The first section "Are you ready to take an Online Course?" allows you to complete a technical skills and student readiness surveys.
The second section includes tips on "How to be a Successful Online Student" for those who ready to get started and want to see which courses are available, what to expect and a series of FAQ’s.
Are you ready for an Online Course?
For other students online education is too different, it doesn’t work with their learning styles and not a good ‘fit.’ It is helpful to decide if distance or online learning works with your learning preferences, study and computer skills.
Cerro Coso Community College offers a great introduction to determining if you are ready to take an online course. I would encourage all new online students to take these quizzes to determine if you are ready for an online course.
The first quiz asks you questions about your skill as a student.
- Technical Skills Survey - This brief computer use survey will help to determine if you have the necessary technical skills to be successful in an online course.
The second quiz asks you about your technical skills.
- Student Readiness Survey - This brief self-assessment, readiness survey helps determine your general readiness to take an online course.
The purpose of these quizzes is to better acquaint you with the requirements of the online environment; they are not designed to make decisions for you. Your decision to take or not take an online class is best made in consultation with your counselor.
Note: These links are used with permission from Cerro Coso Community College.
Other Online Self Assessments
There are other online self assessments available to determine if you are ready for an online course, or to help you discover areas and skills that may need need to be improved while taking an online course.
From the Penn State Learning Design Community Hub
These questions are designed to allow you to take some time to think about yourself as a learner and see whether your characteristics would help you be a good online learner. The questions explore five different areas Self-direction, Learning preferences, Study habits, Technology skills and Computer equipment capability.
- Teaching and Learning with Technology
- Student self-assessment for online learning readiness – this includes a discussion about how the questions were determined.
A short quiz to find out if you are ready to take online classes.
These online assessment are good self-assessment tools to help you determine if you will be a good online learner.
If you find yourself feeling unprepared or uneasy after completing these different assessments, I highly recommend that you enroll in “How to Succeed as an Online Student” CMPSC101 offered as a late start course at Columbia College.
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