Home: Considering DL: Skills and Personal Traits for Success (Text Version)

Skills and Personal Traits for Success

Here we examine which skills and qualities you need to have to succeed in a tech-based course. Note that there are also examples of skills and qualities which you may have thought would be necessary, but which are in fact not necessary to succeed.

This is the text version. An interactive version of this exercise is also available.

Here are skills and qualities that you need to have to succeed in a tech-based course:

Self - Motivation / Discipline: As all or some of the instruction in tech-based courses happen out of the classroom, it is extremely important that you will be self-motivated and self-disciplines to access and work on course material without an instructor present that tells you to do that.

Excellent time management skills: Because of the fact that much of your work in tech-based courses on your own, at your own pace within assigned deadlines, it is important for you to manage your time correctly and allow enough time for yourself to work on the assignments to meet the specified guidelines.

Independent: It is important for you to be able to work independently as the instructor and other students will not be next to you while you work on many assignments of tech-based courses.

Comfortable accessing the Internet: As a lot (if not all) the work in tech-based courses is done on the Internet, it is important to feel comfortable with this form of communication. Accessing the Internet is useful for many purposes nowadays and taking a tech-based course will be only one of many reasons you may want to learn how to access and use the Internet.

Able to write, read, and comprehend well: As most of the communication in tech-based courses is done in a text-based environment it is important that your are able to read, comprehend and write well enough for people to understand you and respond to points you make.

Able to follow directions: To complete the various assignments in tech-based courses, you will need to follow various directions. A few examples are: which assignments to complete and when, what is required to complete an assignment, and how to post to a discussion forum on the Internet.

Assertive in keeping in contact: it is important to initiate communication with the instructors and other students any time you have a question or comment that may affect the outcome of your learning. If you have any questions, or if you need clarification, don't hesitate and contact your instructor. Shyness in this regard does not work!

Here are skills and qualities that you do not need to have to succeed in a tech-based course:

Living close to the college: The geographic location is in most cases an irrelevant success factor. In fact, most tech-based courses do not require on-campus meetings at all and some of them require very few and are scheduled in advance. Students succeed in tech-based courses regardless of how far they live from the college. They are able to succeed in the course thanks to communication, collaboration, learning and information features available in these courses from a distance. Living close to the campus could help though, if you wish to meet the instructor in person or if you need to use campus equipment necessary to access the course.

Very flexible time schedule: Flexible time schedule is not something you have to have in order to succeed in a tech-based course. In fact, most students who enroll in tech-based courses do so because they appreciate the flexibility of the course schedule and the fact that they can fit it in their busy schedule out of school.

Quiet and shy: Being quiet or shy will not contribute to your success in a tech-based courses. Since there is no face to face contact between the student and the instructor and among all students, it is important that you don't stay quiet and make yourself heard using the various communication and collaboration tools available in tech based course (such as a discussion forum or email messages).

Excellent Math skills: There is absolutely no connection between your Math skills and your ability to succeed in tech-based courses of various disciplines. There is a good chance that you will use a computer or a TV for most of the tech-based courses, but there is no need to be good at math to access and use this equipment.

Knowledge of computer programming: Although there is a very good chance that you will use a computer for your tech-based course, you do not need to know how to program a computer to succeed in a tech-based course. All you are required to know is how to ACCESS and use various programs on the computer.

Fluent in HTML: Indeed HTML is the language that was necessary to develop Web-based courses, but as a student you are not required to develop the course using HTML; rather, you are required to ACCESS and USE the Web-based course, and to do that and to succeed in the course, there is no need to know HTML at all.

Fast typist: Although fast typing can help when writing your documents and communicating via text-based tools on the computer, you could be a slow typist and still excel in a tech-based course. It might just take you longer but speed is no indication of quality!