Many people think they have online learning all figured out but in reality they are mislead by some misconceptions. This leads to scenarios where confused or uninformed people end up committing to online learning only to discover that it’s not what they thought or hoped it might be.  To make sure that doesn’t happen to you, check out this article about the various things that define online learning and how it is different or similar to traditional, classroom learning. If you enjoy the read make sure to check out more similar pieces on uptrained.com.

Learning online does not mean learning on your own

You might be tempted to believe that learning online means you are basically learning by yourself, and that you can take everything at your own speed. That is far from the truth. Just like traditional means of learning, online courses are usually structured and tended to by professors and professionals that expect a certain flow of things to follow its course. In other words, when you are a student of online learning, you will still have to adapt to deadlines and time frames. Nothing changes in that department as you are still going to have to mange time and make sure you get everything ready in time, whether we’re talking about assignments or other types of work. If you don’t manage to comply to these deadlines, you can face similar consequences to those from a traditional learning environment, such as losing credit or receiving other penalties.

You don’t progress at the same pace with your fellow learners

If you would go to a normal college for example, no matter how well you would understand a chapter, you would progress to the next thing after a given period of time, when the instructor or professor takes the entire class to the new thing. When you’re studying online however, you won’t be having that experience. Here, you only progress as quick or slow as you allow yourself to, based on the work you put in. That means that people who put in a lot of work and constantly engage the tutor in discussion and interaction will progress faster than those who barely finish their work and never engage in discussion and initiatives. Ultimately, it means that even though you might not be failing, you could still fall behind if you don’t maintain a certain work etiquette.

You depend on your tools

One thing that people don’t really grasp all that well about online learning is that all documents are uploaded online. This means that whether you have to turn in an assignment or a form, or anything else, you will have to do it online. That could be a problem if you have a really old PC that can barely access the internet, let alone constantly upload files and download them. It’s important to keep both your hardware and software updated. By software, we are referring to both the PC’s software as well as the software used for the online learning program you are on. Also, you might also want to bump your internet subscription to a higher option if you find your upload and download speeds to be lackluster.