IGASENG Education

The Three Ps of Earning A Bachelor’s Degree With Online Degree Programs

Today, many students are looking for greater convenience and flexibility in their educational pursuits, including military education online, adult education online, and online degree programs. In addition to convenience and flexibility, adult education online offers high-quality instruction along with individual guidance and personal support. However, as with everything in life, what you get out of an online degree program is all about what you put into it. The following pointers will help you be successful – and enjoy – your online degree program.

Participation

Your comments, questions, and answers are valuable in making your online class feel like a community, making participation an important aspect of your online degree program. Always read your course syllabus thoroughly, review it from time to time, and stay in contact with your instructor. And remember, it is your responsibility to contact the instructor before the end of the first week of your online class.

While you should strive to be an active, involved, and independent learner, keep in mind that actively joining in group discussions online will also make you feel more like a member of a group. You can use email, chat, or bulletin board tools to ask questions of other students, or even form virtual study groups to support each other.

Persistence

Treat your Internet course with the same dedication and effort that you would devote to an in-classroom course. Just like in offline classes, persistence is important for e-learners, too. Keep trying until you get the answers you need, and don’t be afraid to seek out the answers from your classmates and instructor.

If a technical problem arises with your computer, don’t put off dealing with it. Send a note to your instructor immediately, and seek repairs or find an alternate option for completing your work. Similarly, if you are having trouble with your Internet connection, contact your Internet provider, or consider going to an Internet caf?� or other public area with access to internet.

Persistence applies to questions about material covered in the course as well. Give yourself plenty of time to complete your assignments and prepare for tests, and if you have a question – speak up! No one can see that baffled look on your face, so if you need clarification or explanation, ask for it.

Most e-courses and online degree programs have a steady weekly schedule of assignments. Staying on top of this is important to success. Be sure to mark all your assignments and when they are due on your calendar. Make special note of any tests or exams and make time to study in advance. Some classes require that exams be proctored, and your proctor may not be available after hours, so be sure to make arrangements to take off work if necessary.

Patience

They say patience is a virtue for a reason. It’s not always easy, but being patient will make things much easier for you as well as your classmates and instructor. You don’t sit by your computer 24 hours a day, and neither does your instructor, so don’t get upset if takes several days before your instructor to respond to your emails (and certainly do not expect them to respond to you on a weekend or holiday).

Be patient with yourself as well, and allow extra time as needed to master any course content or any new technical skills that may be unfamiliar to you. Be considerate in your comments and emails to classmates. When you send an email or place a comment on the bulletin board, remember that there is a person on the other side just like you who may still be learning course content. You wouldn’t start yelling at someone in a face-to-face course, and the same rules of etiquette apply in an online classroom. Others can’t see that you’re smiling when you make a sarcastic remark, or that you’re angered by someone’s statement, so write your messages carefully so that they clearly convey your meaning.

Keep in mind the 3 Ps of e-learning – Participation, Persistence and Patience – and you will be sure to find success in your online degree program.

Advantages in Earning a Cert 3 Business Accreditation

With schooling opportunities increasing and being made available to everyone who has a computer and an internet connection, it is only wise to seek out more schooling so you can advance in your own field and make more money throughout your career. A Cert 3 Business accreditation will in fact lead you to better job opportunities and give you the knowledge and skill sets to be able to compete in today’s business environment.

The Cert 3 courses are specifically geared towards those in the administrative fields. Administrative assistants, clerks and those in the data entry environment stand to gain the most from these courses.

It is not meant for those who really have no previous experience in administration. These courses offer more advanced training for those that already have prior experience and are looking to gain more in knowledge and learn more about how to improve their skills. More specifically, it will train them to be better with computers and expand their knowledge in the administrative environment.

If you have taken some business courses already and/or are already working in an administrative position, the Cert 3 business courses will work perfect for you. If you have no previous experience, a Cert 2 in business will certainly serve you better and give you the knowledge you need to eventually move up into the Cert 3 or Cert 4 courses.

A Cert 3 Business accreditation is smiled upon by higher ups in industry and large businesses. These courses are geared perfectly towards these environments and will give you an edge when competing for jobs in industry. Here’s a brief look at what these courses will train you to do.

You will learn to be able to work with payroll and how to process pay for fellow employees in a very efficient and time saving manner. You will also be able to use highly complex computers and software to create advanced spreadsheets giving an important array of information. It will also teach you how to work with sophisticated accounts in the business world.

