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Online education offers many benefits, including the flexibility to complete projects on your own time, while maintaining academic rigor and high expectations of students. However, it’s a myth that online classes are easier than traditional classroom-based classes. Students need to prioritize and meet deadlines to thrive in an online learning environment.

Here are 10 tips for a successful online learning experience:

1. Be open minded about sharing life, work, and educational experiences as part of the learning process.

Your personal and professional experiences matter in an online environment. Introverts and extroverts find that taking an online course requires them to utilize their experience. Participating in an online course eliminates the visual barriers that might prevent some individuals from expressing themselves.

2. Be able to communicate through writing.

In an online class, nearly all communication is written, so it’s critical that you feel comfortable expressing yourself in writing.

3. Be self-motivated and self-disciplined.

With the freedom and flexibility comes responsibility. Taking an online course takes a real commitment and discipline to keep up with the flow of the course.

4. Be willing to “speak up” if problems arise.

If you are experiencing difficulty with the course content, communicate this immediately to your instructor. If you are experiencing difficulty with the technology, contact the UVM Helpline.

5. Be willing and able to commit to 5 to 20 hours per week per course.

It is a myth that online classes are easier than traditional classroom based classes. In fact, many students will say online courses require much more time and commitment to successfully complete. Staying up with the class and completing all work on time is vital. If you fall behind, it can be tough to catch up.

6. Be able to meet the minimum requirements for the course or program.

The requirements for an online course or program are no less than that of any other quality educational program. The successful student will view online as a convenient way to receive their education – not an easier way.

7. Accept critical thinking and decision making as part of the learning process.

The learning process requires you to make decisions based on facts as well as experience. Assimilating information and executing the right choices require critical thought.

8. Have practically unlimited access to a computer with internet service.

Online courses are offered in Blackboard, our Learning Management System at UVM. All of the course related materials, syllabi, readings, lecture notes, assignments, and discussion boards are contained and organized within Blackboard. For an online course, there are no on-campus or face-to-face meetings. There is no specific day or time you need to log-in to the class each week. Still, there are assignments and due dates. Regular participation and contribution are expected on the discussion boards or other communication tools within Blackboard. A habit of logging in daily is essential for your success.

9. Be able to think ideas through before responding.

Making meaningful and quality contributions to the online classroom is an essential part of the learning process. Time is given in the process to allow for the careful consideration of responses. The testing and challenging of ideas are encouraged.

10. Feel that high-quality learning can take place without being in a traditional classroom.

If you feel that a traditional classroom is a prerequisite to learning, you may be more comfortable in a traditional campus-based classroom. The level of social engagement and the level of interaction between you and your instructor can be advantageous in an online class. As an online student, you should be ready to:

• Participate in the online class 5-7 days a week
• Work with others in completing projects
• Use the technology correctly
• Meet the minimum standards as set forth by the institution
• Complete assignments on time
• Enjoy communicating in writing

Today I’ve finally decided that I wanted to learn how to make Android applications (apps) from scratch, and thought it would be good to document my journey from nothing (as an Android app developer) to hero or bust, or somewhere in between.

I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time telling you about myself, specially since you can learn more than you want to know in the about me section. The one thing I will tell you is that I run my own web consulting business, manage over two dozen websites, have an 8 month old baby at home and a full time job (40+ hours a week).

If you haven’t figured it out, the reason I’m sharing this with you, is that time is precious and limited, which is the case with many people. With all the things I’ve mentioned above, I’ve managed to dedicate about 30-60 minutes a day, 5 days a week, to this project.

Ideally my time will be spent between 7 am and 8 am Eastern Time since I’m based in Montreal, Quebec.
If you know me, or have read any of my past posts, you know I have been a BlackBerry user and enthusiast for a long time, and that hasn’t changed, however my current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S3 running Android, and until BB10 comes out and I can see how it compares, that won’t change since I’ve never been happier with any electronic device I’ve ever owned than I am with the S3.
I have ideas for about a dozen Android apps, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself, I’m really not in a rush.

I’m so not in a rush, that I’m going to go through Google’s training for Android Development, I’ve downloaded the SDK (Software Development Kit) which is included in the ADT (Android Developer Tools) Bundle for Windows, it’s about 389 MB.
That’s it for today, tomorrow the real work starts, and I will be back with an update on what I’ve done and how it’s going. Feel free to try and do this with me, and keep me posted on your thoughts, suggestions and questions in the comments, or by contacting me.

You probably already realise that there are many different ways to earn money on the Internet, but do you know that there are two distinct different formats when making money Online is concerned?
Here I’m going to go over the two different types of formats to give you a good understanding of how things work Online before choosing how you want to earn money via the Internet.

