Since most of my career has revolved around online learning, whether it was as a student, Academic Advisor, Director of Enrollment Management, Executive Administrator, or Adjunct Faculty, I have accumulated a vast cadre of knowledge (or at least what I hope is knowledge), experience, and things to do and not to do. From a student perspective, although online learning requires a concerted effort, significant time, lots of energy, and a strong smattering of self discipline, it can also be a liberating, robust learning experience. In my next few posts, I will present several key steps to becoming a successful online learner.1. Follow The Colleges Academic Integrity Policy And Establish Your Personal Honor Code System.
As an online instructor, what I despise the most is cheating or plagiarism … and I know it occurs. As a student, carefully review all test policies (open book/closed book), citation protocols for papers, and personal communication with other classmates, current or former. I also believe it’s important to establish a personal Honor Code. My son, Shaun Jr., graduated from the University of Virginia. One of the things that impressed me about the university was its long standing Honor Code – http://www.virginia.edu/honor/. What if you, as an online student, adopted a personal Honor Code, a setting of principles that you followed in and out of the virtual classroom?
2. Stay In Touch As an online instructor, I love to have students initiate dialogue with me. In fact, I take special notice of the students who initiate communication. Of course, you will always have those who try to take advantage of this, but that’s par for the course. You know, in the virtual classroom, there are always questions that need to be asked, issues that need clarification, and direction that has to be given. I also consider myself fairly proactive in communicating with my students, but I am amazed at how difficult it is to create meaningful dialogue with some. A recent example of this, that’s not directly related to the learning experience, is just last week my father-in-law died and my wife and I had to travel to Maine for the funeral. Currently, I am teaching two sections so I emailed my students to inform them of the situation and the fact that I would not have email access for several days. I also let them know that I was extending the deadline on a written project that was due. I heard back from only 25% of the class, of course, most whom were kind in offering their condolences. Remember – online professors have feelings too! I guess the advice here is don’t be afraid to communicate with your professors. We like to hear from our students and we don’t always want to initiate the communication
Posted by Shaun, filed under Distance Learning, Distance Learning Marketing, Distance Learning Recruiting, Online Educational Manager, Online Educational Marketer, Online Learner, Online Learning Experience. Date: June 12, 2008, 8:57 am |
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