Chapter 12

The Classroom Experience (Chapter 12)

The experience of earning a master’s degree online has a lot of similarities to the experience of earning a master’s degree on-campus. Once you reach the master’s degree level of education, you, as the student, are primarily responsible for your education and your learning experiences. This is true of online, hybrid, and on-campus degree programs. But if online education is a new experience for you, it can seem like a doubly heavy load. Below is a short breakdown of what to expect from an online master’s degree program.

• What to Expect in the Online Classroom

  Depending on your program, your school, and your instructor, your online classroom experience can include a variety of elements. As mentioned earlier, some online course requirements are synchronous while others are asynchronous. Some examples of synchronous components (which require all students to be logged in at the same time) are live lectures via webcam or a chat session where all students are expected to participate and share their thoughts. Some asynchronous components (which do not require students to be logged in at the same time) are posting ideas and reflections to online bulletin boards, participating with classmates in a group project, submitting assignments and essays. Many of these asynchronous elements are used for on-campus courses as well.

• Interacting with Professors

  At the master’s degree level, communication and interaction with your professors is an important part of your experience and learning process. Your professors can act as resources and sounding boards for your ideas and your projects. They can also turn you on to certain opportunities that you might not be aware of, so it’s important that you interact with them on a regular basis.

  Email communication is so common these days that it’s not surprising that most of your interactions with your professors will be through this method. That said, if your master’s program has residency requirements or is a hybrid program, make sure you introduce yourself to your professors and speak to them face-to-face. It will help them remember you when you email back and forth. A less common, but still helpful, method of communication is video-conference calling, via services like Skype, and regular phone calls.

  Because some things can be lost in electronic communication, be sure to clarify with your professors if you have questions about assignments, instructions, or comments. It’s your responsibility to understand what is being asked of you and how you should go about doing it.

• Available Resources

  Depending on your field of study and the format of the program you’re enrolled in (online, hybrid, etc.), you will need, and have available to you, different kinds of resources. If you’re enrolled in a hybrid program at a brick-and-mortar institution, chances are that you’ll be able to use the institutions libraries. If your school does not have a physical library, it may have a virtual one, through which you can access articles and research databases.

  Your school should make available, either for no cost or at a discounted cost, the software and hardware you will need in order to participate in your online program. Many schools also provide tutorials, online and on-campus, so that you can learn how to use the software and technology associated with online education. Take the tutorials and pick up whatever software and hardware you need prior to your program starting or during the first week, at the latest. Being unfamiliar with how your online experience works will only hinder your ability to efficiently learn and participate.