Try to evaluate yourself whether you have mindsets or behaviors below:
1. You think pursuing a degree online is easy
Online education has advantages of flexibility to plan your learning schedule and convenient because you can attend the online classes from your comfort home. But, it does not as easy as you think because your need to manage your time between your work, family and study. In many time, you may lose focus on your study if you are too busy with your works or you are unable to mange your time probably to allocate enough time for your study. If you are in this situation, your priority on work and family may cause you to drop or delay your degree program.
If you decide to pursue your degree online, you must be prepared to face the challenge during the online learning process and be consistent to stay in focus on your online learning.
2. You have less self-motivation
Online education allows you to study at your own pace, which means that you must be self-motivated to plan your learning schedule and push yourself until your complete the whole program. If you are a kind of person that prefers motivation from other persons to push you to complete a certain task, then, you might be at risk of potentially unable to complete your online degree program.
If online degree program is your ultimate option, then your need to change your behavior meet online student characteristics, or you can get help from your family members especially your spouse as your mentor to motivate you along your online learning process.
3. You Prefer To Listen to the Lecture
In the traditional campus-based classes, when a lecturer is teaching, you are listening to it. If you are comfort to this learning environment, then you might have problem to adapt to new online learning media. Although, there are material in audio or video format, but most of online learning materials are still in text formats which require you to read it instead of listen to it. You must adapt to this learning environment if you want to success in your online learning.
4. You Prefer Face-To-Face Communication
Online chats and discussion forums are the key communication media for online learning. If you are not comfortable to discuss or ask questions through these media, then, you might have difficulties to convey your questions if you face any problem during online learning process. Although, there are some learning and discussion sessions may involve video conferencing, but you still need to familiarize and adapt yourself with the key communication channels which are mainly text format.
Summary
If you find yourself have thinking and behavior above, you may face problem in becoming a success online student to complete your online degree program. What you can do if you are deciding to earn your degree through online education is change your behaviors and mindset so that you are integrated with the success characteristics of an online student and earn your degree finally.