Planning Strategies and Time Management Essential in Online Learning

Aboriginal Studies

Skills For Online Learning

Planning strategies

One of the strategies for proper planning includes staying linked in with school contacts. The student can address policies, meet deadlines, and support services for campus-based and online students. The university occasionally reaches out to students with reminders on the Mason email account. However, it is ultimate remains the responsibility of the student to seek such information. The focus is aimed at finding helpful information among student resource pages and links such as academic integrity, deadlines, and policies. Others include important dates and deadlines, honor code, library services, responsible use of computing, online writing lab, and stay connected. Students should make the best from their courses through regular communication with instructors and other classmates. The concept allows students to have increased exposure to various perspectives, practicing articulated ideas, receiving feedback on thoughts, and avoiding isolation (Bates & Sangra, 2011).

Successful online students actively remain connected through discussion boards, research sharing, small group work, and peer reviews. The other aspect of concern includes listening to college student mentors and their opinions on the relevance of social presence in successful online education. The advice includes the need to consider the Netiquette rules such as careful designing of the message as a way of avoiding misinterpretation for online communication (Bullen & Janes, 2007). It is important to have successfully communicated of online course through avoiding vague words, sarcasm, and jargons in online messages. The student can also eliminate or limit the application of capital letters, bolding, exclamation points and emoticons.

Time management

The primary strategy in time management is having broader knowledge of the course syllabus. The course syllabus forms the foundation to successful time management and achievement of success across online courses. It is prudent for students to read the course syllabus carefully while referring to it for purposes of keeping track of requisite issues. The major concerns include grading policies, necessary textbooks, assignment evaluation standards, and desired learner-course outcomes (Stavredes, 2011). Other essential aspects include required deliverables and course assignments coupled with course schedules (deadlines for quizzes, readings, discussion posts, and discussion board postings).

Dates and times of "synchronous" class meetings that require students to login at certain times are important pieces of information. Successful students view online education as an opportunity of addressing and scheduling priority areas. Even though online courses present flexible study schedules, they require similar amounts of time like courses offered on a face-to-face basis (Bullen & Janes, 2007). Successful online students are recommended to log in to such online classes four days each week. Students can also set aside 8 to 12 hours weekly to work on the online classes. Students can allocate more time within the initial class weeks to be oriented with online environments. Students can also break milestones into tasks that are manageable parts. Another alternative is to use technology tools to make organization mobile such as Smartphone and Blackboard Mobile apps.

Effective technology use

Successful online students constantly check their technology. Success in Mason online courses is achieved through implementing recommendations of having a computer running on Windows or Macintosh with RAM of at least 2 GB. The computer should run recent versions of QuickTime, Acrobat Reader, Flash, Windows Media Player, Real Media Player, and Java. The components should offer sufficient space for the hard disk in the installation of new software required in storing class work. The student should have broadband internet connection that is fast and reliable. The machine's browser and operating system should be compatible with Blackboard (Bates & Sangra, 2011). Schools administrators provide the lists of supported operating systems and browsers.

Students should be familiar with Masonlive email password and username, large-spaced screen for increased visibility, a microphone and speakers or headphones as well as other technical requirements as stipulated in the course syllabus. The essential elements include usage of Learning Management Systems instead of Blackboard or specific hardware/software). The use of employer-provided corporate office or computer for class attendance allows students to verify with respective systems administrators that they can install necessary applications (Stavredes, 2011). It is important to verify the kind of corporate firewalls or system that does not block access to particular sites or media forms. Faculty issues, including agreements and incentives in online course development and online teaching parameters should be communicated in good time to the online student. Perceptions of instruction and online course development, as well as quality review, are collaborative structures requiring consensus and bridging instructional and administrative interests.