I turned in my last paper for my “Regional Threat Analysis” class and got an A on it. VERY huge relief. I had already had to ask for a 30 day extension on the class because of the whole ‘losing a job/finding a job’ thing screwing up my focus and my schedule – so having the Professor make great commentary on a paper I worked very hard on – it was a nice feeling.

Definitely a rush!

There’s a certain satisfaction when you get a ‘well done’ on something you’ve worked hard on. It is true when we are kids – and just as true when we’re adults, although it happens a -lot- less as you get older, I’ve noticed.  That has been one of the nice things about school. I think we forget about that little rush of pleasure you can feel when someone says “Hey, that was very well done – good job!”

Over 3.2 million people, as of the end of July, had watched Professor Pausch’s video on YouTube.  3.2 million people. When a professor (or any person really – but a professor is what we’re talking about here) has the ability to reach that many people…wow!

When a professor speaks to a class, he generally expects the class to at least be listening to -some- of his words. He has an expectation of being listened to.  I doubt many expect 3.2 million to be listening to them.

In online school, you get your professors words through text, through chat rooms, and if you ask, or take the initiative, on the phone. Some have even taken to using Skype chat groups – it’s really all about where the technology can take you.

The professors I’ve had have all shared their wisdom, their experiences and their knowledge with me – and in a place like APUS, the students share with each other and the professor as well. The majority of the students are older, are already into their first career – maybe looking to get ready for a second. It is amazing how much you can pick up just in a discussion group, or in a gmail chat conversation. It may be online…you may never see that person face to face…but we really do reach out and affect…and touch…and teach each other.  Helping each other reach one of my childhood dreams…getting multiple college degrees.

One of the best pieces of advice I recieved early in my grad career was from Dr. Mike Collier, who told us to read with a highlighter and a pen in hand. Mark your books. Make your notes in the pages…in the margins. Underline and highlight and make that book your own.

Uhh…I’m 45 years old. I was lectured on -never- folding over the corner of a book’s page to mark it, or EVER writing in it. The only writing in a book permitted was an author’s signature or marking your name and the date so people who might borrow the book would know where to return it.

My grandmother wouldn’t let me read a book until I’d washed my hands! So..yes, you can imagine my horror when my /professor/ was telling me to ‘write in the margins and highlight passages’ and to use the end pages in a book to write my impressions of what I’d read. HORROR!

I still remember the twinge of ‘naughtyness’ I felt when, as a teenager, I wrote a note in the cover of a book of poems I was gifting to a boyfriend. Writing -that much- (all of, oh, three sentences?) in a book was such a forbidden thing to do…

And here I was, being told to write and mark up books. That it was expected. That it would save me hours of time and would help me collect and process information more efficiently.

That it was expected.

Oh, I fought it at first. I made impeccable notes in separate notebooks, organizing them by cut out and taped in sections of the specific syllabus portions. Then I hit a class with nine books to read. Nine. In eight weeks. About halfway through the first book, I grabbed a pen and started putting little marks next to sections that were too big to write down swiftly, but were important.

By the end of that class, I was writing in the end notes of the books, the pages filled with notes, highlights and marks.

I had been corrupted converted.

I know now that Dr. Collier was right. It does save me time. It does make it easier to track. I can pick up a book off my shelf, open it, and know exactly what it was that was so important about this particular text on terrorism or administrative management. I understand why I was assigned a book, because I can see in the end notes what I learned from reading that book.

Of course..this becomes much more difficult with e-books…but I’m working on that.

I actually read a book that had nothing to do with terrorism – and it was great! No guilt. Which book? “A Stranger to Command” by Sherwood Smith.  Someone I had the pleasure of getting to know through another blog, and decided I finally had the time to enjoy.

Yes – I realize that this is a blog about being an online college student, and that by taking a break, I’m not ‘officially’ in class – but I am still looking at the tail end of this grad degree, and I still have two other students in my household – so we’ll still have a lot to talk about.

Besides that – I have four years of experiences to share!

One thing I am planning on doing, if I get the itch to start studying again before January, is take a couple of the syllabi and find the ‘extra reading’ books and give them a read through. Didn’t do all of them when class was going on – ran out of time, but I’ll have time now, and it feels great.

