OnlineProfessor

Quite often, online courses will require you to submit documents in a specific format. Some platforms will be comfortable for you; others will be very new. If you are using software or programs that are less familiar to you, make sure you take them for a test drive. Here are a few ways to consider.

Assignment Test Drive Tips:

• E-mail the document to several friends. If one or some of them cannot open your file, you have a problem. This will help you troubleshoot your file format to make sure your instructor will get a version that’s readable.
• Send a test draft to the instructor. There is nothing wrong with submitting a draft of your work early, just to make sure the instructor can take a peek to see if there is anything major wrong with it. Most instructors will appreciate that you’re thinking ahead. Just give the instructor at least 4 business days to review. You’re not the only student or class they teach; so it’s good to extend that courtesy whenever possible.
• E-mail yourself. If you’re short on time, e-mail documents to yourself to see if they look right once they are sent over the digital lines. This is not only a good test run; it’s also a nice way to backup your files in case your computer decides to die on you.

All Exams Are Not the Same

For online classes, there are a number of ways quizzes and tests are administered. There are untimed and timed exams, and there are also one-time and unlimited exams. It’s very important to know the type of quiz/test you’re taking.

Test/Quiz Tip List:

• Untimed Tests/Quizzes: These types of exams give you as much time as you want to take them. You go in once, and then you can sit there for days, if you wanted. You just need to remember to save often and make sure you have steady, uninterrupted internet access.
• Timed Tests/Quizzes: There is a time limit to these exams. So you need to read the instructions carefully so you know how much time you’re going to get.
• Unlimited Tests/Quizzes: For these exams, you can take them an unlimited number of times. That means you can open the exam, take it once. Then later, before the cut-off deadline, you can go back and re-take it to try to get a better score. Again, the instructions will state whether the particular exam is unlimited.
• One-time Tests/Quizzes: Most exams are one-time only. That means you open it once, you take it once, and then it’s closed.

The instructions should always state the parameters and details of the exams; so carefully read through this information. Ask questions before taking the exam if you’re unsure about something.

Life is unpredictable, and there often comes a time when a personal emergency causes a student to be absent for one or more classes. While various instructors’ policies may vary when it comes to how they’ll deal with accepting late work, there are some simple tips that help you cope with school during your emergency.

Action List for Student Emergency Absences:

• Notify your advisor and/or instructors immediately. If it’s a hectic emergency, and time is short, just call your advisor and give them a brief outline of your emergency situation. Mention that you will not likely be able to reach your instructors individually. Remember to also leave a contact number where you will receive messages. While your advisor will not likely hassle you during a personal emergency, if there is something you need to know, they’ll need a place to leave you messages.
• Get documentation. Think ahead and gather documentation of your emergency for your student file. Some instructors will need the documentation before they accept your late work.
• Once the crisis phase has passed, be sure to connect with instructors individually. Even if your advisor has notified your instructors, it’s best to take an opportune moment to communicate with instructors to begin re-integrated into the class.
• Be aware of time. Do not let more than a week go by without re-connecting with your advisor and instructors. The more time goes by, the less chance you have to catch up. You want to take notes about how you will proceed, and your instructors will want to gain a better idea of when you can be expected back in class.
• Prioritize. Sometimes a personal emergency is so devastating that it’s best to take a term/semester off to focus on the important things. It’s better to delay your graduation than to fail a number of classes. Students should not feel ashamed for taking needed time off. Sometimes, you need to focus on things one at a time, and be prepared to come back to school the following term without monumental distractions getting in the way.

Remember, if you do not keep your school informed of your situation and simply disappear, you are severely limiting your options once you return. It’s a professional courtesy to inform your work place and your school if you will not be in attendance, particularly if it’s for more than one class. They don’t need the big, long story and all the painful details, but a professional explanation of the seriousness of the situation is definitely expected.

At least once per term, I get a mysterious student voicemail message that is barely understandable. I want to help the student and provide the information he or she needs, but my hands are tied if the student doesn’t even provide a name. So here are some tips to keep in mind if you must call one of your professors.

