To be honest I really can’t believe that this term is pretty much over now, can you?! It really feels like time has flown by for me, but I’m sure part of that is because I will be moving back to Texas next month now so I’ve been looking forward to that as well! Hopping right into my first term of college and my first serious experience as an online learner, my strengths which I brought to the table with me mainly focuses on my motivation. I always told myself that if I took a year off of  school after I graduated, I had to start back up within a year no matter what or else I might want to keep taking time off. This allowed me to really push myself into going back to school and not only that but also to do well in school. And of course my daughter has been my motivator as well. This self-motivation did come with the ability to keep myself on track most of time. “Most of the time” is where I feel like I need to improve and eventually turn that into “I keep myself on track all of the time”.  My time management has always been a slight issue for me just trying to revolve it around my daughter’s schedule as well as mine and housework and so on. I am planning on using what I learned from this class in my pursuit of success by really taking away what it means to be a successful online student.

In order to allow myself to be working at a level that suites my learning style, I plan on using a variety of different tools, tips and strategies. Over the course of this class I have been able to assure myself that I am very visual learner who prefers working where there are not many distractions or if there are distractions that they are not being directed at me. This applies when my daughter is still awake and I need to provide her with my full attention versus when she is sleeping and my husband might have the Xbox on doing his own thing. As long as the distraction taking place doesn’t bother my concentration then I’m good. To address my visual learning style, I will make sure to always have access to colorful sticky notes as well as an assortment of highlighters to keep track of all my information.

The OSU resource that I plan on using for academic support in the future would be the Academic Success Center’s “Learning Corner”. Ever since this was brought to my attention, I have loved going back to it to discover the variety of resources it provides. I particularly enjoy looking through the time management sections as well as the procrastination sections because those are both things that I tend to struggle with at times. There is also information regarding tools for reading and taking notes as well as just an overall broad range of knowledge for becoming a better student.

One goal that I currently have towards the next term I will be taking is the same goal that I had for this term, which is to maintain grades at or above a 95% in each class. A few ways I can achieve this goal again is to keep up with each class closely and really understand when my assignments are due so that nothing is deducted points for being late. Another way I plan on reaching this goal is by making the most out of what time I can and rather than being drawn into distractions like looking through my phone, I’d just leave my phone off or in another room and only focus on what needs to get done. When it comes to my longer-term goal though I do have a couple in mind. The first being to gain hands-on experience in the career path that I am interested in and I can do this by researching and contacting local institutes in my area. Another goal I have is to graduate from OSU as fast as I can while also staying realistic with how long that might take. Unfortunately I don’t think I will be able to graduate within the 4 year “norm” and that was something I was really worried about coming into this first term. As the weeks went on though, I have been able to realize that taking 5 or maybe even 6 years to earn my degree won’t be the end of it all and ruin my life plan so I just want to do the best I can to cut down on time in the future!