Online College Course Management

Use a Weekly Schedule to Keep Track of Assignment Due Dates

Jul 12, 2008

Juggling online college class requirements needn't be difficult. Students can employ weekly schedules to manage their course loads.

College students who attend online universities often choose that modality of learning because they have other obligations that prohibit them from attending traditional college. These students must sometimes balance class work with family obligations and perhaps even a full-time job. Learning how to meet classroom requirements while keeping up with daily home and work responsibilities isn’t easy; however, doing so is much more manageable when the student employs personal time management skills.

Use a Weekly Schedule / Checklist to Stay on Track

If an online college student is taking more than one class at a time, managing the different due dates and other deadlines can get confusing. One tactic students can use to manage online college courses is to create a weekly schedule to keep track of assignment due dates and class discussions. Online college curriculum, such as the courses offered through Axia College of the University of Phoenix, often have periodic discussion participation requirements that must be met on different days of the week in addition to regular assignments.

Even though classes are taken online, seeing an actual schedule on paper and going through the items in a checklist-like fashion can help an online college student stay organized. Oftentimes, having something on paper makes a world of difference.

Create a Checklist to Manage Online College Course Requirements

A student may wish to create a checklist for every week of class. If the student is taking more than one class at a time, requirements for all classes could be listed on the same checklist to make for easy tracking. Any easy way to preview all course requirements before creating a weekly checklist is to review the syllabus for each class before performing this exercise.

On the checklist, the student could write down every assignment due that week in all classes (consider an assignment anything that has a specific due date, whether it is an actual written assignment or simply a discussion question that must be responded to on a particular day of the week). Beside each deliverable, the student should write down when every deliverable is due and/or should be completed.

Note that a sanity-saving tactic is to aim to complete all assignments at least one day ahead of time to allow for unforeseen obstacles like web site downtimes, power outages, or even personal emergencies. For anything that does not have a specific due date, but rather a date range, students would be wise to assign a specific due date to make the assignment a real, specific obligation to complete on a certain day.

Sample Weekly Schedule for an Online College Student

Using a typical week at Axia College as an example, a sample weekly schedule for a week with discussion, participation, and assignment requirements could be as follows:

Check Off Tasks as Completed

The key to making the schedule work is to complete each deliverable on the day set forth at the beginning of the week. As each item is completed, the student can gain a feeling of accomplishment by manually checking off or marking through the completed task.

Students should use their own judgment when creating a weekly schedule; the goal is for online college students to have an easy way to keep track of upcoming deadlines and stay on top of their school work.

The copyright of the article Online College Course Management in Distance Education is owned by Lena Gott. Permission to republish Online College Course Management in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.