Tips for Interpersonal Work with Classmates
One significant difference between taking courses through online colleges and what you may be used to in a traditional classroom is the difference in interaction with those who are taking the classes with you. It is no longer a matter of sitting next to the right person or having to look around someone's head in front of you so that you can see the board at the front of the room. Virtually all of your communication with your fellow classmates will be in the form of e-mails, chat room discussions and discussion board posts. Despite the difference, you have the same basic choice that you have in a traditional school: to either participate and get involved with meeting and interacting with others or to stay to yourself.
Your professor may assign you projects or collaborations with your classmates on occasion, and in order to facilitate the work comfortably, you will likely be exchanging a good deal of e-mail and having some chat meetings. Here are a few tips to help you work with your classmates for a successful and productive school career in online colleges:
- Communicate Frequently: It is much easier for an e-mail to get lost in a junk filter or for a classmate to go out of town and miss an important deadline with regards to your project than if you were meeting regularly in a classroom environment to talk. It is important that you get to know the schedules of those you will be working with so that you can decide on the best times to communicate in working together on your collaboration.
- Set Online Appointments as Needed: You may not meet up at the school library to study for a test, but you can make an appointment to be in an assigned chat room together at a specific time and date. This will allow you and as many others as you need to work with to have "live" instant communication for bouncing ideas off one another or possibly even whiteboards that will allow you to sketch out anything you need.
- Be Extra Gentle in Your Critiques:Often professors will assign students to critique each others' work or discussion board posts. On the Internet, it is difficult to convey sarcasm and jest effectively and all too easy to mistake a light-hearted comment for anger and hostility. If you have to provide a critique for someone else's work, make sure you keep it professional and straightforward - remember to critique the work, not the writer.
- Give Yourself Extra Time to Turn in: A common mistake that a lot of people make in online colleges is to wait until the last minute to try to submit an assignment - even if it was completed earlier in the week. This can leave you somewhat vulnerable - especially if your school's online service goes down for a time during a due date. Plan to submit your work when you finish it, which should be at least a day in advance of the due date if at all possible.
