University of Phoenix Online Tips and Tricks

Earning online degrees is the latest and greatest thing to hit the internet and is sweeping the nation by force.  But the luxury of making your own schedule to attend classes from the comfort of your own home is short lived once you see the amount of work that needs to be completed each week. Having earned degrees both traditionally and online, I can tell you that online degrees are far more intensive than the brick and mortar programs most of us are used to today.

Here are some insights:

1. Discussion Questions: It is best to complete two to three of these essays per day for four to five days in order to get a perfect participation grade. These are in the form of blogs within the main UofP website and must be a blend of fact and editorializing. If you write nonsense, you will not get credit so think hard and develop each essay.
2. Weekly or Bi-Weekly Papers: These are the large portions of your grade and must be quality driven, insightful and full of recent and verifiable references. Accuracy is extremely important. Adhere to all guidelines set forth by instructors and you will earn the A+. While it sounds obvious, believe me it’s not. When you enter your classes those with issues writing papers become obvious through their “blogs” for help.
3. Learning Team Chatter: You must earn participation grades each week in your learning team which is a group of online students in each class. It is best to check in each day with four days of heavy participation. This includes posting drafts of work, contributions to assignments or reviews and suggestions of other team member’s work. Do not overlook this as it is a certain way to drop your overall grade.
4. Learning Team Final Assignment: While there are two final assignments in each class, your own paper and the Learning Team paper, it is the latter which causes the most headaches. Be sure to communicate effectively online with your other students.  Not only will the final presentation need to be spot on, but after the class is over, each team member rates each of the other team members. So if you don’t contribute enough, are antagonistic or critical or basically annoy anyone in the blogs, guess what, your grade will drop. Mind those P’s and Q’s.