Quality
Preparing for an Online Degree Program
The prospect of entering (or returning) to college can be a daunting challenge for most any adult, bringing anxiety and nervousness. From personal experience, I can attest that these feelings are compounded based on a fear of unknown circumstances and unfamiliar surroundings associated with online degree programs. Committing to the pursuit or completion of a degree via an online program is a significant first-step, but there are several preparations you can take that can increase the chances for success and alleviate the preparatory anxiety.
First, if you have not already done so, begin familiarizing yourself with key productivity and online applications. Most of the schools offering online degree programs require the use of software currently in use (and accepted as “standard” in the personal and business computing environment). Microsoft Office applications are some of the most common applications in use, though compatibility improvements between applications will allow the use other software products if you so desire. Access to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is also an essential tool; I would suggest that you use a high-speed Internet connection if at all possible, as this will improve connectivity and minimize the time spent in downloading course materials and uploading assignments. You should have at least one email account through your ISP. From personal experience, I would suggest establishing a separate email account for school-related correspondence, as this will prevent inbox clutter and ensure that critical school-related correspondence will not be lost or overlooked. This will also help in controlling unwanted (spam) emails in this account, as you can set up the email client to accept correspondence from known sources.
Related posts
Home-Schooling – Teaching Real Life
When I think about it, I know almost no one of my generation who doesn’t have a story about a school trauma with a teacher or other students that affected their self-image for at least a period of their youth, if not beyond. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is mostly because schools, especially middle schools and high schools, become their own mini-societies, however unnatural a society made of up people of all one age and maturity level is in comparison to the so-called “real world”. Thus, the culture of the peer group and the school becomes the “real world” almost completely to a middle schooler or a high schooler. Just at the age when they are supposed to separating to a degree from their families and realizing their own individuality, they are thrust into a daily world where some of the most shallow “values” are used to judge them and, inevitably, many come to judge themselves negatively accordingly.
Parents who homeschool and don’t offer up their children to the prevailing culture of pre-adolescence and adolescence are often though to be over-protective and trying to shelter their children from “reality”. However, I contend that since adolescent school culture only lasts for a few years and then thrusts young people who have been almost wholly pre-occupied by ideas and issues which will have virtually no future value in helping them lead productive adult lives, that homeschooling is perhaps not as odd as it seems to some.
Related posts