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Once there was an elitist perception that unless you were in a physical building, listening to a lecturer and engaging with classmates, you were missing something critical to learning. It didn’t help that all the highly rated education institutions were the traditional institutions, either.
Things have come a long way, though, and today online learning is rightfully seen as a legitimate and even preferable path to education for millions of Americans. Of course, as with anything, getting the most from the experience comes down to the frame of mind you have in approaching the opportunity.
Success Starts With the Schedule
With online learning, you’re free to go at your own pace. There’s no fixed schedule, and this is one of the biggest traps: that same convenience can lead you to kicking the can down the road and putting off classwork until it’s almost too late.
Then there’s a mad rush to get everything done, and in that mindset, you’re not going to absorb information nearly as well.
You solve this by actually creating a schedule. Work out the best times to study, and communicate this to your co-workers, family, and other commitments. They’ll understand and work with you. Studying is one of those things everyone respects.
You may well find this painful at first. Most do. Modern lives are busy and full, and being suddenly unavailable for chunks of a week can be disruptive, both to yourself and those around you.
Once you get past that initial pain, though, you’ll see that it works. Research published in Frontiers in Psychology found that those who are good with self-regulation strategies are the ones who tend to thrive in online learning environments.
Use Every Tool Available to You
There is so much technology designed to support education. A five-minute search on Google will pull up any number of cloud-based note-taking apps, transcription services, discussion forums, AI-powered study aids, and supplementary material.
These resources work well with the student support services, including academic advisors, tutoring, and peer communities that will be offered as part of your course. The trick is to cut through the noise, work out the tools that make sense to the way you like to learn, and then use them from the start.
One of the risks with online learning is that if you do start to fall behind, unlike in a physical course, you may not have the lecturer immediately in front of you to ask. All you need to do is engage with these resources early and often, and you’ll find it easy to keep pace with your course and, if you do find something challenging, you can get immediate answers.
Motivation Comes Down To You
Call it peer pressure if you’d like, but one of the advantages of a physical learning environment is that there is a room full of people, all motivated by the same objectives, working to lift one another up.
In contrast to that, motivation in an online environment is an inside job. You’re clearly motivated enough at the start to sign up for the course, but after that, maintaining the energy often comes down to having a specific strategy.
Research backs this up. Completion rates of online courses soar by as much as 32% when the course itself builds strategies for maintaining motivation in it.
Knowing this, the best online courses will work with you to keep motivation high. For a model of what this might look like, those pursuing a nursing career while taking advantage of flexible online learning can take the Rockhurst University online ABSN program, which provides a structured and supportive digital environment designed to help students achieve their professional goals without sacrificing real-world preparation.
But don’t expect your online course to do the work in motivating you. Drive yourself by breaking learning goals into smaller milestones and find ways to celebrate when you hit them.
Remember That Learning Isn’t a Chore
One of the strangest psychological traps many of us fall into is the idea that education is an obligation and therefore we resist it like it’s a chore. Whether you’re studying online or in person, just remember that learning should be fulfilling.
Really take the opportunity to engage with the subject. Take notes by hand, participate in discussion boards, ask questions during live sessions, and research down rabbit-holes simply for the sake of it.
For motivated, organized learners, digital education can work exceptionally well, and it puts a world of information at your fingertips where, once, education might have meant relocation.
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