Chapter Sixteen
Online Learner Skills
 |
 |
 |
|
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Being a successful online learner requires a set of skills that differs
from the skills required to be a successful traditional on-campus
student. The online environment also presents a unique set of challenges
not seen in the face-to-face classroom environment.
Many of these skills and challenges discussed in this chapter hearken
back to the two previous chapters in which I explained how online
learners need to be self-directed, disciplined, and organized and be
ready to put forth their best effort during the online learning
orientation process. All those characteristics will ultimately form the
foundation of your success.
However, when you get down to the bare essential skills and challenges
of being an online MBA student, some interesting points of view come to
the surface. And that’s what this chapter is all about.
Communicate,
Communicate, Communicate
In
the online learning environment, having strong communication skills can
make a real difference in how much you ultimately get out of your
overall MBA education. Unlike the face-to-face classroom, there is no
back of the class in an online course. In the online discussion forums
and team exercises, for instance, everyone will be quite aware of your
lack of participation, including, obviously, the professor, who will
grade you on your discussion contributions and ability to work with your
course teammates.
According to director of the Penn State iMBA program, John Fizel, “If
you are completely undisciplined, you are found out a lot faster in an
online program than you may be typically in a regular (face-to-face)
program. You can’t hide online, especially if it is a collaborative,
team environment.”
“In
Blackboard we have tools that can tell us who has logged in to what
parts of the site and how long they were there, so the instructors know
who is engaged,” said Paula O’Callaghan, former director of the Syracuse
University iMBA program.
In
short, online student interactions via the discussion board, e-mail
correspondence, or telephone are a vital part of your learning
experience. Conversations about every course assignment, reading, and
team exercise are occurring each and every day on numerous levels. And
the faculty member, in fact, typically takes less of a direct role in
these conversations, acting more as a facilitator to get meaningful
discussions going and only intervening when and if the conversation
takes a wrong turn.
“A
huge part of our courses is the discussion board, which is used to
analyze cases,” added O’Callaghan. “It works very well in our program
because it is asynchronous. Our students are in 10 different time zones.
The discussion board is the single most used feature in Blackboard.”
As
you communicate with fellow students and your professors online, keep in
mind that you have plenty of time to think through your responses before
making a post live, and remember that your colleagues have plenty of
time to review and go back over what you posted. So when making a
contribution to a class discussion, make sure it’s an intelligent,
meaningful, clear, and concise contribution and not something that you
hastily typed up just to be recognized as a participant. You can refer
back to Chapter Fifteen for more information about online communication
skills.
To
give you an idea of how discussion board posts can be graded by faculty,
the following point-system criteria is used by Bill Pelz, a veteran
online professor of psychology at Herkimer County Community College in
upstate New York, who is also the recipient a Sloan-C Award for
Excellence in Online Teaching:
• 0 points. The post
adds no academic value to the discussion; no new infor-
mation is presented.
• 1 point. The post
contains at least one usable fact or piece of information; however, the
fact or information is available from the textbook.
• 2 points. The post
contains at least one usable fact or piece of information not available
from the textbook.
• 3 points. The post
makes a substantial academic contribution; material is included that is
not available just by reading the textbook and some issue or concept is
clarified.
• 4 points. The post
contains documented information that contributes greatly to the
understanding of some issue under discussion; the new information is
explained and applied such that the reader gains insight into the
material being studied.
Source: Sloan-C Effective Practice, “Applying Research on Presence to
Guide Online Discussions,” by Bill Pelz.
So
as you can see, earning the highest level of recognition for your
discussion posts requires a good deal of effort on your part.
You
will also find that faculty members are more than willing to communicate
with you outside of the formal class discussions on education-related
issues and even on a personal level if you just put forth the effort to
form a relationship with them. Don’t take the approach that you are
imposing on faculty by calling them on the phone or sending them an
e-mail outside of the course discussions. Professors love to talk, and
they love to teach. They do, however, get an extraordinary amount of
e-mail and are required to enter into numerous discussion forums every
week, especially if they are teaching multiple online courses. So don’t
be offended if their written responses are relatively short in length.
