Chapter Fourteen
Setting Yourself Up for Success
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Top Three Qualities of the Online Learner
In addition to going through the entire process of choosing, getting
admitted, registering, sending in your first tuition payment, and making
sure that all your computer hardware and software is properly set up and
ready to go, you have to understand what’s really going to be required
of you to succeed in this new online education environment.
You’re going to need a good plan and support system in place to
keep you on track. Just like any traditional MBA program, you are
embarking on a highly demanding educational journey. To use a worn out
cliche, “Be prepared.” This chapter helps you understand what you need
to be prepared.
Top Three Qualities
of the Online Learner
The
three qualities that it takes to be a successful online learner are as
follows:
• Self-directed
• Disciplined
• Organized
You
need to be self-directed primarily because there will not be any
professor looking you in the eyes; there will not be a classroom meeting
that you have to physically attend to keep you on track each week. You
will be left to your own devices to figure out the most appropriate
times, within the structure of the course or courses you are enrolled
in, for entering the virtual classroom space, reading the assignments,
doing the exercises, taking the quizzes and exams, writing the papers,
and participating in the online discussions. In short, you have to be
motivated and committed.
You
need to be disciplined, which sounds obvious, but perhaps more so in the
online environment where managing your time is of the utmost importance.
Especially if you are doing the majority of your coursework from home,
where it is easy to put off or delay an assignment after you have
already put in a full day of work or after a family dinner or social
event. Basically, you have to consistently push yourself to put forth
the mental effort required of the academically challenging work typical
of any MBA program.
Tied into being self-directed and disciplined is the need to be highly
organized. Time management definitely comes into play. There will be
times when your coursework will cut into your sleep. You’ll want to
limit that scenario as much as possible by devising a strict schedule
and sticking to it. In the early phase of your online learning endeavor,
you have to experiment with balancing your studies with your job
responsibilities and family and social life. However, the sooner you can
figure out a solid schedule for effectively dealing with all of these
facets of your life on a daily basis, the sooner you will start moving
in the right direction.
It’s Not as Easy as You May
Think
Essentially it should now be perfectly clear in your mind that online is
no easier than on-campus and that you need to be motivated, energized,
and committed to do your best.
“I
found this (online learning) to be a more difficult way to obtain an MBA
compared to a full-time (on-campus) student because with a full-time
program you have the constant camaraderie with your classmates and you
have more direct contact with the faculty,” said Mike Venable, Syracuse
University iMBA graduate.
First and foremost, you’ll have lots of reading to deal with, from
textbooks to case studies and journal articles, and all the
discussion-board posts and e-mails. Unlike listening to a lecture and
taking notes in a physical setting, reading becomes the primary method
for disseminating information in the online format.
Second, you’ll be required to meet all the assignment deadlines, and
take all the required tests, quizzes and exams. In many cases, these
assignments will require that you apply concepts and theories you are
learning in the course to your actual work environment, which can be a
difficult and frustrating task if you are working in a nonreceptive
workplace. Additionally, depending on the course, you’ll be required to
conduct research and write an intelligent paper or case study on a
particular topic of interest.
And
last but not least, team projects may pose a serious challenge, as
students and faculty work to find the best way for everyone to work
together, despite time-zone differences and various personalities and
skill levels between cohorts.
Depending on your background, you may find some courses to be extremely
difficult. For example, if you do not have accounting skills and are not
particularly fond of accounting, in general, you’ll have to push
yourself to read what you may consider a very dry accounting textbook.
Also, when and if you run into a difficult computational challenge, it
could be hard to get the assistance you may need via e-mail or a
discussion board, as opposed to being able to walk into a faculty
member’s office or classroom for such help.
“The accounting and statistics courses have been the most difficult for
me,” said Joy Futrell, online MBA student, East Carolina University.
“Accounting has been difficult because it centers around factories,
which I have no experience in. However, one of the most relevant courses
I have taken has been a (Microsoft) Access course.”
Other students find the soft-skills courses that are typically part of
an MBA program, on subjects such as leadership and teaming, for
instance, to be less interesting and too subjective, and therefore
arduous and less meaningful to them. These students instead prefer
coursework that requires statistical-like analyses to explain
theoretical business concepts.
Help! My Time Has Been Eaten
Up
One
thing that every online MBA graduate will tell you is that the single
most challenging part of their studies was managing their time. However,
because more than 90 percent of all online MBA students are working
professionals, they do frequently commiserate with and offer each other
moral support for coping with the challenges of balancing their work,
family, and social lives, usually in a special discussion board outside
of the course that is reserved for this kind of discourse. Also, as
students get to know each other online, or through their team projects,
or through a residency, they form stronger bonds and communicate and
support each other via the telephone when necessary.
Still the issue of time management is indeed a challenging one,
especially when you consider that an online MBA course alone customarily
takes anywhere from 10 to 20 hours of time each week. If you enroll in a
program that has accelerated courses that typically take anywhere from 6
to 8 weeks to complete, you could possibly spend an average of 25 hours
per week on your coursework. Combine that with your job and other
responsibilities and the prospect of earning your MBA can easily become
a daunting task.
