Welcome back college, everyone! I hope you just had a nice break and got ready for spring semester. In the first day of college, I’d like to share about my experience in winter taking classes online. I heard many students are afraid to take classes in a quick term online, so I wanted to tell you something about taking winter classes.

In order to graduate in May, I decided to take two classes in winter. They were Business Communications (BUS 106) and Female Role in Film (CIN 242). They’re both 3 credits courses. CIN 242 could be a class for your humanities class. Both of these two classes could be your elective class.

First of all, you are right to know there’s a lot of work for a winter class because most of the winter classes are still 3 credits classes. The time you will get to finish the winter classes is about 3 weeks, which means it is a lot of work. Therefore, the first suggestion I’d like to offer is “never procrastinate”. For my BUS 106 class, I had 4 homework assignments, 4 quizzes, and 1 project every week. For my CIN 242 class, I had about 4 homework assignments and 1 essay quiz every week, and 1 final project which we needed to work for it every week. Compared with a normal class in fall or spring semester, this is a lot more work. But you will also get a lot more time in winter. The second suggestion I’d like to share is “manage your time”. The homework is usually divided by weeks. In the beginning of the classes, I printed out the homework deadlines and hanged them up on the wall next to my desk. Checking the schedule out every day and following it well helped me out from these two classes very well. Also, the last suggestion I have is “communicate”. Professors are really nice to talk to, and they’re always there for you while you’re taking winter classes. You’ll also have the discussion board to ask any question to your classmates. As an international student, I worked this out well. So it shouldn’t be a problem for most people.

Talking about what classes to take, there are not many classes, but enough and useful. In Winter 2015, there were business administration, cinema, English, geography, health education, history, math, meteorology, music, and sociology. I chose BUS 106 as my additional elective class and CIN 242 for my humanities class. From what I’ve known, it would be a great idea to have ENG 101 as your English class, GEO 101 as your world civilization class, SOC 101 as your social science class, or some health education classes as your health/PE/ATH class. These are most likely required classes for many students, and it is not too difficult to take them online.

Hopefully, you feel not afraid of winter classes anymore and have some ideas about what to take next winter if you need to. You need to know what classes you have to take. How to check your classes: Login into Genesis – Banner Self-Service – Student Services – Registration Menu – DegreeWorks-Run a Degree Audit. You’ll see all the classes you’ve taken, future classes you have to take, and what classes you might want to take. Then, you can look up for your classes, and add or drop your classes online also under Registration Menu. All the classes you have to take are shown under your Degree Works. Just remember to check the requirement first and talk to your advisor always.

I hope this is helpful. Wish you a great semester! Lastly, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is a thief of time.