There are so many opportunities to obtain an education outside of the traditional higher education paradigm. No longer are bachelor and graduate degrees locked away in some ivory tower, inaccessible to nontraditional and working students. Rejoice!
But online and combination education programs present their own unique challenges. Whether you are going to an online school for your aviation degree or an accounting certificate or any number of other available programs, there are certain actions you can take right now to ensure your success.
Here are 3 ways to supercharge your online education:
Designate Working Hours (and Stick to Them!)
When you are initially taking the plunge into working from home, it can be tempting to leave your work schedule up in the air. After all: it’s not like you’re going anywhere, and it’s going to get done eventually, right?
Wrong! First off, many of your professors and classmates will be abiding by standard business hours. While online school is great for students who need flexible hours, the hard truth is that other people will eventually need to shut their laptops and get offline. So if you have questions or concerns about homework and need some help, you may be out of luck if you wait to start the assignment until midnight the night before it’s due.
As the difficulty of your degree program progresses, your homework will take longer and longer to complete. This can easily clash with your existing responsibilities and duties at home and at work. You need to establish good habits early on in your online education trajectory so that you are not caught off guard later when the demands of the program ramp up.
Break up projects and homework assignments into bite-sized pieces to be completed each day over the course of a week. This will also help you absorb the material better over time, as you will essentially be studying a little bit of it every day, rather than taking in a lot of information at once before not revisiting it for a week.
Similarly, you should try to take at least a little time each day to dedicate to homework and other housekeeping things that come with being a student. Making space in your life regularly for your education will pay dividends, as opposed to relegating it to the weekends or late night.
Create a Dedicated Workspace
Posting up in the same spot on the couch where you veg out and watch Wheel of Fortune every night is not an effective strategy for getting your schoolwork done! Your brain will have a difficult time turning off the “relax” switch that flips on each time you recline on your sofa just because you have a laptop in hand.
Find a place in your home that you can easily differentiate as a working space. You do not need to cordon off an entire room as an office, but the space should be distinguishable from the other parts of your space. It can be as simple as a dining chair you pull up to a coffee table, but the end result is the same: the space is reserved for work. Do not play video games or zone out on your phone in that space, so that your brain associates it with business time.
Ideally, your workspace should have a good amount of natural light and some area that you can spread your work materials out onto. You do not want to feel cramped or shut off from the rest of the world. There is some evidence to suggest that an abundance of natural light will increase productivity and keep us homebodies from feeling like we’re missing out. Besides—it just feels nicer!
In a similar vein, try to avoid working in your pajamas. It just won’t feel right!
Reach Out to Alum for Guidance
Finding alums from an online school may seem daunting, but there are actually plenty of ways for you to find previous attendees of your alma mater. For one, any online or combination program worth its salt will readily hand over available contact information for willing alums to any inquiring minds. In fact, most schools will have resources available on their own website to connect with current and former students.
Connecting with alumni is a great way to stay motivated and keep perspective. When programs get tough, and with potentially isolating nature of online programs in particular, it can be hard to stay positive about the progress of your education. Traditional degree programs taught in person have the innate advantage of giving students easy access to one another. There is a support program built into every class, which you can see by simply looking around at other students.
When looking for more informal and relaxed connections, feel free to turn to social media. A quick search for your school’s name on Facebook or LinkedIn will likely yield a plethora of dedicated student and alumni groups.
