From Patti Bench: Taft College Counseling Center

DISTANCE LEARNING

Is distance learning or an online course the right option for you? Although this method of instruction is highly convenient, it may not be the choice for you. Distance learning and online classes require much more involvement on the part of the student than traditional classes. You cannot be passive. You must be constantly involved in the learning process. It requires dedication, motivation, and self-discipline. There is no one standing over your shoulder reminding you of deadlines.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Distance Learning

Students in distance education classes, such as this Internet-based class, report many advantages and disadvantages both by not participating in a traditional class lecture and lab format.
Reported advantages include:

• Flexibility in scheduling work for class 
• Flexibility to study in any convenient location 
• Ability to skim over materials already mastered and to concentrate time and effort in areas containing new information and/or skills 
• Within the framework of the class, flexibility to study materials at a personal speed and intensity, without having to wait for slower pace of the average classroom 
• Flexibility to join "conversations" in the bulletin board discussion areas at any hour, and to catch up on everything that has been "said" by others since the previous visit.
  
  Reported disadvantages include:
• The ease to procrastinate - to wait until later 
• Difficulty of staying on track without the structured classroom 
• Feeling of isolation - alone - without the direct interaction with classmates 
• Occasional difficulty to immediately reach other classmates and/or instructor through technology
  
  What It Takes to Be Successful Through Distance Learning
  
  In the past, the most significant factor helping students to succeed - or not – in distance learning classes has been their ability to manage time. The more successful students reported spending 2 to 3 hours regularly each week for each hour of credit for a class. For example, a 4-hour credit class required a minimum of at least 8 to 12 hours of work each week of the semester to complete all requirements.
  
  Without class lectures to spur that quick burst of activity to complete the project or to bone up for the test, some students procrastinated through weeks of the semester, only to find themselves so far behind that they could never catch up. The following is information developed by students who successfully completed distance-learning courses:
  
  We strongly recommend that you work out your typical weekly schedule - on paper - so that you will have a general guide for fitting your time to study into your other activities. A typical plan for scheduling:
   
• Set up a grid with 1/2-hour time slots down the side, from waking to closing the mind for the night and with all 7 days of the week across the top. 
• Fill in your nonflexible times (work hours, scheduled classes, etc.) with specific information 
• Fill in your flexible times related to those nonflexible ones (travel time to work or school, lunch, break, etc.) 
• Fill in your other activities - clubs, choir, meetings, etc. - that happen less than once a week 
• List special must-do for family etc. (pick up the kids, etc.) that occur regularly. 
• Some find that taking a book along can ease the time spent waiting and can help accomplish study time needs at the same time. 
• DEDICATED TO STUDY TIME. This will be time that you will reserve for study, and nothing less than a major emergency will be allowed to disturb it. One student suggested that this be set in 1/2-hour segments - 1 segment per credit hour - and before or after this segment a 1/2-hour or hour TRY TO STUDY TIME be scheduled. 
• TRY TO STUDY TIME. This will be time that you are planning nothing but study, but recognize that it may be interrupted. If interrupted, remember to grab some catch-up time.