Tips for Getting Organized in an Online Course

Efficient Ways to Manage Materials Taking Distance Education Courses

Nov 8, 2009

Organized Work Environment for Online Course, Michelle Ho

Success for students in online classes results from efficiently manage the workload and their schedule to ensure that all of the weekly materials are completed on time.

With more working students and professionals turning to the Internet for online courses learning how to efficiently manage the online course workload while continuing to work can be a bit challenging.

Finding simple and effective ways to stay organized and efficiently manage both work and course work while taking a distance education class can help.

Staying Organized Taking Distance Education Courses

Perhaps one of the most important ways to manage the online class is to start organized and stay organized. Ways to start a distance learning class organized include:

Read through and become familiar with the class requirements, assignments and deadlines provided in the course syllabus.
Keep a calendar for the course with all of the course deadlines. Course calendars can be maintained online (like with Google), printed out, written in a Day Planner or added to a large hanging calendar.
Check off requirements and assignments on a checklist. Some online courses have checklists included for the students. If not, create one.
Use reminders for weekly deadlines. Reminders can be send by email, phone or computer pop-up programs. Paper sticky notes work as well.
Stay in touch with the course instructor regarding schedule conflicts or other issues.

Starting the course by keeping basics aspects organized help the online student off organized. Another way to stay organized is by reading "Tips to Become a Successful Online Student."

Organizing the Work Environment for the Online Class

Another important factor for helping students and professionals to stay organized in online courses is organizing the online class work environment. The work environment for the distance education class includes the physical area where the student works like the desk, room and location, The class work environment for the student also includes outside factors like distractions from people – friends, roommates, children and spouses, and from media influences – television, iPod, cell phones, instant messages and email.

Finding or creating a place at home, in the library or in another distraction free place will help the online student be able to focus on completing coursework. Avoiding the messy desk, keeping a desk at home organized and keeping course materials organized in the computer being used makes it much easier for the online student to find needed papers, files and complete course assignments more efficiently.

Finally while working on course materials, the online student needs to minimize outside influences and distractions from people and turn off all media.

Tips for Managing Weekly Materials in Online Courses

With the basics and the work environment organized, the next important area for the online student to focus on is managing the weekly work load and assignment in the distance education course.

Plan on logging in at least three times during the week.
At the beginning of the week, read through the weekly assignment.
Determine what is due and add the due dates to the course calendar.
Decide when work can be done during the week. If necessary, schedule blocks of time on the weekly calendar for reading course materials, answering questions, completing assignments and taking quizzes or exams.
Work through the reading and assignment for the week.
Focus reading to ensure that any questions can be answered for discussion board posts and assignments can be completed.
Complete any answers or assignments as a document that is saved to the computer. This computer version will be a back-up copy in case of technical difficulties.
Submit the assignment by drop box or post answers on the discussion board.
Work on any additional assignments for the week, or longer-term projects like research papers.
Check the course policies on responding to discussion posts to ensure that the required number of posts are met. Make sure to respond to other student's discussion posts and any posts from the instructor.
Prepare and attend any seminars that the course might have.
Congratulate oneself on completing the materials for the week and being a week close to completing the course.

There is an old quote can be found in The Book of Positive Quotations published by Fairview Press in 2007 that really sums up success in online courses, "Yard by yard, it's very hard. But inch by inch, it's a cinch." The key to getting through online classes is getting through the course materials a little bit at a time, a week at a time. Pretty soon the course is finished.

Success for students in online classes results from starting and staying organized, creating a work environment that is conducive to studying and finding ways to manage the weekly materials.

Resources

ION. 2007. What Makes a Successful Online Student? Illinois Online Network.

Tips for Learning Online. Getting Ready for Class. University of West Florida Online Campus.

Dyer KA. 2009. Tips to Become a Successful Online Student. Suite 101.

The copyright of the article Tips for Getting Organized in an Online Course in Distance Education is owned by Kirsti A. Dyer. Permission to republish Tips for Getting Organized in an Online Course in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.