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SURVIVAL TIPS FOR OnLine Students

Allow Time. Most students are not prepared for the amount of time that an on-line course takes. Remember that you are basically teaching the material to yourself. Therefore, each chapter must be read carefully. It is a good idea to read each chapter more than once. This takes time – more time than sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture.

Stick With It! Distance Education courses requires perseverance, focused self-discipline, self-motivation, and the ability to work independently and to manage yourself.

Keep Up – Be Organized. Marketing is a course that helps you learn how to develop a strategic approach to the business planning process. Each chapter introduces concepts that build on the concepts of the previous chapter. In order to be able to think strategically you must integrate the concepts of each chapter into your thinking. The exams are based on you understanding how to apply the principles learned, as opposed to just memorizing them. In order to develop that application knowledge you must learn and integrate the principles in each chapter in the order they are presented.

Meet Deadlines. Do not get behind. Have each week’s reading assignments and web site field trips completed on time. Although, you will find that I am flexible in giving you some additional time here and there when necessary, there can come a point when you are so far behind that you cannot catch up. So plan well and keep up. If you have a tendency to procrastinate I highly recommend you spend sometime at the following web sites:
1- Overcoming Procrastination:
(http://ub-counseling.buffalo.edu/stressprocrast.shtml)
2- Controlling Procrastination: (http://www.uoguelph.ca/csrc/learning/procras.htm#2)
3- Procrastination: Ten Ways to Do It Now: (http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/procrast.html)

Make Lists. Make lists of things that need to be integrated into your thinking and study them while you are waiting in line at the grocery store or the bank or at traffic lights. There will be a vocabulary list in each weekly folder. Make sure you print out the list and integrate the words into your consciousness. The understanding of the language (vocabulary) leads to conceptualization of the marketing theory - which leads to application knowledge.

Use Your Printer. Print out anything that I write and integrate it into your notes. My postings are presentation notes offering additional explanations of difficult concepts.

Keep in Touch. It is very important that you keep in touch with me and with your fellow classmates in a distance education course. They cannot help you and you cannot help them if you are not around through e-mail, in the Discussion Forums, or in the Student Cyber Lounge.

Keep Me and Your Cybermates Informed about changes in your e-mail address. We cannot stay in touch with you if you are not available. We cannot learn from you if you are not available.

Don’t try to "Go It Alone!". In a distance education course, you must teach yourself. And you will most likely need some help – from me and from your cybermates. So Keep in Touch.

Establish an E-mail list of Class Members or Study Groups that are formed. This way you can easily send messages without having to log on to Blackboard. Keep in Touch with them and me.

Don’t Drop the Course without talking to me first. Together, we may be able to find a solution to your dilemma.