You’re in a café, typing away at your laptop while the world outside the glass wall silently breezes by. Casual observers might say you’re busy updating your Facebook. But on closer inspection, you’re deep in a discussion group with your e-classmates. You’re enrolled in an online class, and you like it.
If you’re an online student, count yourself lucky. Online studying, with over 10 million e-learners worldwide, is a strong and continuing trend. Colleges and universities have long respected and acknowledged online degrees as being on equal footing with traditional on-ground degrees. And by harnessing all the potentialities the cyberworld, you as an e-learner get to acquire skills you need in the technology-centric business world of the 21st century.
Gone are the four walls of the traditional classrooms that used to box students in tight neat spaces. With online learning, there are no geographical borders anymore, the infinitely vast World Wide Web is your classroom. People from all walks of life and from every place on earth are your classmates, your interactions with whom making for a more culturally-varied classroom experience. That’s something no textbook can offer.
Additionally, there are no biases against race or gender or religion. Also, as many e-learners admit, you take charge of your time, control your pace, and attend your classes at a schedule you are most attuned to. With course materials available 24/7, at the click of the mouse, it’s everything a student can ask for.
Critics have often diminished the importance of online studying, arguing that the absence of actual and personal interaction with your professors and co-learners take a big and substantial chunk out of learning. You’re all alone studying, so that doesn’t count, they say. That’s one misconception about e-learning that should be banished: that online studying is a lonely business. On the contrary, e-learners get to interact with their classmates unlike ever before, with e-mail, chatting, and web conferencing. Everyone can see each other. And everyone gets a say.
The other crucial point these critics miss is that what online learning offers, at a very critical stage in many e-learner’s lives, is convenience. This convenience becomes more of a necessity rather than a virtue especially for busy e-learners who are also employees or self-employed individuals, part-timers, stay-at-home mothers with kids, or elderly people who have to stay home. This also includes many e-learners living in remote rural areas that do not offer college or even vocational courses.
If being online is all it takes for a degree, then who’s to complain? What matters is how e-learners are able to maximize the potentialities of the Internet as they go tackling one e-lesson after another.
So how exactly do you make good your online learning? Read on.
1. Don’t be afraid of technology. Instead, maximize it to your advantage. You don’t have to be internet-savvy to be an e-learner. But it sure helps to know the basics, and from there you can learn more. Learn how to use search engines more effectively by using the right keywords and keyphrases. Know when a website and its information is trustworthy. For one, don’t just depend on one website for research materials.
2. Speak up. And be counted. If you’ve always been shy at class, now’s the time to drop the act. The cyber classroom is a veritable place for you to express your opinions, ask questions, or make an argument for your case. Unlike in the traditional classroom setting where only the most talkative and opinionated hogs the microphone and gets to have his/her say, now, everyone can participate in the discussion, whether formal or informal. Relish these moments when you can pitch in your ideas. Don’t be afraid of contradiction. Learn what you can from everyone.
3. Go ahead. Talk to the prof. It used to be that students had to leave Post-it- notes on the doors of their elusive professors, hoping for a line of communication. Well, say goodbye to that. Contrary to popular belief, your instructors and professors, whether online or offline, are really good people deep inside. They’re not really dodging you. They’re actually approachable. So don’t hesitate to ask anything you didn’t understand in the course material thru e-mail or chat. Just remember not to come across as a stalker or an avid fan, and you’re set to go.
4. Be on time. It’s true that online learning offers a flexible schedule for everyone, but this doesn’t mean you can ignore other people’s schedule. Whenever you and your online classmates have to meet in your chatrooms or newsgroups outside of your formal lessons, be there on time and don’t be a cause of delay.
5. Respect. It’s such a simple word, but often taken for granted. Being in an online classroom where you and your classmates are physically apart, it’s so easy to throw an inappropriate remark or a nasty comment here and there. If you don’t agree with your classmate’s opinion, say so in mature, civil way. That’s the cool thing to do. If, however, you’ve already said a rude word, be man enough and say sorry. Then move on. Remember, a discussion group is only as good as the ideas the members are willing to chip in.
6. Finally, be in good shape. E-learning at the comfort of your own home doesn’t mean you can let go of your health, just because it spares you the daily trouble of having to commute to school, go from one classroom to another, etc. Eat right, get some exercise, and sleep well. Studying, whether you’re doing it online or in more traditional means, naturally consumes your energy, so be in the best shape you can be.
So go ahead. Find out what you’re really passionate about and enroll in an online course now. Wherever you are, whatever your age, it’s never too late to learn something new.
Written by neolimarcos
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