Procrastination: a Distance Learner’s Nemesis

Posted by in Uncategorized Mar 21st, 2007

An eLearn Magazine article from Clare Gill explores the challenges procrastinators face when taking online courses:

"One of the big differences between my face-to-face classes and distance-learning classes was that in the former, I had the strong sense that my professors were always aware of my progress right from the very beginning of the semester. All my classes were small graduate classes, none of which had more than about a dozen students. As a result, it would have been very visible and very embarrassing if I fell behind. Contrast that with the way I felt in my online classes, where the other students and the instructors were just names on Blackboard to me.

Towards the middle of the semester, I did have some interaction with the professors, but this was mainly in the form of scolding-fully justified-mixed with concerns that I had dropped off the face of the earth. The effectiveness of this type of progress monitoring was, at best, mixed. What they mainly did was to alarm me to the degree that I couldn't bear to think about the course for at least another week."

As a trying-to-reform procrastinator, I definitely identify with Clare's struggles. Self-paced courses can be a disaster for people who don't walk around with a Franklin Planner and a Rolodex. However, with a little work, there can be hope.

Read the article, Confessions of a Neophyte Distance Learner and Full-Time Procrastinator, to learn about the solutions one procrastinator discovered.

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