A
professor’s online style may be much different from his or her offline
style. “A faculty member may say something short online and that may be
interpreted as being curt,” said Emily Thompson, assistant director,
W.P. Carey MBA - Online Program at Arizona State University. “We walk
students through this process. Just because a faculty member does not
say ‘Hi, how are you?’ first, does not mean that he or she does not care
about how students are doing.”
Most professors will have office hours when you can call them on the
telephone for a more in-depth and personal dialogue. The truth of the
matter, however, is most students don’t take advantage of these kinds of
value-added services, when, in fact, they should. Ironically, the same
thing happens in the on-campus environment, with students rarely
visiting with their professors’ during office hours.
Rosemary Hartigan, director of business and executive programs at the
University of Maryland University College (UMUC), explained how students
sometimes “don’t think of their online faculty members as real human
beings, so they don’t try to establish a relationship with them. Some
students are perfectly happy not having that kind of relationship. They
will turn in their assignments and that’s enough for them. But for
students who want to build relationships, they need to put forth the
effort. I’ll send out e-mails, and some students will respond back to me
personally, but most won’t. They will just take the information and not
respond back.”
The
bottom line is that you have to take more of an active initiative to
speak with your online faculty members by simply calling them on the
phone during their prescribed office hours. This way you will get the
full benefit of their expertise and knowledge over and beyond just the
online course environment.
Finally, Dawn McAvoy, an enterprising student in the East Carolina
University online MBA program provided the following nine tips about
effectively communicating in the online learning environment:
• It is important to
remember that online communication is a lot like face-to-face
communication minus the benefits of body language. It is important to be
a little more direct, I think, because subtle cues can’t be conveyed
through body language; and if you want someone to get your point, you
may have to be a little blunter. But do it in a nice way.
• Try to get a feel
for people’s style and communicate accordingly. Chatty people (like me!)
tend to be chatty online, too; but when you are in a group with more
focused people, they may get frustrated. In a face-to-face session, you
get verbal cues that someone is ready to move on that you may not get
online.
• Try to learn to
type halfway decently. If you are really slow or make a lot of typos or
misspellings, it can frustrate people. It can also convolute the point
you are trying to make.
• If you think you
misunderstand what someone is saying, repeat it back to them in a
slightly different way so you make sure you really are getting their
point (much like regular communication, but I think it is easier to
misunderstand online).
• Be yourself. When I
first started in some of the online class forums, I tended to be rather
formal and stiff; as I got more comfortable with the whole idea of
taking classes again (I’d been out of college for 10 years), however, I
loosened up. Now I’m probably closer to my normal face-to-face self.
• If you have a group
project, let people know what’s going on. If you are going to miss a
deadline the group set for something, let them know in advance if at all
possible. Many online students have jobs and other responsibilities, so
they completely understand if something comes up once in a while; just
let them know.
• Speak up! If you
don’t understand something, let the people you are working with know.
• Be willing to share
your experiences and insights. Chances are, you have a lot to offer your
classmates via your unique perspective on things.
• Let other people
finish their thoughts. Talking is so much faster than typing, so it is
important to give people time to type everything out before commenting.
McAvoy’s tips are loaded
with common sense, which, in the back-and-forth of any kind of
communication can often be lost in emotion. When the heat and excitement
of an online discussion starts to rise, take a deep breath and remember
that you can give yourself as much time as you like to respond in a
meaningful and insightful manner that will gain the respect of your
colleagues.
Of
course, you are going to need more than just communication skills to
succeed as an online MBA student. To reiterate from earlier chapters,
this is an academically rigorous and challenging pathway you are taking.
A necessary skills inventory includes good typing skills, good
reading-comprehension skills, basic computer and Internet skills, a
solid ability to use a number of important programs, an ability to write
at the graduate level, a keen understanding of how to conduct research
and avoid plagiarism, some math skills that you may not have used in
quite a while, and test-taking skills.
