# Taking online courses



## SAgirl (Nov 15, 2003)

I have to apply for my courses and I'm doing it today, but I found out that most of them without my knowlege are online courses. I am a visual learner and lectures seem to work well for me. 

Anyone manage to take online courses and motivate themselves?


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## Shannon (May 22, 2009)

I took a couple of online classes and they are great for the convenience of being able to do the work for the class whenever you want to, but like you mentioned...you have to be able to motivate yourself to get the work done because you can easily forget about it especially when it comes time to turn things in on time. Overall online classes from my experience consisted of reading material online provided by the professor, answering/contributing to the weekly discussion board question, a couple of papers, and depending on the class....a midterm and final. I personally didn't find it hard to motivate myself to do the work for the online classes. I think online classes work best for the basic 101 general ed requirements that nobody wants to take whether it's in class or online....I took health 101 and women's studies 101. I think taking an online course higher up would be a little more challenging because you definitely get a lot more out of in person lectures and discussion


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## alpha dog (May 28, 2009)

Shannon gave excellent advice. Online classes are really meant for lower level classes as previously stated and for these types of classes such a format is great. Despite how threatening professors sound when they say something along the lines of, \"just because this is an online class, it will not be any easier and likely to be more difficult,\" from my observation is complete bull. The majority of the time, online classes are very easy, but do not fall to far back on the material. Motivation is key.


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## cakesniffer (Nov 11, 2003)

I never took any online courses as an undergrad, but my graduate certificate is completely online through Penn State. I was a bit apprehensive because I can be a bit of a procrastinator. But my experience so far has been great. A good portion of your grade is based on participation in the discussion forum, and then of course written assignments.

And I'd disagree that online classes are mainly for lower level classes. You can earn your entire Master's degree online through some schools. I personally love the idea because you are not restricted to only the universities in your area, which is only one in my case.


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## mindy88 (Mar 30, 2007)

I really liked mine. I took a distance learnng public speaking class. We only met for the presentations. It was really good cause participation is a HUGE part of the class (duh), but we could participate through posing comments on a board, which was so much easier for me.


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## Crystalline (Dec 1, 2008)

Keep a schedule, and get yourself into the habit of checking on the requirements of your class, keeping yourself up to date etc...never assume when it comes to deadlines and always make sure of exam and project/assignment deadlines. 

I disagree too that online classes can just cover basic lower levels. Many unis now offer much the same course material that you can get on-campus through online courses. The difference of course being that the instructor may not be able to help you real-time, but in my experience it's been great.


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