Scheduling Your Online Courses

By Kaitlin Hurtado on March 24, 2017

One of the many perks of being able to schedule your own classes in college is being able to choose whether to take a class online or not. Taking an online course may not be for everyone, but it can be a game-changer for those with schedules packed with classes, internships, extracurriculars, and/or jobs.

While the flexibility of online courses can make it fall down the list of priorities as they lack a definite time stamp, do not let the freedom get to you and be prepared to set aside time for your online courses just like you would any other class or responsibility.

Image via pexels.com

Put your responsibilities down in writing

Whether it is at the start of every week, month, or any time period you prefer, set aside time to plan for how you are going to delegate your time. Everyone has a heavy load to carry — family, friends, school, work, clubs — and can easily be overwhelmed by the time commitment that each responsibility requires. If you are not on top of the club meetings, scheduled shifts, friend outings, and classes you are expected to attend, it is easier to miss out on any of the given commitments, especially if you solely rely on your mind to keep track of everything.

To make things easier for yourself, figure out a scheduling plan that works for you. It may come in the form of a planner, which comes in various layouts (daily, weekly, monthly) to help you find maximum efficiency. If planners with set layouts do not work for you, try your hand at bullet journaling to keep organized.

If you tend to prefer keeping things online, just like your online course, consider Google Calendar, which allows you to schedule your commitments out online and allows access wherever you are able to log into your account. The additional perk of Google Calendar is that you can enable reminders to alert you when something is due or coming up, giving you a reliable reminder system when your mind is overwhelmed and more prone to forgetting responsibilities.

Online courses can easily be pushed to the back of your mind and forgotten about if you do not plan them into your schedule. Whether you use Google Calendar, scheduling apps, or your own personal planner, it is in your best interest to physically keep track of your responsibilities instead of relying on yourself to mentally keep track of them.

Plan time for your online courses between your other time commitments

Scheduling classes in college will not always work in your favor; more often than not, you will have large gaps between classes that you won’t be able to avoid. In those awkward one hour to three-hour gaps, plan to dedicate time to work on your online course. Working on online courses during gaps may help you focus more, as you are already in a school-orientated focus and are most likely to remain on campus during your break.

Remaining on campus for your gaps, regardless of if it’s to work on your online course, is beneficial as it cuts out any wasted time that commuting back to your living space would cost. Working on your online course during your gaps between classes keeps all of your academic work into a single chunk rather than spreading yourself thin throughout the day.

Do not push your online course down your list of priorities or leave unfinished coursework until the last minute

Because online courses do not require physical attendance, they can slip down your list of priorities in order to make time for things that seem more urgent, like a paper or shift at work. However, the pushing back does amount to something over a period of time and it is definitely something you do not want to meet at the end of the quarter or semester.

Just as if you had pushed back all the readings for a specific course, you are going to find yourself struggling to catch up to all the assignments and readings you had pushed back all quarter or semester. Do not let the flexibility of online courses fool you; if anything, they encourage you to be more responsible because you will most likely be alone in making sure you are keeping up with the pace of the online course rather than keeping up by going to a lecture a couple of times a week.

Depending on how the online course is structured, you may be facing several small deadlines (discussion posts, quizzes) over the course of the week or a few major deadlines (exams, papers) over the course of a quarter or semester. Small assignments should be scheduled for and planned accordingly — be prepared to meet the deadline just as you would for any other course’s homework assignment.

For bigger assignments, like essays, do not forget to set aside time to actually write the paper. You may have the deadline written down in the planner of your choice, but it is easy to forget about how much time you should be putting into the paper when there are more urgent deadlines preceding the paper’s deadline.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format