Staying Engaged with online classes.

Maintaining engagement in an online class can be much more challenging than campus classes. The challenges with maintaining your attention are much more prevalent then when in a controlled environment, such as a classroom. The first step to being engaged in the class is being prepared. Having the materials and supplies you will need will help to avoid the distraction and stopping and starting involved with retrieving things. Materials for an online class would be your book for the class, your computer, and a pen and paper for writing notes or other important information. Gathering these materials all together before starting assignments will help you to be more focused on the assignment, and will limit the opportunity for distractions. 

The next step to being engaged is to avoid outside distractions. It is easy to allow yourself to do your homework in the room with the tv or radio on. Even if you consider yourself good at multitasking, these distractions lower your ability to absorb the information you are trying to learn and will lower your retention of the information when test time comes around. Finding a calm quiet place away from electronic distractions will help with your focus and will make your homework time less stressful and more relaxing. It is also advisable to put your phone on silent and setting it away from you, to avoid the ever present temptation to see how facebook is doing.

The final step to maintaining your focus and being engaged is active participation in class. As many of my professors have noted in their syllabus, the minimal required work will result in the minimal grade. Being willing to be active in your online classroom will show in your overall grade. Being diligent in your assigned reading and assignments will make studying for exams and the eventual final easier and less stressful. With online classes as opposed to campus classes, our forums and blogs are there to replace classroom discussions.  Putting forth serious effort in these areas will have an overall positive effect on your enjoyment of and learning potential from your classes. 

Introduction

Hello, my name is Sonney Warren. I was born in Lynchburg, TN, but have moved around for most of my childhood. I have lived in numerous towns and states, but spent a lot of my time in AL and MO. I graduated from Shawnee High School across the river in Wolf Lake, IL. Since this is only my second semester, I haven't yet declared a major, but am planning to pursue a Degree in Psychology focusing on counseling with a minor in Autism.

The most pertinent obstacle I've overcome would be the decision to return to college at the age of 37. I entered the flooring business in 1998 and have remained there ever since. I have owned my own business for the past 8 years. Hard surface flooring is a career that is rough on your body, and I realized that I need to be proactive about my future, rather than wait until my knees are severely damaged and I have numerous health problems resulting from years of abuse to my body.

I decided to return to school in pursuance of Psychology and Autism, after attending the snap meetings through SEMO with my oldest son, Mason who has been diagnosed with Aspergers. I hope that my education and future career in this field can help other children with Autism spectrum disorders, and also help to educate others about the positive and negative effects of these disorders.

I hope to use this class to improve my writing ability. Psychology is a field of many papers and writing, and the effectiveness of my ability in writing will directly correlate to my effectiveness in my career. If my writing is more fluent and attention getting, then the messages I am trying to get across have a better chance of reaching an attentive ear. It was brought to my attention last semester, that I have some flaws in my writing, and I hope through the use of this class, I can not only overcome these flaw, but excel in other areas to become much more effect in my writing.