Profile of a Successful Online Student

Determining whether virtual learning is appropriate for you as a learner is an important step to be considered before signing up for online courses.  Instructors with years of online teaching experience agree that students who have a successful, satisfying online learning experience share several critical characteristics:

• Good Time Management:  The student can create and maintain a study schedule throughout the semester without face-to-face, synchronous interaction with a teacher. 
• Effective Communication: The student can ask for help, make contact with other students/instructors online and describe any problems she/he has with learning materials using email or telephone.
• Independent Study Habits: The student can study and complete assignments without direct supervision, maintain self-discipline, and stick to a schedule.
• Self-Motivation: The student has a strong desire to learn skills, acquire knowledge and fulfill assignments in online courses and to set and reach for his/her goals.
• Academic Readiness: The student has the basic reading, writing, math and computer literacy skills to succeed in the online learning environment. 
• Technologically Prepared: The student knows how to open, create, save, share, and submit a document; use various technology tools (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus, grammar check, calculator); and identify and share various file formats (e.g., doc, xls, pdf, jpg, google docs).