#1  Be An Internet Service Provider

One way to earn money Online is to be a service provider.   In my opinion, this is the easiest way to make money as you are guaranteed to receive money once you have completed your tasks for other Online business owners.
You won’t be employed, you will be a self-employed, freelance service provider.
The tasks of Internet service providers vary enormously, but here are some to give you an idea.
Internet Service Provider Jobs:

IT & Programming Website Design Software Programming Database Development Technical Support Networking & Security	Design & Multi-Media Graphic Design Illustration Animation Cartoons & Comics Videos
Writing & Translation Article Writing Sales Writing Ghostwriting Press Releases Editing & Proofreading	Sales & Marketing Search Engine Marketing Business Plans Public Relations Consulting Lead Generation Telemarketing
Admin Support Virtual Assistant Word Processing Data Entry Bulk Mailing Customer Service	Engineering & Manufacturing Architectual Mechanical Interior Design Product Design Civil & Structuring
Finance & Management Accounting Management Consultancy HR Policies & Plans Financial Planning Tax Services	Legal Patent, Copyright & Trade Business & Corporate Contracts Immigration

If you have skills in any of the above categories then this would be an ideal situation for you to make some money this way.  However, if you don’t have any skills, don’t rule this way out to earn money Online - not just yet.
Think You Have No Skills To Offer?
I’m pretty sure that you will have something to offer.  You will be able to do very easy, normally repetitive or mundane tasks which the Online business owner either does not want to do or hasn’t got the time to do those tasks and is willing to pay someone else to do them.
Tasks which don’t need a formal skill as such are:

• Email Customer Support – You can type an email can’t you?  Then you can do this job.
• Data Entry – You can input numbers or text into a document can’t you?
• Basic Word Processing – You don’t necessarily need to be a trained typist to type basic word documents.
• Article Writing – You don’t need to be a trained writer, if you can write a 500 word article on a subject (which you can research Online), then you could provide an article writing service.

So there’s four jobs I’ve just thought of from the top of my head which I’m pretty sure you could do.  There will be many other general admin types of jobs which you would be able to do too – you just have to search for them and seek them out.
In fact, there will be jobs on offer which you will be able to do that both neither you or I have even thought of!  So let’s find these jobs…
Where To Find Freelance Jobs
Now that you’re aware that there are dozens of service provider jobs which you could do, you now need to know where to find them.
There are a few sites Online which act as the ‘middle-man’  where service providers are seeking jobs and where small businesses are looking to hire freelancers.
Here are some of those sites:

• Elance – www.elance.com (the largest and very first of these sites)
• Freelancer – www.freelancer.com
• People Per House – www.peopleperhour.com
• Guru – www.guru.com
• Virtual Employee – www.virtualemployee.com
• Hire Your Virtual Assistant – www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com

You can sign up for one or two of these sites and start finding work immediately.  This is what usually happens on these sites:

1. Jobs are posted on the site;
2. Service providers (you) can then put forward a ‘bid’ for a job;
3. The job is offered to the best candidate;
4. The service provider carries out the advertised task;
5. Payment is then forwarded via the website where the host site takes a percentage of the funds.

The best thing to do is to click onto each of the above sites and have a good digg around to find out how they work and how they can work for you.

#2  Your Own Independent Internet Business

The second way to earn money Online is with your own Internet Business.   If you really don’t like working for others then this may be the route for you.   However, you must understand that this is not a get-rich-quick way to earn money Online (I don’t think one exists) and because this is your own business, you are not guaranteed an income.
Running an Online business requires a HUGE learning curve.  You will come across things you’ve probably never even heard of before, so you must be willing to learn:

• Writing skills
• Technology
• Software
• Internet marketing

There are a few ways to run your own Online business but the main ways are blogging and running a business website.
For me the fun and easy part is the actual building of the blog (look, feel, design) and putting content on it, the hard part is getting visitors to your site.  I think I can speak for every blogger Online that it isn’t easy to get visitors to your blog.
And once you do get a decent amount of visitors to your site, say 500+ per day, you want them to purchase something or at least click on an ad for which you get paid for.
So to make money from a blog you need to:

1. Build the design of the blog;
2. Write content for it (at least ten blog posts/pages);
3. Drive traffic to it;
4. Convert those visitors into customers (or at least click on an ad).

You then need to write at least one new blog post per week of approximately 700+ words and be consistently marketing your blog to get traffic to it.
Say you have chosen to use guest posting as a marketing technique (recommended), then you should spend most of your time writing guest posts.
A little strategy which I use is this:

• Write a blog post for my own blog on a Monday, then
• Write three guest posts and submit them to other similar blogs the rest of the week.

I hope that this article has given you an insight into how you can earn money Online.  It’s not easy and it is a lot of hard work, but if you want to work from home then you have to be willing to put the hours in, especially at the beginning of your work at home career.