An Online Course Adventure

With every new semester comes new challenges and experiences. This semester, I’m taking my first online course. To be honest, it wasn’t until this summer that I even knew that U of T offered online courses! It's had its challenges, but this experience has made me want to share my tips for those interested in trying an online course.

If you want to take a course online, check out the Fall and Winter Session Timetable that is released every academic year to see if they are offering anything that interests you. To find my course, I went to https://timetable.iit.artsci.utoronto.ca/ and, under Advanced Search, I selected “Online Course.” There's a wide range of options, ranging from humanities to genetics courses and beyond. Having taken the jump myself, I've found that this new academic adventure has made me a much more efficient planner. Taking an online course requires excellent time management! Without regular in-class meetings in the real world, it can feel like you’re not taking a course at all. As a result, it is even more important to write down deadlines and check Blackboard or the course’s website for announcements regularly, since you won't have a professor physically present to remind you about tests or assignments. Because of this, I have been using my UTSU planner to set time in my schedule for my online course work. As a side note, you can get these planners for free at the University of Toronto Student Union building near Hart House. I would really recommend taking an online course if you want to be more in control of your learning. Sometimes, classes can be too fast paced or have a lot of material covered during each lecture. It can be hard to take it all in! By taking the course online and having material accessible at any point, I can work at my own pace. When a difficult concept comes up, I can pause the lecture, take detailed notes and really understand the topic being presented. This has allowed me to dig deeper into the material whenever I face a challenge! If you prefer to work ahead on material, that's definitely an option too. If you have any time-management tips, leave a comment below! I would love to try them out as I continue my online course adventure.