“The biggest challenge is simply finding the time when I’m awake enough
to remember what I’m studying,” said Jodie Filardo, online MBA student,
Arizona State University.
“The time you are going to have to spend on assignments is considerable,
and it means changing the way your organize your life. I’ve had to be
more rigorous about the time I leave work, get up earlier at weekends,
and cut down radically on my social life,” added Christopher Hodges,
online MBA student, Syracuse University
In
the long run, most online MBA students wind up using weekends and
evenings for accomplishing their academic responsibilities.
As
someone who has worked out of his home for about eight years and is
married with two children, I can tell you firsthand that juggling your
work life with your family life at the same moment and time, simply
because you work from home, is neither feasible nor possible. The same
holds true for juggling your studies from home and your family life.
As
you surf around the web and read stories about online learners, you may
run across the Mom who claims to be feeding her baby with one hand while
typing out a homework assignment. This is hogwash. In that particular
scenario, either the baby or the homework will not get the appropriate
amount of attention. In short, trying to be that super Mom or super Dad
who manages to provide adequate attention to his or her children and MBA
studies at the same time is indeed another challenging proposition
you’ll face. I can tell you what has worked for me. Here are six
important tips for surviving family matters:
• Make sure your work
environment is separate from the rest of the house, and to enter it one
has to go through a door. When that door is closed, nobody is allowed to
enter.
• Conduct your
studies during hours when your children are either sleeping or not at
home.
• Make it perfectly
clear to your children how important your work is and that they are not
to disturb you unless it’s an emergency.
• You and your spouse
or partner must come to a solid agreement regarding who is responsible
for what and when regarding all domestic and child-rearing issues.
• Make sure your
friends and relatives are very aware of your schedule and that they know
when not to call on you. Turn off the phone if you have to. One thing I
have invested in is caller ID, which allows me to see who is calling me
and thus answer only those calls I know are important, such as the call
from my aging mother who may need my help, instead of the call from the
unknown telemarketer.
• Practice
patience. If you’re kids are like mine, they will, on occasion, break
the rules and knock on your door or simply walk into your work/study
environment and start talking to you. Stop what you are doing and give
them your undivided attention. For dealing with this kind of innocent
interruption, it helps to remember what it was like when you were a kid.
Robert Breen, an online MBA student at Arizona State University, who is
a married father of two young children and vice president of strategic
planning and financial analysis for a temporary labor firm in Tacoma,
Washington, summed it up well: “I attempt to be the best Dad and husband
I can be, and I spend the wee hours studying my MBA materials,” Breen
said. “I don’t enjoy very much free time.”
Other In-Home Study
Considerations
As
noted earlier, it is important that you have a private area of your
house, preferably with a door that you can close for privacy when doing
your coursework. However, I also realize that this kind of setup may not
be feasible within the confines of your home. If this is your
circumstance, you have to find a quiet corner of your home to put your
workstation - which, by the way, should be only your workstation. In
other words, and for a long list of obvious reasons, I strongly suggest
that you do not share your computer and Internet connection with anyone
else in your household.
Also because you’ll obviously be spending a great deal of time in this
space, you want to make it as comfortable and aesthetically pleasing as
possible. Personally, I like having a window nearby. I also like being
within easy reach of a coffeemaker. Finally, I have a sofa in my study
for taking those absolutely necessary naps. Or, if you are like Ernest
Hemingway, all your greatest work can be accomplished in the upright
position, for Hemingway always wrote standing up.
A Word on Partners and Friends
If
you live alone or are single, consider yourself fortunate to have a
general lack of disturbances and an overall quiet home study area to do
all your coursework. However, unmarried students also typically have
plenty of social and familial challenges to deal with and must also
perfect a balancing act when it comes to devoting the majority of their
time to pursuing their MBA.
Jennifer Skipton, online MBA student at the University of Colorado at
Colorado Springs, for instance, said she is in “a long-term committed
relationship” and has the support of her partner, who is also a student.
She adds that her “friends understand and are proud of me, but they
complain a little when the books come before the bike ride or the
volleyball game.”
“I
sometimes wonder whether my parents and friends appreciate the extent of
the workload and time commitment,” added Christopher Hodges, a single
online MBA student at Syracuse University. “I suspect they think I
exaggerate! I think, however, that true friends will realize why they
can’t see you as frequently as before without it having a negative
impact.”
Every online MBA graduate will tell you that they would have never been
able to effectively complete their degrees without the support of their
spouses, partners, relatives, employers, and/or friends. “Your family
makes a huge sacrifice in this endeavor,” said Venable. Regis University
online MBA graduate Katherine Porter explained how her husband was “100
percent on board” while she pursued her degree. “I had his commitment
because he knew it was important to me to finally finish that graduate
degree. I was completely honest with him and made him part of the
process. He knew it was a two-year commitment and that we would be
sacrificing free time for two years. He knew well in advance when I
would be in class and when I would have breaks. He knew how much it
would all cost. He knew what I thought I might gain from the investment
of time and money. Other family and friends, co-workers, neighbors, you
name it, all were supportive as they found out what I was doing. You’d
be surprised how enthusiastic and willing to help everyone is when you
share such a big undertaking with them.”
