Tips for Being a Successful Online Learner

Learning in the online environment is clearly different from taking classes in the face-to-face classroom.  The following summarizes some tips to help you be as successful as possible in your courses and program:

•	Log on to your courses at least twice weekly if not more.  Assume that the first time you log on in a given week, it will be to make initial comments and see what others may have posted.  Additional log-on time allows you to reflect and respond.
•	Make sure that you are up to date on postings.
•	Take responsibility for your own learning and plan to be a self-directed learner.  Don’t expect the instructor to provide you with all the information and direction you need in a course.
•	Stay on top of you reading assignments and become good at research and analysis.  Assume that taking initiative on your part will be positively rec4eived and will maximize your learning.
•	Rely on and be responsible to your colleagues in a course.  Be willing to provide good, constructive feedback to one another.
•	If you feel lost or confused, ASK!!
•	If you become upset or angry with something someone has posted, take a deep breath (or three or four!), wait twenty-four hours, and then respond.  That posting generally looks very different the next day.
•	Be prepared for the amount of time that online learning takes and make time for it in your week.
•	Make sure to ask your family and friends for their support.  You will need time to complete your work in this course – time that you may have to take away from them.  Share your time management plan with them so that they understand the demands on your life now.
•	Work on being flexible and patient.  Life has a way of intruding in the online classroom that can sometimes be uncomfortable and trying.  Technical issues are difficulties are also a part of that life.  So “go with the flow” becomes and important mantra in this process!  Remember that you are on the cutting edge of anew way of learning and earning a degree.  Forging anew path can sometimes be difficult, but it can be less so if you flow with the challenges.
•	Online learning is dynamic and exciting.  You will learn not only about the material you are studying but also about the use of technology and how the use of technology can change the way you learn and interact.  You will be developing new relationships in a new way.  Enjoy it all!!

From: The Virtual Student: A Profile and Guide to 
Working Online Learners
Josey Bass, 2003
Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt 
Page 164-65