This may seem apparent, but you’d be surprised at how many business
managers are not the greatest typists, primarily because they have
administrative assistants who do their typing for them or they are
typically so busy with the day-in, day-out management cycle that they
don’t spend all that much time in front of a computer. In short, you’ll
be a typing machine in the online environment, so you’ll need to know
how to type fast and accurately.
“The biggest liability faced by some students might be poor typing
skills,” said Tim Bzowey, Athabasca University online MBA student This
can quickly be remedied with some practice using any one of the
off-the-shelf typing software packages available.”
“Learn to increase your typing speed for online chat sessions if you are
really slow,” added McAvoy.
This, too, might seem apparent, but much of what online MBA students
have to read requires more than just reading. Case studies, for
instance, require that you become adept at identifying and analyzing
information presented in cases and coming up with solutions that could
resolve a variety of relative business issues and challenges.
Because as an online MBA student you’ll be reading a great deal more
than you may be used to, and you have time-management challenges to
begin with, you may want to brush up on your reading speed and
comprehension skills.
How
efficiently you can work on a computer and navigate the Internet are
important skills that every online student needs to have. In addition to
being able to copy, paste, delete, and save files; download and install
software; attach files to e-mails; and search online; probably the most
important skill, overall, as it relates to technology-related skills, is
knowing how to be highly organized on the computer. All the
correspondences, weekly course assignments, and special projects you may
be working on will get hefty and unwieldy if you don’t practice good
file-management skills.
For
the Internet side of things, use your Favorites folder wisely. Know how
to organize all those web pages you visit as you do research throughout
your coursework into relative categories and subcategories. Know how to
succinctly label the websites you save in these categories and
subcategories.
The
same holds true for Word, Excel and PDF documents and e-mails. Good
folder management, in tandem with creative category labeling, can save
you an extraordinary amount of time when you need to go back and review
your research, correspondences, and assignments, which will happen
frequently.
You
will have to be skilled at using three primary programs: Microsoft Word,
Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. You may also be required to
use Microsoft Access. How you master these programs will depend on your
course assignments and the way you adapt to the online learning
environment, as well as your level of creativity, especially for
PowerPoint presentations.
“The single most important software skills would be the use of the Excel
spreadsheet package,” said O’Callaghan. “Use of this data tool is
pervasive in MBA courses.”
You’ll use Word for writing papers and other research-based documents.
But you may also use it for writing, editing, and proofreading your
discussion board and e-mail communications prior to actually sending
them off through cyberspace. You’ll use Excel for the obvious
spreadsheet and financial-analysis stuff that is so common in the world
of business, as well as for other data-control-oriented exercises, such
as inventory allocations and tabulations and production analyses
functions.
PowerPoint will come in handy for team projects, when you or the team as
a whole will be required to present to the class, either live at a
residency or online inside a web conference.
As
an online student, you will be exchanging all these files you create on
a frequent basis with your classmates and professors either through your
course management system’s file-exchange function or via e-mail
attachments. Often, for team projects, for instance, you will have a
separate area on your course management interface for group
collaborations in which files are shared by only the members in your
team. You may go back and forth with editing and proofreading each
other’s work, so you’ll need to know how to use the edit tracking
feature in Word.
Using Excel can be a daunting task. I have yet to meet anyone who knows
all the Excel commands that exist today. It is, indeed, a powerful
program, and the sooner you can master it, the better off you will be.
Excel is really a multifaceted application that is also used for list
management, charting, applying formulas, and much more. There are also
Excel add-ins that provide another set of tools, such as special
statistical, linear algebra, matrix, accounting, interactive graph
functions, and much more.
Using PowerPoint can be another daunting task. Like Excel, many features
of this program can make you go batty. As a graphic designer in a former
life, I can offer you some tips about designing graphically pleasing
PowerPoint presentations:
• Use standard
typefaces that can be found on most PCs, such as Arial, Times New Roman,
Century Schoolbook, and Courier New. And do not use more than two type
styles.
• Contrast background
with text. In other words, use dark-colored text with a light background
and light-colored or white text (usually referred to as reverse type)
with a dark background.
