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Educator's Voice

Volume 7, Issue 6
June 14, 2006

Surviving education online: key steps for student success

You've committed to teaching online. Now you need to find a way to encourage your students' success and support them without the face-to-face interaction of the classroom or the luxury of office hours. By setting the stage early with ground rules and fair expectations, you can help students avoid the typical traps of novice online learners. Outlining these key steps will help your students get the most out of an online class.

Time matters: The "go to school on your own schedule" ads are probably part of what attracted your students to an online degree. There are advantages to this—like doing your homework in your pajamas, not fighting traffic to get to class and the ability to submit homework in the middle of the night, if that's your productive time. However, students need to realize that even in an online course, there are deadlines and due dates. If a student falls behind, catching up can be very difficult. You may also find one or more students falling out of the loop in class discussions. This negatively impacts their grades and may lead to you facilitating what feels like two separate classes within the same course. Encourage students from the beginning to set up a schedule: a day to download lessons, time for research and writing, and a time to check into the class and respond to discussions.

Everything is not in the text
Students should plan a budget for extra books. During the course of professional studies, students will find they are building a personal library. Naturally, you will expect them to read the text and academic journals assigned weekly. However, to really become immersed in topics, especially without the luxury of a weekly lecture, students will need to read lots of supplemental material. One of two primary needs will end up sending students to the bookstore or online merchant for more books. The first is difficult or unfamiliar subject matter. Sometimes a student needs more explanation than the text offers. In the absence of face-to-face time with the instructor, books that provide examples and practice problems prove to be very helpful, especially in topics such as accounting, finance and statistics. The second thing is specialty subject matter. When the time comes to write key papers and projects, students will need more resources than the online school library provides.

Create and test feedback systems
Just like brick-and-mortar colleges, online schools employ a variety of instructors, each with their own style and approach to teaching. In each new class you must quickly develop a working relationship with your students. Make sure they understand how to use all of the feedback mechanisms available, including email, posting open questions and phone appointments, and consider testing them in the first week with some routine announcements that require student confirmation. Encourage students to come to you early with problems. Try to discourage vague questions such as "How can I do better in this class?" and concentrate on specific problems and solutions. Make your expectations clear and post them in an area that students can refer to at any time.

The importance of backups
Getting your technology in order really smooths out the experience of working online. First, if they don't have one, students should consider a high-speed Internet connection. It is possible to use traditional dial-up, but time used waiting for pages to download could be better used doing research and writing assignments. In addition, all students should have an emergency plan for times when their primary computer is down or the power goes out in their local area. They should back up all original work on a regular basis. Unlike the assignments, which can be accessed through the cyber classroom, original work is not protected unless students protect it. These issues, as well as getting a secondary backup for important papers and projects, such as a portable drive, are good topics to cover in the introductory materials you provide to students.

Networking is a vital skill
Getting a degree online is different, but not necessarily easier than, attending a traditional school. Students will want and need moral support throughout the process. Your online students will share research ideas and coping tips. By interacting with each other, students can discover important information such as what classes seem to require more study time, when they should take only one course at a time and how to make cyber documents do what they want them to do. Networking is also the best source for job leads. You can encourage this process by having a free forum or discussion area within the course "room" just for this purpose.

Savor the differences
When you or your students are tempted to compare the online school experience to that of a traditional school, remember to focus on how the differences in approach are adding value. For example, online students will develop the discipline to research and discuss every weekly topic—no hiding in the back of the class and letting the stars control the lesson for the week. Online courses are developed with the needs of working adults in mind, so students will discover things they can apply right away in their careers. Online courses will be filled with learners from a variety of backgrounds and industries, providing a truly global educational experience.

A commitment to an online degree truly is a commitment. There is no overnight substitute for education. While online study may blend more easily into the hectic schedules of adult students, serious focus is still needed. Students must realize this is work. The rewards, as in other areas of life, will correspond to their efforts. You can aid in their success by using these steps to create a success prone cyber class.

About the contributing author
Karen Southall Watts is an entrepreneurship trainer, business coach and community college instructor. She is also a 2006 graduate of Capella University with a Master of Science in Organization Management. You can reach Karen at ksouthall2@gmail.com.

TIP

Thinning down really long URLs

Have you ever had a URL address so long that it became unmanageable and scrolled forever? Within some applications, a long URL will wrap, but after the second line, it is no longer a hyperlink. Anything after the second line is dropped from the link. As a result, you can't get to the website location without copying and pasting the long URL into a browser's address window.

In a threaded discussion content item, long URLs don't wrap, but continue on and on—on the same line. They will still get you to the website, but it is a pain to have to scroll back and forth to read all of the responses in the thread.

To work around this problem and make your threaded discussions more readable, copy and paste the long URL into the box on the http://tinyurl.com site, click the Make Tiny URL! button, and copy and paste the new URL over the long one in your course. Now, just save your changes; the irritant is no longer present!

       —Paul Silvey