For the First-time Virtual Learner

Online learning for the University of Iowa begins on Monday, March 30, 2020. Many fellow students who have never taken an online class are concerned about their ability to grasp the material they are expected to learn. While this is an understandable concern, I think a lot of the uncertainty comes from the actuality of being faced with a form of education that they’ve never done before, and quite possibly something they’ve intentionally avoided during their years in college. I’ve taken a large number of online classes. In fact, most of my Associates degree at Black Hawk College was earned via online learning. My degree was in English, so many of the online classes included literature and creative or technical writing. It is possible to gain just as good an education online as it is on campus.

The most important part of online education is to stay on task. I’ve had online instructors who structured every aspect of the semester, and other instructors who basically listed two or three deadlines during the semester by which x-amount of work needed to be completed. The pace at which students could complete assignments in these types of classes was left entirely up to each individual. For students who are already very organized, this format is not a problem. If you have an instructor who does not schedule each day, or at least each week, I strongly advice you to create your own schedule and stick to it. Choosing to wait until the last minute to cover a large amount of material is, in most cases, a choice to fail.

Literature based classes that require a lot of reading will most likely have a discussion board component. Don’t ignore this. Participation on discussion boards is supposed to mimic your in-class discussion. Often you will be required to post your thoughts based on the day’s reading, and possibly based on a specific question about that reading. You will often have to then read from one to three (sometimes more) posts from fellow students and comment on them. If a comment can turn into a back-and-forth, interactive discussion, even better. Let me say this one more time. Don’t ignore your discussion posts. Understandably these online classes will only cover the remaining six-weeks of class and not an entire semester, but know that ignoring discussions can reduce your grade. This I learned the hard way. The first online English class I had contained weekly and sometimes daily discussion posts. I often put these off, and even more frequently didn’t do them. I didn’t think they affected that much of my grade. Choosing not to post on discussion board dropped my grade by a whole letter grade. I never made that mistake again.

Finally, I recommend to stay in communication with your teachers. If you have any questions or concerns about any element of a class, reach out to your instructor. Of course, this is the same with face-to-face classes held on campus, but I think it’s even more important, and even vital for online classes. One concern I have about finishing this semester with online classes is that, in one of my classes, the instructor has not used ICON at all, not even to post the syllabus. He also has not reached out to any of us yet to explain how the next six-weeks will look for us. Given that classes resume within the next 48 hours, I decided to contact him. He explained that he is still preparing for our first session. This will be his first online teaching experience. Deep Breath. Six weeks and counting.