‘How to’ Keep On Track in Class

Posted on March 10, 2008 by Jennifer Brady

I just read a short ‘how to’ from About.com’s Jamie Littlefield on interpreting your course syllabus in order to stay on track in your online course. She offers 6 How To’s as well as the following quick tips:

When adding due dates to your calendar, write in pencil. That way, you’ll be able to make changes easily.
Consider purchasing a 5-day or 7-day planner. This will make it simple for you to create a weekly to-do list.
If a particular assignment makes up a large part of your grade, you may want to mark that on your calendar as well.
Devote the lion’s share of your attention to assignments that have a big affect on your grade.

I would like to add another great tool that I find useful in managing my life which is to schedule deadlines and reminders through your web-based calendar. I use Microsoft Outlook and schedule every deadline with reminders set in enough time to allow for ample prep-time. You can customize the ‘labels’ within your Outlook calendar to help make deadlines color coded and easily noticeable when glancing at your calendar.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share to help keep organized and on track in an online class?