These are just a few of the functions that a Cert 3 Business course can train you in. Most importantly, it will give you the skills to write and communicate to be a better administrative professional so you can make more money in the long run. The best part about this type of curriculum is the fact that you can take these courses online and at your own convenience.

Do Adjunct Instructors Need a Hybrid Approach?

Many adjunct instructors that are teaching classes in a traditional classroom environment are finding that there is an option available to utilize an online classroom platform. If this option is available for your class, have you utilized it or considered the benefit of creating a hybrid form of classroom learning? What do you believe about your students’ ability to incorporate online classroom activities? It is understandable that this facilitation approach is going to require an additional investment of time on your part to create a structured learning environment from an empty course shell. There may be a learning curve involved for you, as well as your students, to become familiar with and navigate through this online environment. Despite these initial challenges it is very likely that a hybrid classroom approach can enhance the overall process of learning because of its potential to increase student engagement in the class.

If you are new to the online classroom platform the first step would be to find tutorials that will help you learn how to create the basic functions. For example, some institutions utilize the Blackboard and Moodle platforms. There are numerous informative videos available on YouTube that can help walk you through the necessary steps to get started. At a very minimum, it would be beneficial to establish a questions thread, a resources forum, a news forum, and a discussion forum. This will provide students with another way to contact you and it will allow you to have a central repository for handouts, website links, updates, videos, and additional materials that you would like to share. A discussion forum can help students feel connected to the class, to each other, and promote collaboration among them.

Utilizing an online classroom platform extends accessibility of the class and the instructor, turning a weekly class session into a continuous learning process. In a traditional classroom environment students may wait to study or complete their assignments until it is close to the next class session. By asking students to participate in the online portion of the class they are encouraged to work with the course concepts throughout the week and continue processing the information they have acquired. Initially you may need to offer an incentive such as extra credit or assigned points as a means of motivating students to participate; however, in the long run students are likely to be involved because they are often used to engaging in online social networking communities. You can also encourage students to check the online classroom on a regular basis by posting frequent updates or additional resources. When you are ready to introduce the online portion of your class take time to present a demonstration during one of your weekly lectures so that you can walk students through the various components and explain the purpose of each one.

The ultimate purpose of establishing a hybrid form of classroom learning is not to create additional work for you or busywork for the students. In order for this type of facilitation strategy to be effective it needs to be viewed as another way to connect students with the course and the information that they are receiving, for the purpose of enhancing the process of learning and knowledge creation. This also helps you reach out and connect with learning styles that may not be fully addressed with the traditional lecture. As you increase the number of interactions that students have with the class, you are also increasing their engagement and participation while providing additional support for their continued academic development.

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Timesaving Options for Counseling Continuing Education

As a counselor, it is vital for you to keep up with your counseling continuing education credits. Losing track of those means losing your license and even your practice. It is important to keep up with your CEs, making sure you always know when its time to get more credits.

When enrolling in a course, take stock in how busy you are and how much time you may have to devote to a class. If you are balancing a relationship, family and a burgeoning practice you may need a counseling continuing education credit that allows a little more flexibility. On the contrary, maybe you have extra time this year to devote to a class. Either circumstance is a factor in the kind of course in which you can seek enrollment.

If you are one of those people that are constantly strapped for time, consider an audiotape course. This course is convenient for those whose only precious learning time is in their car each morning commuting. Just plug in the audio recording of a lecture or telephone discussion, listen as you drive and remember to take the quiz later. As long as you are able to give the material enough undivided attention to later review the major discussion points, you should have very little difficulty passing the quiz. Most of the audio courses have a link to an online quiz that once you have passed allows you access to a CE certificate for your files.

Perhaps you’d rather fit in course study in between clients at the office. An online course may be right for you. Online course work for counselors generally means finding a suitable course provided by a national or state approved board or association. Once you’ve found the right course, you’ll be required to simply enroll in the course online. Once you’ve submitted your information, you’ll gain access to the course reading materials and any other work or assignments for the class. You finish by passing the quiz and gaining your certificate.

The last option, which may seem a bit closer to the traditional classroom experience, is the telephone course. Attendees of this course usually sign-up to be part of a telephone call that involves the main speaker and featured topic as well as other counselors listening in for continuing education credits. This call may be open for you to discuss ideas and ask questions, however it is occasionally offered as a closed conference call.

Whatever method of counseling continuing education you choose, you can be assured that if you spend time researching you can find the best fit for you. There are a large amount of companies, institutions and publications on the web that offer CEU course work and certificates. Look for an appropriate match for your lifestyle and wallet. Being well versed in the world of CEUs can provide you with a greater understanding of continuing education in general.