You don’t have to talk to anyone! How easy, right? WRONG
Without fellow classmates to remind you of assignments and work together, you can fall behind easily.
Tip: Try emailing the class list about the first or second assignment just to introduce yourself. Ask if anyone is open to working on assignment #1 with you, and that you’d be happy to collaborate any time. This at least gives you some contacts for an academic emergency later on.
You don’t have to listen to a professor drone on? Great! ALSO WRONG
You may not have to listen to a boring lecture, but your teacher doesn’t necessarily have to listen to you then either!
Online teachers get hundreds of emails from these classes, and replying can be a hassle—one that some professors may avoid by not responding all together! All of these emails also lack faces to go with names. Even if they do email back in a timely manner, there will be a lack of personalization for your education in the response. A teacher may even judge you harshly because they don’t know you! I had a professor try to drop my grade a letter because she didn’t believe that I had made an honest mistake on the submission of a final project.
This leads to another big problem: SUBMISSION
Accidentally zipping a file incorrectly can make or break you in an online class. Here are tips I found worked after I had that blunder with a final project.
1) Double check links and folder contents ALWAYS.
2) Make sure Shi…Pittnet does not cut out when you’re ready to hit submit. You will lose your work!
3) Type everything in a word document, not on the submission page.
4) If you have a MacBook, turn your trackpad shortcuts OFF. (The ones that make you go backwards and forwards on Internet pages make you lose work!)
5) If you don’t own a calendar, get one! Remembering dates are all there is to these classes since it’s all about the submitted work. Don’t mix one up! A lot of online homework is not accessible after the specific TIME (not just date), making it impossible to do it even for practice. Students mostly miss homework due at 1pm, 4pm, and 5pm. Why? Because they are seemingly random times to us. In the real world, we work by days (AKA any time before bedtime the day before class is game to get work done). However, with online classes always remember that an assignment can be due at times other than midnight.