In general, when taking an online degree program you might get resources, such as eBooks, interviews, recorded lectures.

The resources offered to you for learning online will depend on the college where you take your online program. Some online learning programs may need you to buy paper textbooks in advance, but most of them are using eBooks now.

For those colleges that have made the change to use 100%, online resources, students can expect to study, using all kinds of advanced technological resources with no need to travel to attend lectures, exams or in-person discussions!

Taking an online learning program, you'll be-an-officially registered student at your college and have the same right to the resources as an on-campus student, like the digital library, learning management system (like Blackboard), student union membership and more! An online degree is similar to taking a degree program on campus, but you have the freedom to arrange your own study schedule.

Your school and your teachers will decide on the resources for each course and will offer learning resources that are best suited to your course of program. What a Biology student needs to learn successfully online will be different from what an At History student needs!

Online learning may be a completely new experience for you. If you're coming from a more traditional learning background, read on to discover how to make the most of the resources you may meet in your online learning journey!

How to Be a Successful Online Student

While regular schools still exist, the virtual classroom plays an important role in today’s learning community. However, not all online students can achieve success in it. 【小题1】

Be able to communicate through writing

In the virtual classroom nearly all communication is written, so it is necessary for students to express themselves in writing. Some students have limited writing abilities, which usually requires more practice. Whether working alone or in a group, students share ideas on the subject being studied, and read about those of their classmates. 【小题2】

Be willing to “speak up” if problems arise

Remember that teachers cannot see their students in an online course. 【小题3】 If they face technical difficulties or problems, they MUST speak up; otherwise, there is no way anyone can know something is wrong. While trying to explain something, students strengthen their own knowledge about the subject.

【小题4】

It’s important for online students to think about the questions carefully and organize their ideas before answering questions. Time is given to allow for careful development of answers. Testing and challenging of ideas is encouraged. Many times online students will not always be right; they just need to be prepared to accept a challenge.

Take the program seriously

【小题5】 In fact, many students say it requires much more time and effort. Requirements for online courses are not less than those of any quality program. Many online students sit at computers for hours just to complete their assignments.

Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech developed an artificially intelligent teaching assistant to help handle the enormous number of student questions in the online class,Knowledge Based Artificial Intelligence.This online course is a core requirement of Georgia Tech’s online Master of Science in Computer Science program.Professor Goel already had 8 teaching assistants,but that wasn’t enough to deal with the overwhelming number of questions from students.

Many students drop out of online courses because of the lack of teaching support.When students feel isolated or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered,their motivation to continue begins to fade.Professor Goel decided to do something to remedy this situation and his solution was to create a virtual assistant named Jill Watson,which is based on the IBM Watson platform.

Goel and his team developed several versions of Jill Watson before releasing her to the online forums.At first,the virtual assistant wasn’t too great.But Goel and his team sourced the online discussion forum to find all 40,000 questions that had ever been asked since the class was launched.Then they began to feed Jill the questions and answers.After some adjustment and sufficient time,Jill was able to answer the students’questions correctly 97%of the time.The virtual assistant became so advanced and realistic that the students didn’t know she was a computer.The students,who were studying artificial intelligence,were interacting with artificial intelligence and couldn’t tell it apart from a real human being.Goel didn’t inform them about Jill’s true identity until April 26.The students were actually very positive about the experience.

The goal of Professor Goel’s virtual assistant next year is to take over answering 40%of all questions asked by students on the online forum.The name,Jill Watson,will of course,change to something else next semester.Professor Goel has a much rosier outlook on the future of AI than say,Elon Musk,Stephen Hawking,Bill Gates or Steve Wozniak.