HOW TO TAKE ONLINE CLASSES

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ONLINE CLASS – A NEW OPTION TO OUR EDUCATION

Now with the emergence of new technology, our education world is also changing and coming up with new options and methods. Online class is such an option. From your beginning of education when you were a child, you have attended school classes, also studied with tutor at your home. These were the traditional offline in-person class setup that we all are well aware of.

But now technological advancements have given us computers and laptops at almost every home, smartphones in almost every pocket and all those also with a very fast and reliable internet connection.

So naturally these additions also created many new options in our education world also….like ebooks or electronic books beside traditional paper books, document processor beside paper exercise books, online exam beside traditional on-paper exam, online class beside offline in-person class and so on.

And if you see you can find some good points and some bad points in these developments. We need to try to find and focus on the good points and get benefited and try to eliminate or minimize the bad points as much as possible.

ONLINE CLASS – A VALID OPTION

We do have the privilege of choice as to whether we want to attend traditional offline class or trending online class. And perhaps we will always have. But still why would you think that you also can join one online class? What can be the driving factors that can make you decide to join the online class?

Yes, there are many benefits.  As the days are changing so does the technology and socio-economic perspectives. Today one student may think of starting earning at his early days of high school or college. Or maybe it is a compulsion due to some economic stressful conditions.

Or maybe a person is working and now thinking about joining a course to continue his education for professional development or self-improvement. Or maybe you want to take up a course of your interest but that is not available near your locality and you may have economic barriers to relocate yourself far away from home for doing the course.

So these and many such other reasons can be there for you opting for online classes. Online classes can be cheap for you. You can adjust your study time and schedules with respect to your job, commitments, family, and personal preferences, etc.  This flexibility and customization of education is quite appealing for us.

Thus as a matter of fact, stopping education due to job or  socio-economic problems, or any such issues is not an option wherever we will have online class as a valid  option.

HOW TO ATTEND ONLINE CLASSES

Yes, I purposefully used the word “attend”. Because otherwise, in most cases it can turn up into something like watching a video at our comfort and convenience. If the classes are live streaming then still we remain bound by some time regulation, but if it is a pre-recorded one then we can really become too casual about the class.

Thus the main benefit point of online classes can easily turn into a main negative point, and it’s all in our attitude, how we take it. So we need to understand and follow some rules for successfully taking up online classes and complete the course to get certified. 

The first and most important rule is to be self-disciplined. Online class comes with enormous flexibility and customizability, which can make us feel that we can do it all according to our mood or motive. But no, we should not take the class that way.

Take the class as a “class”. Make some daily or weekly routines. As for example, you may fix an hour or two every day at your convenient time to view the lectures and try the assignments. Then try to do that religiously and strictly five or six days every week unless there is any emergency. This kind of self-discipline is needed for taking good advantage of online classes and better progress of learning.

For the assignments, you have to motivate yourself to not to procrastinate or put it off for some time near to submission date. That will not only spoil your habits of good learning but also will pull you into troubles like missing the submission date and so on.

When taking online classes, you have to realise that you are your best guide as there are no teacher or professor to enact regulations or restrictions to get the job done out of you. So this can turn out to be one of the most negative feature of online class if you are not conscious and cautious about it. You also need to have respect and value for your or your parents hard-earned money.

You are already paying as soon as you joined the course. So with the proper attitude, you can make the best of your online classes.

SET YOUR GOALS

When you get admitted in the course, by then you must have already set your goal to complete the course and get certified. Well, that must be your fundamental and primary goal. But as with the total course, there are different smaller milestones like years, semesters, periodic evaluations, projects and so on. You also need to break your primary goal to multiple smaller and intermediate goals.

You can make a weekly or monthly target on taking online classes, as the number of online classes you can take every week and every month. And then break that target also into a daily average. So you can supervise your daily schedules regarding your studies and if someday for some reason you fall short then you will know that you have to distribute that shortage time into rest of the days and so on.

A well planned schedule will always help you to stay on track. You can schedule your assignments also in the same way. Count how many assignments you have to complete in which time frame, and then break the job into daily or weekly averages. So like that you will always be aware about how much job is done and how much is left, and you can schedule your time accordingly.

Likewise, if you can set goals, break them into achievable small targets and keep on supervising your own performance then there is usually very less chance of lagging behind or getting into much trouble with your online class and course.

COMMUNICATION IS IMPORTANT FOR ONLINE CLASSES

In schools and colleges, there are teachers and professors whose one of the main duty is to follow the body language of a student to track his weakness, fears and inhibitions. Good teachers are usually very good at this, and they can make any student speak up his problems and shortcomings. If you don’t speak then no one will know about where you are stuck or what are your problems.

And if there is no awareness about the problem then naturally there are less chances of getting that solved. But in online class, you can hardly expect such a teacher around you, who will try to make you perform, read your body language and guess your problems, make you communicate and so on.

So in online class you have to take your responsibility, your initiative to communicate with the teacher or faculty, speak out about your issues and problems, then only you can get them addressed and solved. And I would recommend to be a bit proactive in this regard. Discuss everything beforehand and do not wait till things get out of control or ground you down.

It is well said that prevention is better than cure. So keep talking about your studies with your teachers through email or phone or chat or whatever medium of communication are available with your course guidelines. 

Also you need to participate in forums and discussion boards for exchange of information with fellow students and faculties. You need to stay updated with all the information concerned with your online classes and course.

You can discuss your concepts, ideas and problems on your subjects. Students and faculties will also post their thoughts on those topics which will make you as well as other students enriched. But ideally stay away from discussing anything other than those related to studies and subjects.

The more you focus on studies exclusively, the better and beneficial it will be for you and also fellow students. Distractions are not desirable in the online class community and also in any study circles. 

So these are some very basic guidelines about how to take online classes. There can be more depth and details on this. In future I will be writing many other specific techniques and methods on enrichment and betterment of your online class experience and performance….so keep watching for new updates. 

So, thank you and bye for now…

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