by Wesley Steverson
It is that time again. Fall semester has started and there are well over 1,500 students taking at least one online class.
Taking online classes can be tough, especially if you are working and/or raising a family. One of the most difficult things to do is trying to attend class and finish your assignments by their deadline on top of the current commitments that demand your time and attention. To help get you started right, I would like to provide some time management tips to help you successfully complete this semester without taking you away from your work or family duties.
First, get (and stay) organized. Try and keep track of how your time is spent each day – using a time log is ideal. After a week of recording what you do, go back over your time log and evaluate how your time is spent. Decide on what are fixed commitments, commitments that you must do at a certain time. Sleeping, dropping the kids off at school, and work hours are all examples of fixed commitments. Next, decide on what are flexible commitments, things that you can do when you get to them. Studying, social events, and household chores are all examples of flexible commitments. Once you have a much better idea of how your week is spent, start to plan out each day:
Second, avoid procrastination. Dictonary.com defines procrastination as the act or habit of putting off or delaying. Online students are at a disadvantage with avoiding procrastination because they usually do not have a regularly scheduled class time to help keep them on track. Getting organized and making a schedule are two great ways to avoid procrastination, but you can take it a step further:
Third, be sure to set goals and priorities. When setting goals, you can choose to have one day, one week, one semester, one year, five yea, and even 30 year goals! The key is to align your goals to match what you are doing day one and what you would like to be doing year 30. Consider if your goals are extrinsic (I want a raise at work) or intrinsic (I want to be a better teacher). Once you have your goals aligned and you understand why you want to achieve them, start planning ways to keep you motivated.
Setting priorities go hand-in-hand with getting organized and setting a schedule. To prioritize is to make a conscious decision to set the importance of one task over another. When setting priorities separate your tasks into three categories: should and have to, would and need to, and could and want to. Make sure that you give the tasks in the first category the most importance, the second category the second most importance and the third category the third most importance. This will help you stay focused on what is important and help you avoid getting distracted.
If you find yourself struggling with your online class, be sure to check out the “CourseDen Training and Free Resources for Students” class in CourseDen. You can find this class under the Orientations role under “My Courses”.
You can also find some great articles on being an online student on UWG|Online’s blog.
If you need immediate assistance, our help desk is open Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Give us a call at 1-855-933-8946 (Local: 678-839-6248) or online@westga.edu.
Wesley Steverson is the Academic Instructional Support Specialist with UWG | Online.
