8 Tips for Success in Online Degree Programs

"I try to stay ahead. If something comes up, then I have some buffer time. It's a very efficient program but you must be disciplined.

"… you do have to be committed. And by committed, you have to carve out time. You have to read the content, go through the exercises, complete the assignments, and participate in the team projects. You have to do your best to stay on track. If you get behind, it's difficult to catch up."

"Anybody who wants to pursue their education has to work for it. It doesn't matter what degree it is, you have to want it. Nobody is going to force anything upon you. If you want it, it will come easy, because you'll be willing to give of yourself for it. That's what it all comes down to. Online learning is about giving of yourself, giving up your time to get to where you want because everything else is temporary. You have to be willing to make sacrifices so that you can get through the program.

"It's been proven time and time again. The most important thing is, if you want it, you can achieve it."

"You need to make sure you are a self-starter and develop strategies of what works well for you. Meet hard deadlines, learn to reach out to classmates, to your professors if you are struggling. You're not in it by yourself. You have the support of others."

"… it's an opportunity to be in charge of your own learning. You'll have a lot of independent study time, and you get to choose how you deal with that.

"Sometimes emailing professors is difficult, so I would recommend being a little bit persistent if the professors didn't understand your question or trying to set up some face-to-face virtual time to clarify."

"The best advice that I could give somebody is, going into it, you need to know yourself. What I mean by that is — and it would be good advice for every student, really — you need to know things like your study habits. What ways do you study best? Do you study well on your own? Can you motivate yourself to get your stuff done on your own? If you can, then online would be a great option. Once you choose online, the biggest advice I could give is just to stay organized. Go through all your syllabuses, write down all your due dates and things like that in a way that will keep them organized. Always know what's approaching. Plan ahead and study a little bit at a time when it is convenient for you but also make sure that you get all your stuff done ahead of time to fit in with deadlines and due dates and things like that."

"… get your time management in order. Because that is probably the thing that will crush you if you put it off until an hour or two before things are due, or you don't watch the lectures. You really need to treat this like an in-person on-campus class. Make it so you force yourself to watch the lectures, read the book, and do your homework just as you would if you were going into class … because if you don't, it will not go well. Not at all."

"I work 7 to 4 during the day, then I come home, make dinner, try to catch up with my husband on how his day went, and then pretty much from 6 to 9, off and on, depending on the day, I'm doing homework, I'm doing group assignments, final projects. There's a lot of evenings and weekends that are spent just working on coursework. If it's not reading chapters, it's studying for the midterm, studying for a final or writing a paper that's 10 pages long. So, it's a lot of work, but I've definitely retained a lot of information as well."