• Try to keep your
font size to no smaller than 24 point and absolutely no smaller than 18
point.
• Try to use as much
blank space (also known as white space) around the content of your
slides as possible.
• Don’t get too fancy
on the graphics and/or tables you might use. Try to keep them as basic
and simple as possible.
• Use bullets
wherever possible.
• Never use all
uppercase. To emphasize key points, use bolder typefaces and large font
sizes.
Finally, I have one personal pet peeve about PowerPoint presentations:
Please do not write long sentences on your slides and then read them
word for word to your audience. This is a surefire way to put your
audience into a hypnotic state. Write only short phrases - not full
sentences - that hit on the main points of your presentation, and
prepare like you would for any public-speaking engagement.
As
an online MBA student and as a business manager, you obviously need
basic writing skills to compose effective business plans, letters,
memos, and reports.
As
someone who writes and edits for a living and who once taught freshman
English composition to college students, I have come up with my own set
of very basic writing tips:
• Don’t be
afraid of writing. Writing is actually a very simple process. Many
people develop unfounded paranoia about their writing abilities, going
back to some high school or early college experience when a teacher
red-inked a paper they were initially so proud of composing. I’ve run
into so many people who repeat a self-prophesying “I can’t write,” when
all they need to do is say the reverse of that and add “writing is easy”
to their vocabulary to conquer their writing fears in an instant.
• Understand
logic. From years of editing other people’s work I have found that the
most common writing errors are related to logic. With my freshman
composition students, I would ask them if they felt their papers
followed a logical progression of thought. In other words, did one
paragraph lead to the next and so on and so forth until they reached
their conclusion? Did they follow the rules of inductive (from specific
to general) and deductive (from general to specific) reasoning? For
example, in a writing assignment, you might induce that a company is
unethical based on your reading of a number of specific cases in which
that company performed unethically. Or in another writing assignment you
might deduce that if a business has been accused of performing
unethically, and that business is brought to a court of law in which its
executives are found guilty of unethical business practices, that
business will either fold up or be restructured. In other words, the
premises of an argument, if true, will lead to a valid deduction or
conclusion. Writing clearly requires that you repeatedly read your
essays and papers with a keen eye to the overall logic of what you have
composed.
• Grammar,
punctuation, sentence structure, and clarity problems can be easily
reconciled with some remedial studying and homework. One book I strongly
recommend for a remedial writing refresher is “The Elements of Style,”
written by William Strunk, Jr. in 1918 - the full contents of which are
freely available online at
www.bartleby.com/141/.
• Does your
writing flow? Pay attention to how your sentences and paragraphs are
tied together to produce a smooth-flowing piece of writing. Some of the
tricks of the trade for this include using transitional statements such
as nonetheless, therefore, thus, hence, for example, for instance, etc.
- but try not to overuse these. Another is to tie your second sentence
to the sentence that precedes it. For example, the following three
sentences are all tied together and thus provide a smooth train of
thought: Three of the company’s top executives were accused of “cooking
the books” for their personal financial gain, resulting in their
shareholders’ losses. These unethical accounting practices led to the
company’s demise. Furthermore, a jury found that the company’s
accountancy firm obstructed justice by shredding documents related to
these unethical accounting practices.
Most online MBA programs require, in addition to remedial writing
skills, graduate-level writing skills. This basically means that you
will need to understand how to quote and cite whatever sources of
information you use in your writing assignments. Additionally, you’ll
have to understand how to avoid plagiarism. Some programs also require
that you follow the guidelines of a particular writing and citation
style, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, the American Psychological
Association (APA) style, or the American Medical Association (AMA)
style.
If
your academic writing skills are rusty, which is definitely not unusual
for the typical online MBA student, most programs will politely ask you
to take advantage of the school’s online writing lab, called an “OWL,”
and/or various other writing tutorial services that the school may
provide, which are quite common today.
Information literacy is an important competency that online students
need to develop quickly. The prevalence of Internet-based research has
brought about a stronger emphasis on information literacy instruction
today. A relatively new field of distance-education librarianship has
evolved that is geared toward showing students how to find dependable
information for their research and studies.