Voicemail message tip list:

• Leave your name and contact information at the beginning and at the end. It is a best practice for school and in business to learn voicemail etiquette. It’s efficient to leave your full name and contact information at the start and end of each message. I can’t tell you how many students completely forget to leave their name and contact information. This makes it difficult or impossible to get back to a student.
• Provide your course name and number. Remember that teachers often teach multiple classes. Be professional and provide instructors with your class information, and this helps them respond to you more promptly.
• Beware of cell phone reception woes. It you simply must use your cell phone to call your instructor, go to a quiet place without background noise, and be sure you’re in a spot with solid reception. Instructors often receive messages that sound like static-riddled messages from the afterworld. And it is tough to discern the content of those messages.
• Be specific. Avoid simply stating your name and asking the instructor to call you back. Provide a little information about the reason for your call. This way, an instructor can prepare resources and get back to you with a more productive and focused reply.
• Jot down notes. Keep your messages short and focused, and be clear on what you’re going to say in one message. Avoid calling an instructor three times in a row because you “forgot something.”

Why Your Professors Need Proof

The late work policy for each of your classes can vary. Some instructors accept late work with point deductions applied. Other instructors hardly ever accept work, barring documented medical or sometimes military reasons. If an instructor accepts late work at all, they will often ask for proof of your excuse – a doctor’s note, a military duty sheet, etc.

It’s not about trust
Many students feel offended that they are asked for proof because they feel the professor is questioning their integrity. In essence the request for proof is not really a personal issue at all. It’s about showing students that there is a uniform application of class policies.

Why is proof so important?
Consistency. Instructors want to be fair to all students; so they often make rules and policies that apply to the entire class. Instead of picking and choosing which late work excuse makes more sense to accept, an instructor might choose to simply say that those who can provide acceptable documentation get extensions.

This way, no student could say that an instructor showed any favoritism in the way they applied rules. The paperwork is the great equalizer.

It’s never too early to prepare for final exams

Too often, students panic at the end of the term because most — or all — of their classes have a final exam or final project requirement. Students can save themselves a lot of anguish if they took an incremental approach to studying.

Final exam study tips:

• Take final exam notes every week. After every lesson or class, take notes of key terms and study topics in a final exam folder or on index cards. Build on this collection each week, and by the end of the term, you’ll have a neat set of study guides for the final exam.
• Schedule a weekly review of materials. At the end of each school week, go back and review the major elements you’ve learned. This summary helps you retain information and etch it into longer term memory.
• Collect all your old quizzes. Regular quizzes during the term give students a clear guide about the types of questions your instructor is likely to include on a longer exam. Reviewing older quizzes and tests provide you with good practice for what lies ahead.
• Play the guessing game. Before every test, as you study and prepare, try to see if you can predict the types of topics and questions likely to appear on the exam. Make educated guesses based on the instructor’s style, focus and lecture points. If you practice this enough, you’ll find that you will likely get better and better at identifying key study points because you’ll learn to “think like the professor.”
• Come prepared to final exam reviews. Quite often, professors will have final exam study sessions. It’s amazing how many students come to these sessions and just sit there when an instructor asks if there are any questions about topics covered in the class. Come prepared to such study sessions with specific questions about things you did not understand. An instructor will rarely tell you what’s on an exam, but the more intelligent and genuinely interested students seem, the more inclined an instructor will be to slip in a few hints. If students seem uninterested and passive, instructors often pull back on the hints as well.

Damage Control for Overwhelmed Students
Every now and then, a student faces a disaster term at school where they are overwhelmed with the full course load because they are over-taxed at work and with their family responsibilities. Everything seems to be going wrong.

Here are some tips to help evaluate your next steps to keep calm and stay in school.

Survival tips for overwhelmed students:

• Consider the two-week rule. If you are behind two weeks or more in a certain class, consider dropping the course and re-taking it another term. But always talk it over with your advisor and instructor’s first. Sometimes, they have good tips and suggestions that will help you push through a temporary setback.
• Communicate thoroughly and immediately. Do not wait and wait for weeks to go by before you get some guidance and help. As soon as you feel you’re not going to be able to keep up with the work, reach out to your advisors and instructors. They will offer you tips on what to do next.
• Take stock and reassess. Sometimes, it’s simply about getting some family support. If you have children or have a lot of family responsibility, you’ll have to ask for more help around the house. Families can work together to reach the education goals of one family member. Other people might not be as good at certain chores, but live with it temporarily, just to get through school.
• Learn to say “no.” Going to school is no easy task. Going to school with a full-time job and a family to support is even more challenging. Sometimes, you won’t be able to help plan a niece’s birthday party or volunteer for committees at work. You will have to politely decline tasks to stay focused on school. You’ll have to be very conscious to carve out enough time in your schedule to work on school assignments.

Most importantly, do not be discouraged when you have one bad semester or a couple of tough classes. With so many distractions, you might not get all the A grades you would like, but that doesn’t mean you’re not intelligent or smart. Strive for those A’s of course, but don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t get them. Remember to see the long-term goals, and do not get discouraged by short-term setbacks.

