Bookmark This Page

Delicious Google Bookmarks Stumbleupon Digg BlinkList Ma.gnolia Reddit Yahoo My Web

Distance Learning Support

When you're involved with distance learning, it's easy to feel as if you're all alone. Rather than listening to instructors, you're often reading course material on your own or watching videotaped instruction. When you have questions about the material being covered, you can't just stop and ask the professor. You can't even ask the guy sitting next to you because guess what? He's not there! So what can those who choose distance learning expect for support?

Where online students go for help

If you've ever used the Internet to research an illness or a car you already know how much information you have at your fingertips. This same wealth of information is accessible and available to online students, too. It doesn't matter the question or the topic, if you can type it into your search engine, you'll likely find all the support and information you need to get you past the issue you're struggling with.

What types of resources are available?

Online you'll find everything you'll need to complete an assignment. You'll find online dictionaries, calculators, thesauruses, encyclopedias, writing tools, manuals and more.

If you've got a question and for some reason you cannot ask your online course instructor, don't worry. There are plenty of 'ask' websites where you can post your question and receive back an answer (or many answers) from others who claim to be experts in that field. For example, you'll find websites such as 'Ask a Historian' and 'Ask Dr. Math'.

You'll also find many web services and bulletin boards where people just like you post questions and wait for answers from others. Or, for a nominal fee, you can tap into the expertise of Google's paid researchers whose only job is to find out the answers to questions others ask.

In the beginning you might want to check out multiple websites as this is the only way you can make sure the answers you are getting back are valid. If you get different answers from different sources, you should keep looking.

As you get more involved with your online lessons and assignments, and as you learn how to harness the power of the Internet, you'll have all the support you could ever ask for. In no time you will develop a list of personal favorites and you'll find that time and again, that's where you return when you need help.

Of course, if you've teamed up with a reliable and respectable distance learning institution, you probably will have a number of school sponsored resources into which you'll be able to tap when you need help. In fact, this is an area that prospective students should thoroughly check out before choosing a distance learning program. You want to find out the types of support available to students, how to access the various methods of support, the hours each is available and how quickly you can expect an answer from each. It's also wise to find out how you can contact the instructors for each of your online courses.