The
Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) defines information
literacy as a “set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use
information. It includes the technological skills needed to use the
modern library as a gateway to information. It enables us to analyze and
evaluate the information we find, thus giving us confidence in using
that information to make a decision or create a product.”
The
amount of free information easily accessible over the Internet has
caused concern among librarians regarding the reliability and validity
of such information. Additionally, higher-education libraries have been
rapidly growing their subscription-based, full-text electronic archives,
which have become increasingly available through mass digitization of
information by publishers and information aggregators. The end result of
all this is that a vast sea of digitized information presents itself to
students conducting business research, and it’s easy to drown in this
deep expanse of information.
Distance-education librarians will explain how people have become overly
reliant on “Googling” for all their information needs, which is not
considered scholarly research because such popular search engines do not
access information from proprietary databases designed and licensed by
academic libraries.
Scholarly research is difficult to define in business but there are two
reasons to use the library in MBA programs. First, you get access to
top-notch proprietary databases like Dow Jones, Lexis Nexis, etc. for
free through the library subscriptions. Secondly, depending on the
requirements of your program, your own research resources usually need
to include scholarly or peer-reviewed research.
In
short, popular search-engine research alone can be very limited in
scope, and students need to learn how to use alternatives by taking
advantage of their school’s academic library services. This is where
online information literacy skills training plays an important role in
the overall online educational system.
First and foremost are the electronic resources that registered students
can log in to with their student ID username and password to access the
library’s proprietary databases, which includes periodical indexes,
reference materials, and electronic books. This is the kind of library
service that you can expect from any online MBA program. Students use
such databases to find articles from magazines and major U.S. and
international newspapers, information from papers published in
scholarly, peer-reviewed journals on a wide variety of topics,
statistical data, and transcripts of television and radio programs.
Getting access to all these resources is worth its weight in gold
because, first of all, as a matriculated student, you get access to all
this valuable and costly information for free.
Secondly, many of your assignments will require that you include such
resources in your research.
The UMUC library provides technical support if students have trouble
logging in and getting access, online guidance on how to search
databases, and 24-hour telephone and live “Chat with a Librarian”
support services. An Online Tutorials section covers how to use the web
for research, including special online tutorials on how to search for
company, financial, and industry information in the library’s databases,
which online MBA students will frequently use during their individual
and group projects and assignments.
All
graduate students at UMUC must take a noncredit course called “Library
Skills for the Information Age,” which, as noted on the UMUC website, is
designed to familiarize students with online library and information
resources - material that is critical for twenty-first-century managers.
In this self-paced online tutorial, students learn to use a
variety of electronic retrieval systems. The course is designed so
students take a pretest, six modules with self-assessment questions and
quizzes, and a post-test. “The purpose of the course is to alert
students to the many resources, databases, and research opportunities
that are now available online.”
Overall, my advice is to take advantage of any such library services
being offered as soon as you are considered a registered student with a
valid student ID username and password. Not only will it be beneficial
for all your coursework, you will also learn a lifelong Internet-based
research skill that will serve you well in both your personal and
business life.
The
quantitative-oriented academic side of online MBA programs is often the
most challenging for many students. Most programs require that you have
at least a basic knowledge of algebra and statistics.
However, many adult learners have what can be considered “math
anxiety,” because they have either not used algebra and/or statistics
for years or they have bad memories associated with their math education
experiences as undergraduate or even high school students. UMUC’s
Hartigan explained that some students perceive math courses as being
“too theoretical or impractical, although anyone who has worked in
business understands how loud numbers can talk, particularly if they
have dollar signs attached to them.”
Hartigan said that to combat such negative attitudes, students enrolled
in UMUC’s MBA Fundamentals course
– which is UMUC’s
online orientation that I covered in Chapter Fifteen
– must go through
two modules that cover statistical concepts and some basic financial
accounting concepts. Hartigan added that the professors who teach
quantitative-oriented subject matter in the UMUC online MBA program
explain to students that they cannot approach quantitative assignments
like they approach reading. “Students think they can spend an hour or so
reading a math problem and they will be able to figure it out. Not so.
