Hi everyone! My name is Noka, and I am a 42 year old divorced mom of two teen aged girls. I live in a rural area in Northeastern Oregon where the closest college campus of any kind is nearly sixty miles away. All of these factors made online learning necessary for me. There was more flexibility in scheduling so I could still work and make time for my children’s activities, and I didn’t have to drive over that treacherous pass in the wintertime. So I thought to myself, “I’ll just take online classes. Piece of cake, right?” –NOT.

Yes, I can attend college in my jammies. Yes, I don’t have to brush my hair before going to class. Yes, no one else can see my messy desk (which is good because it may frighten some people.) But easy? It’s not as easy as I thought.

Spring 2015 is my second term of college and my second term of online learning. I finished winter term on the dean’s list, so the coursework, although challenging, doesn’t seem too be too difficult. I’m sure it will  become more challenging as I begin to take more upper level classes. The problem is me. In these first two weeks, I have learned that I am totally a right brainer. As I mentioned before, my desk is a mess, which is not a huge problem because it makes sense to me. Sometimes, though, it can be difficult to keep all my assignments in order. I, not just my desk, am also very disorganized, and I tend to procrastinate. I have learned in this class, however, some tools and strategies to help with my organizational shortcomings. For instance, I have implemented a planner that has helped tremendously when it comes to budgeting my time. In my planner, I have set aside certain days for certain classes and/or assignments. This seems to be working quite well, because I don’t feel so stressed, and I don’t seem to be cramming so much into the end of the week to meet deadlines.

I have also learned that my learning style is multi-modal. When I was in grade school and high school, I was the kid that never had to study. If I saw it, heard it, or read it, it was there in my mind. I was always “teacher’s pet”, though not willingly. My fourth grade teacher even used me as an example to another student saying, “Why can’t you be more like her? She could learn off the side of a barn wall!” I hated it because it was embarrassing, and I felt sorry for the little boy. But I will never forget it. It seems now, however, that my memory, especially my short term memory, is not at all what it used to be. I blame it on old age and diabetes. Through discovering my different learning styles, though, I have been able to incorporate different methods to help information stick in my mind. I have found some of my textbooks are offered in audio versions online. Reading along while the text is read to me seems to help me soak in the data. My kids are also studying some of the same or similar coursework. I have found that studying with them and creating interactive learning games to play with them has not only complimented my learning experience, but has aided their enrichment as well.

Though online learning isn’t as easy as I thought it would be, I am quickly developing methods and strategies to help me not just muddle through, but charge through like the cavalry. I have set goals for myself both short term ( some of them very short like I will turn in this blog post by 10 a. m.) and long term to encourage myself to reach my final educational destination: my college degree.

Since I have started this course, I have been able to identify the strengths that I already had and that are relevant to my online learning. I am naturally organized, and prefer to make lists and notes when it comes to anything important in my life. This includes budgeting as well as notating any important tasks or dates on a weekly or monthly basis. I find that this has been extremely helpful in keeping myself from becoming overwhelmed with my new role as a college student.

This came as a surprise to me because I obtained my GED a year after I was supposed to graduate high school and just focused on raising my children since. I was really nervous that being out of the school routine for so long would be too overwhelming and that I would end up dropping out. However, I’m at Week 3 now and I seem to be managing rather decently. I hope that I can manage to stay on track and not get discouraged.

I did experience some struggles, of course. My youngest child is only 1, and she is really attached to me and requires a lot of my attention throughout the day. This has limited my time to commit to schoolwork to mostly late nights and early mornings. I also picked up an additional 2 classes during the second week so that I could be considered a full-time student. That had to be the most stressful point, because I had to catch up on the first week of both classes. I also realized that the two classes I picked up weren’t the easiest either. I managed to get through it though, and I think I’m slowly balancing everything out again. One thing for sure, I won’t ever spontaneously add classes late into the start of the term again because I almost set myself up for more than I could handle.

This whole on-line learning thing has really thrown me for am loop.  One thing that I have definitely learned is that I am a hot mess.  But another thing that I have learned after interacting with my peers is that is ok.  It’s ok for me to learn things differently and that I shouldn’t be ashamed of that.  That really is valuable, not only to my sanity but to my confidence as well.  Over the last few weeks I have spent a great deal of time learning my strengths and challenges.  My greatest strengths are that I am committed, I am organized and that I welcome change.  My biggest challenges are getting distracted while being on the computer……oooh look facebook….and that I have a hard time with the way most material is presented in an on-line classroom.  I learned that I have a multimodal learning method which really upset me at first because I thought it meant that I should be able to “get” the material no matter how it is presented to me.  So I was like, what on Earth is wrong with me.  But after spending a little more time with it, I realize that multimodal means that I learn best when the material is presented to me in different formats.  Telling it to me really doesn’t help; neither does just reading about it.  I need visuals and hands on tools which I know, going forward, will be my biggest challenge.  But I am determined to not let it get the best of me!  I really do want to succeed!  And I will not be held back by whatever learning disabilities seem to be plaguing me.  I gots this!

When I am learning something new or even studying something I have been learning my easiest learning is visual and writing. I learn best when I have the material in front of me with details about how to use the material. Online learning for me is not as hard as it can be for people who learn differently. I am detail oriented, keep track of my grades easily and am able to stick to a schedule. I schedule out my time so that I have plenty of time to spend doing my homework, working and taking care of a house. The challenges that I have faced so far are learning to use a new system for homework, not being able to meet the instructors personally or schedule time to have a face to face with them. Some instructions are not as clear to me and it would be easier to just ask the instructor, online however, I have to email that professor and then wait for a reply which then throws off my schedule and can cause a lot of frustration. Online work can also lead to feeling alone with what you are going through, you can sometimes feel as if there is no one else that is going through the same things you are. Just because you can’t see your classmates does not mean they are not there. I think most of us would be more than willing to help a fellow student. I know that if someone needed something I would be more than willing to help. So don’t feel alone. We are all here going through the same things.