I might be sitting here, crowing about how good it feels to be taking a breather, but I still have that hunger to learn and it is that hunger that has driven me thus far. That, dear reader, doesn’t go away. I still want this. I still want the degrees and education and experiences.

I’m just taking a vacation.

When you need someone else to manage making dinner because your paper is due the next day, or when you need someone to review what you wrote because you’ve looked at the bloody thing so many times, you just are not -seeing- it anymore – those are the times when having multiple students in the house comes in handy.

When all three of us look at the it-has-been-two-weeks-since-it-was-vacuumed carpet and shrug and go back to the frantic completion of a mid-term…it is not so good.

Doing grad school on your own is tough. I did that for a year before Manda started her program and then Josh started a couple of months later. It means no one quite gets the sheer volume of reading you have to do, or the struggle to write in a form and manner that is not what you were used to in undergrad classes. Now that we’re all doing it, the explanations are less, the understanding more, and the housecleaning? Well…that is more scheduled than it ever was.

Times like this, when you’re tired, you have been staring at the paper on your computer for hours and you can’t remember the last time your brain did not feel like the goop at the bottom of your cereal bowl, it is nice to have someone come by, set a cup of fresh tea down near to hand and murmur “Hang in there, get this done and you’ll have the whole weekend to relax.”

Yes…times like this, more is better.

Most of us are fully aware of this – the balancing act of life, work, needs, wants, cost, value, and so on. What to give, what to take, how much and how often – whether we’re referring to our parenting skills, our partnering skills or our career skills, we constantly ask ourselves these questions.

When considering an online college career (or /any/ college career, really – but hey, we’re here to talk about online school) it is important to make sure we take into consideration how many classes, how much work…

This is a balancing act I have failed more than once.

A good rule of thumb is, when on APU’s class options list, to look at how many books the class has listed. It will give you a sense of whether or not you can layer it with a second or third class (for grad) or third or fourth for undergrad.

Be careful! You can get overly excited and take on too much…as I have done..and it will only frustrate you and mess up your GPA in the end.  Also – try and mix classes – a  ‘have to take’ with a ‘want to take’ so you can get through the ‘drudgery’ class with the ‘treat’ of taking the fun class.

Oh, and look in my links.  I’ve put up a link to my college, APU. Check it out. There are some amazing programs there, and as many around me can attest, you can find anything from English degrees to Homeland Security in there.

Check it out. Drop me a reply note and let me know what you think?

If you have questions…drop me a note and I’ll try and answer them too. Considering I’ve been in the school for four years now (between undergrad and grad), I could probably help answer them.

I received my Bachelors in Business Administration from APU in 2005, and I also hold an Associates in Applied Sciences (Ophthalmic Dispensing) from Newbury College in Brookline, MA – 1990.

I recently turned forty-five and am in the process of parenting my eighth child. I have one daughter that I gave birth to, Elisabeth, who turned twenty-five this month, and I have raised several foster children – and now am co-parenting my stepdaughter, Olivia, who will be seven next month.

I have had a full-time job throughout my whole college career – and just recently started up my own consulting company as I’m at that point in my career where consulting for myself is much more lucrative and plentiful.

So -now you know who I am and what I do and at what point in my life I’m doing it – right…the where. I am in Northern Virginia – the DC Metro region – and the college I attend is all online. Their main campus/administrative offices are in Charles Town, WV – and I have never been there.

Now for the why…

Back when I was in school for my associates degree…two decades ago (eek!)…I wrote a column for the local college paper about being  a parent of a young child and attending college. Here I am, twenty one years later, looking at school as the parent of a young child, of an adult child, and as the wife of another online student.  It came to mind that the only real differences between when I was going to school then, and when I am going now, is that technology has made it increasingly more attainable to get a degree than it was ‘way back when’ and that I can forsee myself continuing my education until I get a PhD…unless my brain melts first. (grin)

I wanted to start a blog to share what it was like – the good, the bad, the ups and downs, of being an online student. I have encouraged my husband, my friends, my mother in law – all in all over a dozen people to attend APU and complete their degrees and felt that it would be only responsible of me to make sure the journey was catalogued in some fashion.

Stick around – the ride I’m writing about has been interesting!