A good portion of college students are visual learners, meaning that they learn best when they can see something right before their eyes. That is why many of them are afraid of taking online college courses. They don’t want to lose the ability to see the professors talking about various topics in class. If you are afraid of missing that, no worries. There are online solutions to help you comprehend all of your educational materials.
Video Lectures
Believe it or not, most online courses have video lectures that you can look to for help. These are just like standard lectures in a classroom, but they are all on the web. The advantage of video lectures over traditional lectures is that you can pick and choose what you want to hear. If your professor goes off on a personal story tangent in the middle of the lecture, you can fast forward to the information. As mean as this seems, sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
Video lectures allow professors to show themselves and visual aids at the same time, like PowerPoint presentations, pictures from a textbook, or something along those lines. However, this also gives the professors a chance to insert corny pictures into the lecture that you may be forced to laugh at. My husband had a professor throw in a picture of a knight on a horse that he called a “nightmare.” Knight….mare…nightmare. Get it? Yes, it’s incredibly cheesy, but cheese can be humorous if you keep an open mind.
YouTube Videos
If you don’t have video lectures from your professor, you may look on YouTube to see if there are any videos for that info online. There are tons and tons of instructional videos on the web, and they could easily provide you with all the information you need. This may not be the case for theory based courses, but it could be for some that are more hands-on. You just have to look around and see what you find.
Study Groups
If you can find some students in your classes to study with, you can meet up with them to discuss topics you may not understand in the course. This will give you a chance to speak with someone one on one, and maybe he or she can illustrate whatever it is you are struggling with. This isn’t always the best source if information, but it may be better than nothing at all.
Video Chatting
Ever heard of Skype? It’s a free online calling system that allows you to chat via video with anyone you want. You may ask to Skype with a professor of yours if you just can’t seem to grasp a certain topic from class. You could also talk through a video chatting system in your online classroom, if one exists. Not all professors will do this with you, but those that do will provide a vital learning source for you.
Interning
An internship may be all you need to put a concept from class into practice. With an internship, you get the chance to work in whatever industry you plan on making a career in. You might not get paid for this work, and it may not be all that you want it to be. Nevertheless, this will give you a chance to learn about your college studies from real life applications. It also gives you a chance to establish industry connections that could advance your career in the future. That is definitely worth looking into.
Don’t run away from online courses just because they lack visual learning aids. The tips above should prove that you can still learn online, even if you’re visual learner.