You can do it! Share your comments about the tips and tricks you use to keep from getting overwhelmed. We want to hear about your success stories; so we can all do better together.

To Print or Not to Print

Students taking online classes often wonder how much material they should choose to print from the online course content. It’s good to print some things for convenience and for backup purposes, but it’s not always useful or wise to print everything.

First, it’s good to have a portable hard drive or flash drive because it will just make your life a lot easier. The tip lists below will explain more about why.

Definitely Print:

• The class syllabus: This is almost always a good thing to print and keep in a handy place that goes with you everywhere, like a binder or folder. The syllabus usually contains a summary of all the course policies, instructor contact information, and the basic assignment details/due dates.
• Important contacts: You should always have access to the contact information for your advisor, your instructors, and administrators (the Registrar’s Office, Financial Aid, etc.).

Probably Print:
The items in this list can also be saved to a hard drive, portable hard drive, disk, or flash drive. Usually, you can save Web pages as PDFs or simply do a copy-paste into a Word document. Either way, as long as you have an accessible, digital copy that is not reliant on an internet connection, you should be in good shape.

• Details of your major course projects: Every class has a few, major projects due throughout the term. It’s good to keep track of those very closely. Midterm exams and research papers will require some long-term planning.
• Instructor tips: If your instructor takes the time to outline some success tips for the class, you might want to print or digitally save those somewhere. Professors who take the time to provide this information are basically giving you a road map to success. So it’s silly to ignore that.
• Past quizzes and exams: Part of the learning process is building upon past mistakes. If you take a quiz and get a few answers wrong, you want to be sure you go back and learn from those errors. This will help you prepare for future exams and projects. If you have a repeated weakness, this will also help you identify those patterns so you can focus on them.

Master Those Online Tests

Tests and quizzes are a part of most classes. However, online classes have some unique components and challenges.

Online test-taking tips:

• Beware of the open-book quiz. An open-book quiz might sound easy, but it’s not. Usually, an open-book quiz has very restricted time limits so that it’s impossible to look up every answer. If you think you’ll have time to stop and look up every answer, you’ll likely end up with half the test incomplete when the time limit expires.
• Be prepared. Keep scrap paper handy to work out math problems or outline a short essay response. Just because the test is online doesn’t mean you won’t need to organize your thoughts or jot down a few notes.
• Choose a quiet place. Clear out the house or close the bedroom door with a “do not disturb” sign posted outside. Do what it takes to eliminate distractions.
• Don’t wait until the last minute. If your computer dies or a work project keeps you late, that’s no excuse for missing the test completely. Instructors usually provide a large window of time to take online tests; so if a student takes the risk of starting the test very close to the deadline, he will not likely receive extensions or allowances.
• Reconsider computer changes or upgrades prior to big projects. So often, students install software or purchase computers the day before a major project is due. This is very risky and should be reconsidered because any software adjustments can cause glitches.
• Prepare backup. Make sure you have a backup computer and internet source ready for the day you take your exam. You might never need it, but the one time you do, you’ll be glad you thought ahead.

Easy E-mail Communication Tips

For business and in school, e-mail communication is quite important. Sending an e-mail to your online professor is more efficient if you follow a few, simple tips.

E-mail Best Practices:

• Be Specific with the Subject Line. If you want a quick answer, be organized by putting specific information in the subject line of your message. Type your name, the class number, and the topic of your message. Simply typing a vague phrase like “question” or “information needed” is not very helpful.
• Be clear. When you type your question, be brief and clear. Explain your issue in a precise manner. Read over your message to be sure your phrasing is understandable. Messages sent in a rush without the proper review can lead to cryptic content that confuses the instructor. And if you have to go back and forth a few times just to clarify the question itself, it’s a waste of everyone’s time.
• Clearly identify yourself. I can’t tell you how many messages instructors receive with no identification. Instructors can usually make out a student’s name through the e-mail address, but if you have an odd e-mail name like Supergamer1000@gmail.com then it’s unprofessional to leave your instructor guessing about your identity.
• Be organized. Plan your message well. Sending an instructor ten messages in a row because you kept forgetting to add information can really be inefficient. It can also slow down the response time.
• Be professional. Remember to use care with written communication. Avoid sounding rude or unprofessional, even if you’re identifying an issue or problem.

Instructors want to be helpful, and if students do their part to make things clear and efficient, everyone wins.

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