Aircraft Maintenance

Course flexibility

I asked ERAU graduate Greg Mellema, a technical instructor for Reno, Nevada-based Abaris, what advice he would give potential online students. Greg’s first tip had to do with course flexibility. “The best thing about taking college courses online is flexibility,” Mellema says. “You can ‘attend’ class at your convenience and work at your own pace on assignments. But I would have to say that flexibility is also the most difficult part of online courses. If you don’t stay on top of your assignments, they can easily get away from you.”

Study time

Many potential students assume that online courses are easier than traditional classroom courses. Don’t let yourself fall into that trap. “You need to devote more time to an online course than you would for a classroom course for the same amount of credit hours,” Mellema shares. “In a classroom environment, you can ask your instructor questions if you get confused and get instant feedback. But in an online course you need to do a lot more self-study. You still have some interaction with the instructor and classmates, but it is not the same as a classroom environment. So be prepared to spend more time per credit hour studying.”

Having taken an online course myself, I would definitely agree with Greg on the increased time requirement. Most colleges recommend that if you want to get a good grade, you must spend two hours studying for each hour in a traditional class. So, for a class that is three credit hours, you will need to study about six additional hours each week to do well.

But online courses don’t have specific class times. So you have to factor in additional time for “class time.” Add to that the difficulty of self-study for some, and you may be looking at spending nine to 12 hours a week to do well in a course that is three credit hours. But don’t let that scare you. It can be done. You just need to be aware of the time requirements and make the time to study. Because of the flexibility of online courses, you will be able to do this more easily than trying to arrange your work and study schedule around a traditional classroom course.

Online degrees have provided a means for many professionals who are already working in the industry to be able to get a college degree without having to quit work or commute to a classroom. Our home computer can now be our classroom. With the many doors toward career advancement that college degrees open, can you really afford not to look into them?