What’s your preference for absorbing information? Are you tactile (touch), auditory (sound), or visual (sight)? You may think that you’re limited to only sound and sight as an online student, but you can easily modify your home learning environment to fit your needs. Once you’ve identified where your mind is at, you’ll be able to adopt new learning methods that will compliment your experience in the classroom.

Define your learning style.

1. Visual learners learn best through their eyes.
2. Auditory learners obtain information best through their ears.
3. Tactile leaners absorb knowledge through their hands.

Take the time to observe yourself, and how you relay information in a subject. If you find yourself doing a search for videos and podcasts then you should focus on tuning your skills in the auditory direction. Here’s a great post on how to “Maximize Your Learning Style in School and Life.” It’s has great suggestions and exercises for fine-tuning your learning skills.

By: J. Mason

We all think we know how to write, but once classes start and the word counts rise we slowly realize how behind we are. Keep your head above water, and your brain from cramping, by taking a writing class in your first semester.

 [Related: Understand the Guidelines of Plagiarism and Cheating]

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It’s been said that the virtual platform allows the introverts to come out of their shell. Without the face to face interaction of a brick and mortar school, you rely more heavily on your social communication skills through text and content.

In the online learning environment the class clown isn’t favored, it’s the student that has the most value and information to offer the rest of the class. So, if you’re looking to fit in online, or at least network with students in your program, you’ll need to learn about the overall attitude of the student body. What’s the best way to do this? Get involved the school’s social networking groups. If you frequent a blog, or forum you’ll know that the more you particpate the more feedback and support you’ll receive. The same goes for social groups in an online school. Throw yourself into the mix by answering a question posted by one of the admins, or ask a question yourself. Depending on the response, helpful/not helpful, you can start to get a better sense on where other students are at.

[related: Go Public After Completing a Goal]

Don’t be afraid to use the chat feature, or engage other students within the classroom as well. Check with your advisor on if there’s a virtual student lounge you can visit to get in touch with other students. Online education still has the same end goal as any other brick and mortart institution, to educate and inspire innovation. Everyone interprets their education differently, but for the most part you’re in school because you want to be.

Just remember, you’re not alone in the learning process. There are thousands of other online students just like you working on their degree. One way to keep your motivation levels up while in school? Get social with your peers. I’ve seen friendships develop on our school pages on Facebook from students having continued and supportive interactions with one another. Take a second today to get connected with your peers online, you may find a new study buddy!

[related: Friending Your Classmates and Professors on Facebook]

By: J. Mason

A lot of first-time online students have a bit of anxiety and nervousness surrounding their first online classroom experience.  I wanted to compile some do’s and don’ts for those of you who may be new to this!

I did a bit of crowdsourcing for this post… thanks to the awesome folks from the AMU Facebook page for their awesome insight!

Without keeping you waiting any longer, here’s my top 10 list of online classroom fails (as shared with me by real, live online students!):

1. Cursing or ranting in a discussion post.
2. Improper use of grammar.
3. Failure to use spell check.
4. THE USE OF ALL CAPS.
5. Not citing your work, “borrowing” from classmates’ posts.
6. Failing to proof-read your post before submitting.
7. Attacking classmates and/or their opinions or beliefs.
8. Improperly using the copy/paste function from Word (resulting in a bunch of code mumbo jumbo before your actual post).
9. Scrutinizing classmates’ work instead of constructively contributing to discussion.
10. Being boisterous and presumptuous.

Want to read more? Check out the thread here!

By N. Cooper