 | 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 online education 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, encyclopaedias,
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. |
