Never Been an Online Student…Neither Have I

by | December 19th, 2017

Never been an online student…..neither have I. This January 2017 I registered for my first course as a graduate student at Excelsior College. Now please keep in mind, I have never taken online courses and it’s been 4 years since I have written a paper.  Well let me tell you I was NERVOUS. I felt so anxious to get back into the swing of being a student. Ultimately, I was worried about doing well.

Well after much talking to friends and family, I mustered up the energy to log into blackboard on my first day of the term. As I was exploring blackboard, I realized there were a lot of resources that would help me. From the blackboard tutorial to the instructor I was set up with a solid foundation. Don’t get me wrong, I had to look things up and google became my best friend.

Here are the resources that were helpful for me:

  • Excelsior College Library – peer viewed articles, books, magazines and so much more.
  • Microsoft Word APA template – when it was time to write a paper Word has a template where it would walk you through the shell of the paper i.e. cover page, headers, reference page etc.
  • Messages – on blackboard this is where you can send direct messages to your instructor

Side note: it’s important to cite resources that you have used or even paraphrased, you don’t want to plagiarize. Plus it’s important to give credit when credit is due.

Overall, I had to get out of my own way of setting high expectations for myself. As one of my instructors told me B’s get degrees. I find if you are setting aside time to dedicate to school, reading the materials, and submitting work on time, you will be A okay. As much work as you put into the class, is what you will get out of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check me out after work, doing school work! If I can do it, so can you.

Until next time,

Raven Short

Student Success Coach