The biggest struggle with students that are taking their first online course is they did not plan for the time needed to complete classwork every week. Students report needing twice as much time to complete the assignments than in a face-to-face course.
In place of the lecture, students have to read and write more each week in an online class. Often students are required to post messages and respond to weekly discussion questions that require a close reading of that week’s assignment. You need to treat your course as a part-time job.
1) Plan on scheduling 3 to 5 hours every week for each course you are taking
Take your calendar and find 15 to 30-minute blocks of time that you can spend focused on the course activities. You will need a space where you can read, answer discussion questions or write assignments. Coffee shops, bunk room, library, and bookstores are four common choices.
2) Plan to study off-duty
Shift-work scholars struggle when they only study while on-duty. I understand when you say “… if I have to do this for a promotion, I will only do it on their time.” On-duty only studying is successful if you are working day-work in a slow station – it fails when you are on shift work or at a busy station.
3) Identify due dates and deadlines
Many online courses are asynchronous, meaning that there is no scheduled weekly face-to-face lecture or discussion. You will be able to access course materials independently, at your convenience. Assignments and exams will follow a general weekly schedule. Interaction with professor and classmates may be largely through discussion boards and social media, but live chats and video conferences may also be used.
Lacking that weekly face-to-face focus, shift-work scholars can quickly fall behind in assignments. The course syllabus provides most of the due dates and deadlines you need to track – they should be on your calendar. If FIR 2117 requires you to post on the weekly discussion board by Thursday, your calendar should show this as a deadline.
4) Know when you can Withdraw Without Penalty
Often not found on the course syllabus, you should know the date when you can withdraw from a course without receiving an academic penalty. A “W” grade shows up on your transcript.
In some colleges, asking for a Withdrawal after 60% of the semester is done will not be granted and the course will be graded as an “F.” You can find the Withdrawal Without Penalty date in the Schedule of Classes for that semester or on the academic calendar posted in the Catalog.
Academic “maydays” often come after the student has passed the Withdrawal deadline.
5) Schedule interim goals for papers or projects
Many classes have a project or paper that is due late in the semester. I learned to provide intermediate deadlines to avoid the shiftwork scholar missing the assignment or doing an all-nighter and delivering an incomplete paper.
Let us look at a research paper due November 14 in a class that ends December 12. Paper requires 2,500 to 3,000 words with 15 references written in APA format. Worth 25% of the final course grade. Here are the intermediate deadlines:
- September 26 – Submit a topic for approval
- October 10 – Provide initial references
- October 17 – Provide an initial outline
- November 14 – Send final paper to the professor
You can set similar goals for yourself. Place these deadlines on your calendar to make sure you stay on top of the assignments.
Want more information?
Go over to the Documents page and download 14 Shift Work Scholar Secrets 2019: What Working Professionals Do To Get Their Degree. It represents a dozen years of experience providing academic advice to hundreds of firefighters and paramedics working to get their degree at the community college or university level.
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