Things Online Students Wish They Knew at the Beginning
“Take my advice, I beg you”
By Savannah Laux
Girl Using a Laptop Computer by Samuel Borges Photography
Created in Canva
All NSA students have stories where knowledge was hard learned. Being an online student, whether a veteran or a novice, can be difficult and there is always room for growth. All NSA students like to hand out knowledge for free with a giant neon sign that says, “Take my advice, I beg you.” Everyone wishes they had listened or at the very least learned from osmosis in chats at the beginning of their NSA career. No one wants to have one of those scary, “I procrastinated my school work, got behind, and became a giant ball of stress” stories. So, here is that free hard-learned knowledge NSA students love to give out and please read the sign, “Take my advice, I beg you.”
Identify Procrastination
Procrastination is a fickle beast that finds joy in feeding on the hopes, dreams, and time of students everywhere. Procrastination’s favorite snack is online students. Though the flexibility of NSA is an incredibly useful and important aspect for its students, it can also be a curse if students cannot hold themselves accountable. Especially for students coming from a rigid school environment, realizing there are no boundaries and school work can be put off for later is like the many newly initiated adults who bought a cake and ate the entire thing because they could. It is exhilarating until the nausea sets in.
Do Not Put Off Work
Putting off school work is the worst thing to do as an online student. It eventually starts to build up and even just one assignment that keeps being put off will start to trip up the rest of that beautifully crafted school schedule. Make a schedule, and stick to that schedule. Plan out a week of work at a time, and be realistic about what can be accomplished. By the end of the week, make sure all work that was planned has been accomplished. Sometimes things will come up, that is life, but stay diligent. Procrastination will be the tempting devil on your shoulder, but do not listen to what it says. Doing something now is always better than doing it later. Maintaining pace is important for any course schedule a student follows. Finishing a class over the regular eighteen weeks or in a shorter time frame requires diligence.
Be Diligent and Find Accountability
Diligence requires accountability and sometimes it helps to not be diligent alone. No matter the appeal of doing everything yourself, sometimes being diligent means needing another person to help hold accountability. Finding accountability in a parent or guardian, a supervisor, or even a friend can drastically change motivation levels. It is easier to get all your work done if a parent will be looking at your school schedule at the end of every day.
Find the Schedule that Works Best
Finding a schedule that works best for you can be a long process of trial and error. Different people have different learning styles. One student might work best doing one class in bulk while another student might work best working on a bit of every class a day. Finding what works best is important in maintaining motivation. Looking back at past experiences as well as sampling different schedule styles is a good way to figure out the best way for school work to be formatted.
Establish a Workplace
All students like to believe that they can focus on their schoolwork while lying on the couch with their computer on their chests and their favorite show blasting. However, does that work? Does it really? Establishing a place for work is important for preventing distractions. This place can be a dining room table, office, or coffee shop as long as it is a place that minimizes distractions and is isolated as a place of work. Going to sleep in the same place work is done melds the worlds of school and leisure which can make it hard to get into the right headspace.
Whether a new online student or a veteran, creating good habits for school work is important to academic success and reduced overall stress. Sometimes students have to learn by experience, but it is the hope of all who have gone through the process already that advice is enough where others do not have to learn the hard way. So, please, read the sign, “Take my advice, I beg you.”
Savannah Laux is the editor-in-chief of the Navigator and founder of the Navigator class at NSA. She is a senior and has been with NSA for three years. Savannah hopes to have a career as a lawyer and work in the area of human rights. Some of her hobbies are reading, writing, and music. She has a strong passion for writing that fuels her love for the Navigator.