Show up Prepared for Class
I have heard from many people that one of the greatest advantages of learning online is the ability to learn in your pajamas, or underwear or whatever you decide is the most comfortable. And it seems like students seem to equate the lack of need to dress for class with the lack of need to show up prepared for class.
If anything you should make an effort to be very prepared for the first day of class!
And what should you bring with you to class? While you may think back to your days in school and think pencils, papers and books, you'd only be partially right.
Here's my list of things you should have ready the first day of class:
- Your learning tools: This means besides pencils, papers and books you will need to make sure you have a computer, connection to the internet and any software or other tools that the syllabus for your course suggest you have. If you have any questions about what is needed, ask your instructor!
- Time: Even though you are learning online and can learn anytime, day or night, you will be more successful if you schedule time on your calendar for attending class. Setting aside this time and letting those in your life know you will be attending class at that time will help you stay on top of the work and not fall behind.
- A backup plan: We all know how reliable computers can be - in a moment of crisis they are the weakest link in the chain. So, don't count on your regular computeror your regular internet connection. Have a backup plan, someplace you can go to complete your course work or at least let your instructor know what is going on. Most libraries offer internet access for free. The coffee shop around the corner from me has a computer I can use for free. Look for options so you will know what to do when the worst happens.
- Curiosity: When you learn online you don't have to learn just what the teacher tells you to learn. You can learn about any aspect of the topic of the class that interests you or that you find useful to you. And the expertise you acquire on those topics can be brought back to the class and shared with your classmates so they get to see an aspect of the topic they might never have otherwise.
You've heard me say many times before that you get out of an online class what you put into it. Being prepared for your class when it starts is definitely a way to start putting the best into your online learning experience from the very beginning.
I know I saw that somewhere! Finding Lost Posts
If you are in a class that has been very active in the discussion boards you may find yourself in the situation of trying to find the post you want to respond to or one that contains a link that you wanted to explore. Instead of searching through all the posts, you can use these tools:
Forum Search: On the left side of the classroom, just below the Activities block is the Forum Search block. Type in a word or phrase that might be found in the post you are looking for and click on the Search button. This will search all the posts in the class and return a list of the discussions with the matching text highlighted.
If this does not help or returns too many posts, you can use the Advanced Search link in the Forum Search block. This will bring you to a form that includes other search options, like exact phrase, date range, author name and more.
Profiles: You can view a list of posts by any person in your class, including your own. Click on the Participants link in the People block on the top left side of the main classroom screen. You will then see a list of participants in the class. Click on any name in the list to view more information about that person. Just above their information is two tabs. The second one says "Forum Posts". Click on that to see a list of posts by that person sorted with the most recent appearing first.
Hopefully these tips will help you to locate the missing information you need quickly.
Now, if finding stuff on my desk were so easy!
Your Assignment Is...
We all know the experience of learning something new by following the steps someone has written for us. It typically works perfectly and looks beautiful or work just like we'd want when we are done. When we try to do something a little different than the instructions we were given, things do not always work as expected.
That's kind of the idea behind the Assignment part of each lesson. With the Practice you are doing work that has an expected result. When you do the Assignment you get to try what you have learned on your own. This is how you really learn and make the class content your own.
And things don't always turn out right the first time!
The good news is your instructor is just a post away! Post a message to the Questions and Comments board or post your project as it is to the Assignments area and tell your instructor what problems you are having and what you are trying to accomplish. Your instructor will help by pointing you in the right direction, find the problem or offer advice on how you can improve your work.
This is the part of the class our instructors like the most - helping you to use your new skills in a way that will benefit you!
And once your Assignment is posted, you get a chance to see the work your classmates turned in. This allows you to see many different ways to apply what you have learned to real-world solutions. Chances are a classmate will try something you had not thought of and you have a chance to learn something new. And of course your classmates will also have the chance to learn from your work.
With the feedback you give your classmates you can offer encouragement, advice or congratulations on a job well-done. And they will do the same for you.
Learning Linux: New Classes Added
We are expanding our course offerings all over the place, but the biggest growth has been in our Linux courses. We started offering a few basic courses last year:
This year we have added quite a few and have more in the works!
Overview of Linux Shells - People who have used Linux any length of time will agree that the secret to the power of Linux is in learning to use the Shells. The Bash Shell is probably the most popular of the Linux shells but people who moved from Unix to Linux all have their reasons for loving C Shell and others. This course will give you a good overview of the shells and the basic commands for working with the command prompt in Linux. Want to just learn BASH, check out: Using the BASH Shell.
Using SSH - the Secure Shell - Even if you are not running Linux on your desktop, if you are hosting a website on a Linux or Unix server you may have SSH access to your web server. If so, find out what kinds of things you can do from the shell to make managing your website easier. The great thing about SSH is that all your work is encrypted so no one can see your server passwords or server information.
Using the Emacs Editor - back before there were fancy word processors and graphical applications and mice to help us create documents, there was the Emacs editor. You could accomplish anything from complex searches and replaces to copy and pastes with the press of a combination of buttons. While you still may never completely give up your mouse, this course will have you pressing [ESC][META][ALT][CTRL][SHIFT] all over Emacs! Not up to the challenge of Emacs? Try Using the Vi Editor instead!
Look for Linux application courses on OpenOffice and GIMP coming soon!
