Speaker 1: Okay, so there are a few tips that I want to throw out there just in terms of being successful in an online class. A lot of times online classes, you know, suffer from a variety of problems, a lot of course attrition, you know, like you start the class with a million students, by the time the class is over you have eight, you know, stuff like that. One of the big problems that leads to this is just students not staying on top of things, and students sort of acting like they're not really in a class just because it's online. So I just want to give you a little bit of a, you know, a pep talk right from the get-go on how to be successful in an online class and how to make this sort of environment really effective for you. The biggest thing about an online class is that it's online, it's not, you don't have to go somewhere for it. The issue with that is that the accountability ends up being almost entirely student-driven. You know, even if it's not a self-paced course, you know, it still always comes down to the student because the student's the one who has to log into the class, the student's the one who has to do the reading, the student's the one who has to do the homework, the student's the one who has to watch the lectures, you know, all of that sort of stuff, and there's not somebody there just being like, do it, do it, do it, you know, like you don't have that like you would in a live class. So with all that in mind, it's my advice to you to just work on setting alarms for yourself, like writing things in a calendar, you know, getting a good calendar app for your cell phone even, you know, stuff like that will really help. Setting yourself little alerts, okay, this is the day that my discussion board post is due, you know, set the alarm, you know, five hours ahead so you have plenty of time to take advantage of that time. This is when this paper is due, this is when I need to do this reading, I'm going to do all the reading right now to like get really far ahead. I mean, that's all perfectly well and good, just make sure that you're staying on top of things because one thing about an online class is that once you start falling behind, it can be really difficult to make that back up, and unlike in a live class, you're not necessarily going to have somebody standing there being like, hey, remember that this is due, hey, remember that this is due, hey, students who are sitting right in front of me, remember that this is due. You are the one who needs to pay close attention to due dates and make sure that you're staying on task. So I really recommend spending a lot of time with the syllabus, reading it all very closely, you know, printing it out yourself and highlighting things that are important or essential or necessary because I know that a lot of times in an online class, things that normally would just be said to you out loud are now in writing, and it can sometimes seem like it's just a wall of writing in front of you. That's a problem that we deal with in this format. So you just want to make sure that you are taking the time to read through things clearly, that there is no confusion, and that you're doing your part and not just sort of resting on your laurels. With all that in mind, do make sure that before you end up writing to tech support or contacting your professor or anything like that, that you're doing your due diligence to make sure that you're trying to find the data yourself on the platform because it's all going to be there. Only under rare instances is there going to be something that isn't there. All that being said, do feel free to email or message your professor if you have questions, if something comes up, if you're bothered by something, if you're confused about something. Do make sure, do feel free to write an email or to post something in a message board, however, whatever medium works best. One thing to make sure to do though is to proofread those emails and to make them professional because a lot of times emails that professors receive, if they're not proofread, if they're not professionally written, they're not necessarily going to make any sense to the professor. So make sure that you're taking as much attention with that as with anything else because if you're writing, that's the way the impression of you is going to be made. With all that in mind, make sure it's super important in an online class that you proofread everything that you write. Emails to professors, discussion board posts, the papers that you write. Obviously, you're going to think like, oh yeah, proofreading is important in any sort of context. Proofreading is important if I'm writing a paper. But in a format like this where we're not necessarily always going to be seeing each other's faces, you're not going to be seeing your classmates' faces, the way that you write is who you are. And if that writing is just full of typos and looks really sloppy, people are going to think that you are a sloppy person. So you want to make sure that you're doing your due diligence to present yourself professionally. With that in mind, it's really key that you are extra polite in this format because people can read things the wrong way. People can take things the wrong way, especially when you start discussing controversial issues. So make sure to be polite. Work hard. Turn in your own work. Don't plagiarize. Be ethical. Keep an eye on due dates and stay on top of things. If you do all of that, you should have no problem succeeding in an online course.