Online College Course Forum

One of the outcomes of a good education is that you learn more than just the subjects you are studying. For some students this can be based round the social skills and graces that they learn from the staff, students and institution they interact with; for others it can be the ability to learn, or to research, or to write well.

Online courses mean that you interact in different ways with your fellow students, staff and the institution you are studying through. But these ways can also teach you other skills. I have found that since I started using the internet for much of my daily communications, my writing skills have broadened, and my day to day writing sounds much like the way I speak - a great advantage when I want to communicate directly by words on paper.

A friend of mine tells me that they have become totally familiar and without fear in the use of day to day technology, whereas they had real problems before they started to study. What can you learn?

The idea of taking time to complete an online degree is a really attractive one if you are livng the kind of life that tries to combine many pressures - work, family, social obligations. Most online programs allow you to take one online course at a time, and you can often elect to have a break in between courses.

This allows you to plan your study into relatively stress free times, and gives you a better chance of studying well. Many people take time to complete an online degree - as much as four or five years - with the agreement of the university or institution that they are studying with.

Online study is a truely flexible option, giving you the opportunity to choose both the place and the time in which you can study.

I've discovered a new aid to online study - knitting. I'm not good at keeping my concentration going under pressure, especially if I'm aware that there are several things that need my attention. One of the ways that I combat this is to do two things at once.

So I've rigged up my room so I have a book rest at eye level, and I can read books and knit at the same time. For some reason when I do this, I not only satisfy the need to do more than one thing at once, I also absorb the material better. Very weird.