“Get support for your MBA from your spouse or significant other and
family,” said Breen. “This is a big, big deal and requires a lot of time
that could otherwise be spent with them. Before signing up, make sure
everyone in your immediate family understands the commitment and
sacrifice they will be undertaking and that they support it.”
Avoiding Computer-Based
Syndromes
As
an online student you are going to be sitting in front of a computer for
long periods of time. If you also happen to use computers frequently on
your job, the possibility of developing a repetitive stress injury or
computer-related syndrome increases. A repetitive stress injury can
occur when an action performed repeatedly causes an overabundance of
stress on joints, muscles, and/or tendons. Advanced cases of a
repetitive stress injury can cause a permanent disability.
One of the more common forms of repetitive stress injury that is caused
by excessive typing and mouse maneuvering at a computer is carpal tunnel
syndrome; some other related injuries include tendonitis and bursitis.
Computer-related repetitive stress injuries are known to be the result
of poorly designed workstations. According to the U.S. Department of
Labor, the following basic design goals should be considered by computer
users when setting up their workstations:
• The top of your
computer monitor should be just below your eye level when your head is
straight upright.
• Your head and neck
should be balanced and in-line with your torso.
• Shoulders should be
relaxed.
• Your elbows
should be close to your body and supported.
• Your lower
back should be supported.
• Your wrists and
hands should be in-line with your forearms.
• Make sure there is
adequate room for your keyboard and mouse. Your feet should be flat on
the floor.
• Some other tips to
take under consideration include making sure that your wrists do not
rest on any support device or are tilted in any way, but instead be in a
straight line with your forearm Also, it is strongly advised that you
take rests and breaks frequently, at least every hour, by getting away
from your computer for at least 5 to 10 minutes or by looking away from
your computer screen and stretching your arms and legs.
Controlling Your Academic Fate
Finally, the following tips, many of which are just common sense but
worth repeating, are general rules of thumb for controlling your
academic fate as an online learner and increasing your odds for success:
• Don’t procrastinate
or let the work pile up. It is the kiss of death in any online course.
• Keep a running,
up-to-date calendar of everything you need to do academically, socially,
and work related.
• Eliminate
superfluous behaviors, such as watching television.
• Make sure you know
exactly what is required of you in your online course at all times and
do not be afraid to ask for clarification from your instructor if there
is something that you do not understand. In short, read the syllabus
carefully and know what all your assignments are and when they are due
as well as how you will be assessed for the work you perform.
• Think before
responding to any online discussion board posts. One of the beauties of
online learning is that you have the time to provide valuable insights
to the overall learning environment of the entire class. One method
frequently used by smart online learners is to first use a word
processing program to write a response to a discussion board question,
then reread it and further analyze the response before copying and
pasting it to the board. This method can be cumbersome, but it will make
your comments more meaningful and substantial, which can, in turn,
affect your grade, not to mention gain the admiration and respect of
your peers and teachers.
• Make yourself fully
aware of the library services available to you and seek out any
information literacy training the institution may provide to its online
students.
• If you have had
problems writing clearly in the past, get help in changing this as soon
as possible. Many schools have online writing labs and services you can
take advantage of prior to taking your first class.
• Fully understand
the rules of plagiarism. Adult learners, in particular, who have been
out of school for a long time and may be a bit rusty on their writing
skills, need to review what can be construed as plagiarism.
• “Have a backup plan
in case your Internet connection goes down and you need to ‘meet’ with
your professor or classmates (online),” said Dawn McAvoy, online MBA
student, East Carolina University. “Technology is great, but only when
it works. You can’t wait until the last minute to do an assignment,
because if something goes down and you can’t submit it, you may be out
of luck.”
• Take a break. Yes, this is a demanding road you’re taking. If you don’t take a nap at the rest stops, you could fall asleep at the wheel and wind up in a serious accident. In fact, it’s a good idea to take several breaks from the grind every day. For me, looking at a National Geographic magazine or paging through the local newspaper is a refreshing alternative from the computer screen. I also take naps regularly. It’s amazing what a 10-minute snooze will do for your energy level.
• Try to study during
the day if at all possible. Nighttime is often not the right time for
studying.
• Get the fastest
Internet connection available in your area. Also it’s a good idea to
have the best computer you can afford, over and above what may be
required. Any additional cost will more than pay for itself in time
savings and increased productivity.
To sum things up, my last piece of advice for success is a cliché often used when discussing effective business practices: “Work smarter, not harder.” In other words, always reevaluate what you are doing and change your plans and strategies accordingly to ensure the greatest success is achieved within the parameters of your professional, educational, familial, social, and spiritual well-being.
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