What it’s really like going to school online

It’s a lot harder than you think

Going to school online probably seems ethereal to some, but I’m here to tell you that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. At this point, most college students have taken at least one course online, but not a lot have experienced having their entire course load being through a website.

I took my first online class my junior year of high school through Virtual Virginia. For one period a day, I’d sit in the library, log on to a computer, and follow the lesson for the day that typically resembled a powerpoint presentation. Once a month we were required to call our teacher from the library to check up on how everything was going with the class.

The next year, I took three online courses and spent half of my school day in the library at a computer, that is until I got sick and had to be on homebound. For the remainder of the time that I was enrolled in my public school, I logged onto my classes from home and I had a teacher from my school teach me what I had missed from my in-person classes. Eventually, renewing homebound became too much so my family and I decided to look into homeschooling alternatives, mainly online options.

The first thing you need to know about online schools is that you have to do your research.

As messed up as it sounds, there are a lot of fake online schools out there trying to scam you for your money. Do your research and make sure your school is accredited. After months of researching, my mom found Liberty University Online Academy, a private online high school through Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

Be sure to keep a schedule and do your work.

Virtual Virginia scheduled assignments for me; they gave me set due dates to complete certain modules and assignments. LUOA, however, was more free. You could work at your own pace, which, theoretically, is nice, but if you’re easily distracted it can hinder you more than help you. It took me a lot of extra time to finish my work because I let myself get lazy. This is easy to avoid if you can regulate yourself and make your own schedule.

Make sure to take classes that you can do on your own.

Most online schools have a chat feature or some way to contact your teacher when you need help, however, this is usually done via instant messaging, email, or phone call, modes in which it is difficult to demonstrate how to do something. This makes math rather difficult if it’s not your strong point. This can also be true of the more difficult sciences that involve lots of formulas, as well. Choose wisely.

Moderate yourself.

I know I already said to be sure to keep a schedule, but I can’t stress enough how much you have to stay on top of yourself and your work. Make sure that if you don’t understand something, you call your teacher. If there’s some sort of glitch with a quiz or test (which, sadly, happens quite frequently), be sure to let them know. Make sure you get a certain amount of work done each day, otherwise you might find yourself getting distracted and having to take longer to finish. The last thing you want is to still be working on classes over break.

Schedule fun time as well as work time.

It can be easy to get in the zone and just keep working on school work, but if you’re sacrificing all your personal time, you need to give yourself a break.

Change up your scenery.

The beauty of online classes is that you can take them anywhere there’s a wifi connection. I would often do my homework on the back porch to get some fresh air.

It can get lonely, so make sure to socialize.

One of the biggest struggles I had while going to school online was loneliness. I learned the hard way that the saying “out of sight, out of mind” is all too accurate in high school. A lot of my “friends” forgot about me because they didn’t see me every day like they did all their other friends. Make sure to stay in contact with your friends and make time to see them; you might regret it if you don’t.

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James Madison University