With UCSC newly venturing into the territory of purely online classes, many students are likely nervous to try this unfamiliar format. Having taken nearly all of my first 2 years of GEs online, however, I’m here to tell you that online classes are just dandy if you know how to deal with them. Some of these may seem too obvious, but trust me they’re easier to forget than you think.
1. The instant the class opens, read the syllabus, schedule, and any other class materials you can. This will give you a basic understanding of what kind of class it will be and what is expected of you.
2. Write every due date from the class schedule on a wall calendar near your desk and check each kind of assignment off as you do it.
3. Figure out how many assignments you need to do every day (total number of assignments in given week / 7 days) and make sure to do at least that many. Do more if you can.
4. Save everything you write as text files and back them up periodically on an external hard drive or a flash drive.
5. Start any large final projects and extra credit projects as soon as possible – in the first week if you can.
6. Check the discussion forums at least once a day. People post a lot and it’s easier to read posts a little bit at a time than to be overwhelmed with a flood of reading material.
7. If you are worried about some small technicality in an assignment, don’t be afraid to ask the teacher about it.
8. Always try to do a little more work than is strictly necessary.
(And, for classes that have quizzes)
9. As you take each quiz, use a pencil to mark the phrase in the textbook you used to answer the question. For example, if it helped you answer question 2, write a circled number 2 near it. “But why?’ you may well ask: If you can prove a question on a quiz was graded incorrectly you might just get that half a point (or however much) back.
10. Keep a second textbook and an encyclopedia handy during the quizzes. You may not be able to find the answers to some of the quiz questions in the course textbook (as with some in-person classes, the quizzes for online classes aren’t always completely fair).
Don’t be afraid to take an online class. I’ve taken excellent classes on everything from video editing to drawing. If nothing else, after spending the last 13 hours moving all of my possessions from a Santa Cruz storage unit to my new abode at USC in SoCal, I can at least reflect on how online classes can often be much more convenient.
Well, onward and upward. It’s been great writing for my fellow nanner sluggys on Uloop. Keep sluggin’ it out, y’all!