How does online class work

The online education sector is entering its boom period. There is a surge in the number of people who want to choose this route of learning and developing their knowledge and skill base. More and more working professionals, stay-at-home parents, older workers, women-returnees and other such segments find this the best choice for their situation. MBA Degrees from an open university are now perceived as being as good as a full-time one, and perhaps even better in some cases when it means that the person has being pursuing it without taking a career break.

So it is imperative that we spend time understanding how an online class works.

Technology platform – All online courses are structured like regular classroom modules and hosted on a specific technology platform. When you enroll for one, you are given a login id and password to be able to access the modules and reading material associated with the topics covered in that module.

Listening and Reading – A lot of online classes have reading material as well as audio-books, webinars and videos that act as supplementary sources of information. Some online courses also have classroom sessions periodically. Sessions by thought leaders in that space are common too.

Virtual Community – Many online courses create virtual communities of the students and teachers to encourage exchanges such as discussion forums, live sessions, group chats and so on. This allows for better peer-to-peer interaction since the students are not meeting each other regularly like they do in traditional classrooms. A lot of these could be professor-led discussions or student-led ones too, to motivate students to share their ideas and learnings.

Assignments – There are some assignments that need to be completed online. So the students will need to spend time working on those assessments. These are usually module-specific and even at the end of the entire course. The deadlines are defined and method for submission too. The assignments could be a combination of test papers, case studies and even multiple choice questions. All students have to complete these within the provided time frame for them to receive the completion certification related to the course. There might even be group projects that are needed to be completed.

You can increase the pace – If you want to increase the pace of learning based on your needs, you can complete the required modules faster than the deadline that has been defined for those. You might already know some of the material, which could also help you to go through it faster.

These are some simple things to know about how a typical online class works. Some of these might differ from course to course.