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Sometimes students misunderstand what is meant by the "flexibility" of online classes.
Flexibility is a strong selling point for online education. Students don't need to drive to a location once, twice or three times a week to attend class. School work can be done after the kids go to bed. It can be done in the middle of the night. It can be done early in the morning. If you want to go to class in your pajamas, nobody is going to know or care. The flexibility of online classes allows for a student who has an emergency to make up the work the next day.
However, flexibility does not mean you can choose to do or not do course assignments. Flexibility does not lessen the amount of work required for a class. Flexibility does not eliminate the necessity of setting aside a significant amount of time each week to complete assignments. Nor does flexibility eliminate the need to "attend class." The flexibility of online courses doesn't change the need to make time sacrifices to earn a college education.
Here's some basic assumptions of NBC's online education program. A student in a traditional college class spends about 12 hours in class for every semester hour of credit. For every hour spent in class, it is also expected that a student will spend two hours in reading, studying and doing assignments. This means that for every hour of credit, a student should devote more than thirty hours of study. For a four-hour course this means about 120 hours of "time on task." In a traditional on-campus course this time is spread over about fourteen weeks. Since NBC's online classes are only six weeks long, a student should plan to give 20 hours a week to their education. (It could be a little more or less depending upon how fast you read and type.)
You are encouraged to set aside 5-6 hours of time a couple times a week as your "school" time. Protect these times for study and course work, just as you would scheduled class times in a traditional program. You can set these times whenever is the most convenient for you (that's why online education has flexibility), but I encourage you to develop a consistent pattern. In addition to these large blocks of time for reading and writing, you should set aside an hour or two each day to "connect", to read notes, and to make responses. You can choose any time of day, but I recommend that you keep it consistent. If you do it in the morning, do it every morning. If you do it after the kids go to bed, do it every night at that time. If you will develop good time and study habits, your online educational program will bring you great fulfillment.
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Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008 | Phone: 405-491-6693 - Fax: 405-491-6658
Copyright © 2000 - Last Updated: June 2, 2008 | URL: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/f.htm