There is no way around going over the material very carefully numerous
times until you absorb it. You just have to be willing to put in that
time, unless you are a math genius, particularly if the material is new
to you. Students also tend to expect that they should be able to plug
numbers into a set formula. This does not help to solve problems.
However, one professor (who teaches quantitative courses) did say that
part of students’ problems with math relates to having inadequate Excel
skills.”
Another area where math comes into play as an online MBA student is in
any accounting courses, which are core to all MBA programs. In
particular, students who were not business majors during their
undergraduate years find accounting coursework to be the most
challenging. The iMBA program at the Penn State World Campus helps to
rectify this by providing all its students with an optional self-paced
online course that highlights fundamental accounting skills that
students take prior to enrolling in their first-term “Accounting for
External Reporting” course.
So
the bottom line with regard to quantitative skills is to simply take
advantage of any remedial math courses and/or tutorial services that
most schools offer to its online MBA students.
Another important skill that you may or may not have relates to taking
tests. The academic community lumps testing under the single term of
assessments. An assessment can mean an exam, test, quiz, survey or
assignment. Exam results quantify a student’s overall knowledge about
any given subject or subjects. Tests are more like diagnostic tools in
that they measure a person’s level of understanding about a subject.
Quizzes are typically used as a means to provide feedback to students
about their understanding of any given subject. With quizzes, students
answer a series of questions and then get immediate results. Surveys are
diagnostic tools that measure a group’s level of understanding of, or
their opinions about, a subject. Assignments are simply exercises, like
homework, that help faculty get an understanding of your research and
communication skills.
Depending on the program, you may take all, some, or none of these
assessments either online or at a residency. Most assessments require
that you complete them within a certain timeframe. An online assessment,
for example, might automatically shut off within one hour after you
start taking it. Some students are not good at taking assessments under
time pressures, be they online or on-campus, giving rise to anxiety.
Other students and faculty alike dislike exams and tests and believe
that they are not valid measurements of a person’s true intelligence,
but really enjoy taking online quizzes that provide immediate feedback
about their knowledge, skills, and/or ability to make wise decisions
under pressure, which brings me to the conclusion of this chapter.
If
you want to take a fascinating online assessment that measures your
level of information technology knowledge and skills (ITKS) in the
following areas: computer knowledge and skills, word processing,
spreadsheets, databases, presentations, and web development - all of
which are important in the world of business - go to
www.unt.edu/slis/apppacket/ITKS/ITKSassess.htm
and take the University of North Texas (UNT) School of Library and
Information Sciences (SLIS) and play with its ITKS online diagnostic
tool.
See
whether you score the recommended standard score of 75 percent to
demonstrate “satisfactory readiness” in each of the aforementioned
areas. If you score lower than 75 percent, you may need to take some
remedial action. The ITKS diagnostic tool is used as a measure of
entry-level requirements for UNT’s SLIS Master’s degree program, but
it’s generic enough to give you a good indication of your information
technology capabilities as they relate to the business world, as well as
good practice for getting used to taking online assessments.
Ten Tips and Tricks
for the Online Student
School district instructional technologist and former online graduate
student at the University of Phoenix Mark Evans says he did not expect
“too many bumps in the online road” when he enrolled in his first online
graduate-level course in 2000. After all, he’s an avid computer geek and
Internet-savvy professional who is “firmly entrenched” in all that is
new and cutting edge in the world of education technology. Or so he
thought.
Evans claims that at the end of his first week as an online student he
felt “panicked, confused, and overwhelmed,” as it quickly became
apparent to him that “this virtual schooling was not going to be easy. I
struggled to work within a synchronous and asynchronous environment
while juggling my teammate’s schedules, multiple assignments, and my
day-to-day job. Finally, after the first course, I realized I had to
make some changes.”
To
help himself, and his fellow classmates, Evans came up with the
following 10 tips (condensed version) for the online learner:
• Read everything
twice. Read everything twice. It’s very easy for a student in an online
environment, pressed for time and anxious to complete homework, to scan
through postings, lectures, and assignments without really reading or,
consequently, retaining anything. By reading each posting twice, a
student has a better chance of understanding the true message being
communicated.
• Wait to reply.
An immediate response to a posting or message that a student finds
upsetting or challenging can often result in a war of words rather than
thoughtful discussion or meaningful discourse. You may send something
thinking your words are humorous or satirically funny, but others may
misinterpret them. Take the equivalent of a “Count to 10 and breathe”
break before hitting the Reply button.
• Reference it.
Perhaps print it. The temptation in an online classroom is to print
everything you’re assigned to read, from e-mails and postings to
websites and lectures. Only print reading assignments that are to be
referenced later or if the assignment is somewhat lengthy. However, if
you’re “paper-trained,” you may need to have the tactile sensation of
holding what you read in your hands, so feel free to print your reading
assignments.
• Talking in
class. Instant messaging (or live chat) can bring spontaneity of
real-world conversation to you and your fellow online colleagues. If you
are allowed to use chat software, it’s important to keep a log of your
conversations for posting to your classroom. For example, when my
teammates and I chatted about projects, we copied our conversation to
the class folder. This allowed absent team members to follow our train
of thought as we developed our ideas and processes.
• A place for
everything and everything in its place. In an online course, information
comes at you fast and furious and, before you realize it, you’re buried
under a deluge of data and piles of printouts. Organize both your
printed and computer files the same way. The naming structure you have
on your hard drive should mirror what you have in the real world. This
method of organizing my coursework saved me time, eased my frustration,
and helped me focus more on the course.
• Getting
personal. Title the subject line of postings with personal and
requirement data. Simply put, make it easy to know who sent the posting
and why. Is it an assignment, a comment, a question to the professor?
Above all, use your subject lines for quick identification by others of
your postings.
• Make your
message meaningful. Make an effort to include more details, rationale,
and opinion in your online discussions. Cite the specific portion of the
discussion to which you are referring. This enables those in your class
to follow the conversation’s path, and contributes to a more intelligent
discourse. Otherwise, postings have little meaning, and the students and
facilitator have to “hunt” around for shifts in discussion topics.
• Better safe
than sorry. For complete and accurate documentation, anytime you send an
e-mail or posting, send a copy to yourself. This provides proof that the
e-mail is delivered through the school’s system, and shows when the
e-mail was sent. This is critical for assignments due by a certain time.
Send a copy of important messages to yourself at an alternate e-mail
address (such as a Hotmail or Yahoo! account) to ensure that you have a
complete set of records in case something happens to the program server
or network. If you have all of your information stored in a separate
account, you can continue working without interruption.
• Be your own
guide. If your professor does not seem to be an effective classroom
leader, you can help by communicating clearly and effectively with him
or her. Keep e-mails to one question or one topic; multiple questions in
a message may be overlooked in a response. Make use of all methods of
communication provided by the professor: phone, e-mail, chat software,
etc. If you do contact him or her by phone or chat, follow up with an
e-mail or posting afterward stating what you asked and what you believe
the answer was. Do not wait for the situation to become unbearable
before asking for help or clarification. By asking questions
immediately, you may never have problems.
• Ready, set, go. Maintain an accurate calendar and schedule. At the start of each course, enter all assignment due dates in your planner. Then determine how many days you will need to complete each assignment. For instance, if an assignment is due on Thursday that you believe will take three days to complete, mark your planner to work on the assignment on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Remember to allow time for personal and employment-related events. If possible, allow an extra day or two for technology glitches, team members running behind on projects, and other unforeseen delays. Don’t forget to set aside time for studying, reviewing, and researching.
So, there you have it - just about every skill requirement for becoming a successful online learner has been covered in this chapter. If you are like most adult learners, you already have many of these skills but perhaps not all of them. Fine tuning those areas where you may be lacking shouldn’t take you longer than one semester or quarter. You may, however, find it a bit more challenging to tackle what’s covered in the next chapter on how to be an effective team player.
|
|
|
|