Master in Educational Leadership
Single Mom Overcomes Technophobia to Get Her Master's Online
While she's holding down a full time job and shuttling two teenagers between extracurricular activities, Jamie Nelis, 46, is getting her Masters in Educational Leadership through Argosy University Online. She decided to take advantage of a tuition reimbursement program through her employer, a creative arts school. "I thought, as busy as I am, a single mom with two kids and full time job, there's no reason I can't at least try," says Nelis. "People tell me they are busy -- let me tell you, it's just time management."
To juggle all her various commitments means being creative about study time. "I carry my course materials everywhere I go so I can work when I'm sitting in the car waiting for the kids," says Nelis. "A lot of times I do it on my lunch. Sometimes the kids and I will sit down at home at night, buy dinner and do homework together."
Getting Comfortable with Online Learning
Nelis said at first she was hesitant about pursuing her degree online. She's in her fourth class of the 12-class program. "I didn't want to do it [online] at all. I'm a traditional classroom teacher. But it was the best thing for me to do, because I needed to do it so that I can say I've had that experience." Nelis found the orientation tools provided by the school essential to getting comfortable. "I'm not the best computer person, so it took me a long time to even to learn to navigate around on the classroom," she says. "Once you've picked up on the computer aspect, you'll be fine."
Nelis felt that the technology learning curve was well worth it. "I like the flexibility, I like that I can log on anytime," she says. She does find that there's a distinction between vocal and written expression in classroom interaction. "It's been a huge learning curve, as far as interpreting people's written words as opposed to their spoken," she says. "I just have to concentrate more -– is this going to be interpreted exactly how I want it to be?"
A Typical Week in an Online Masters Program
Classes jump immediately into the work at hand in Nelis' program. On her first day of her Research class, students were expected to post a short autobiography on the first day. "By day three, we have to have our first discussion posted and then by day five, we all have to have our research topics posted, so that the professor can decide whether they warrant research." She finds that there's a cycle to each week's coursework. "Typically Monday, there will be something for you to read. And by midweek, you should have posted on the thread."
"We don't have a certain time that we have to be actually on, I think there are certain number of times each week we have to be logged in," says Nelis. The discussion threads are central to each class. "Every week we have a discussion question and we have to post the answer to the discussion and then reply to others in our class." Her program occasionally uses audio or video components, but for the most part it's all about reading and writing. "There is a module that we read every week. Each week you follow the module -- it gives you your outline assignment, reading assignment, lectures assignment, homework assignment -- and then it will reference a book that we are supposed to be reading for those. We do have conference calls, occasionally, with the instructor."
Group projects bring their own set of challenges. "You're dealing with people all over the country, even the world," says Nelis. Finding a time zone that works for everyone in the group can be difficult, and different people prefer different communication mediums. "Some people are just more comfortable chatting via email, Twitter and some people are more comfortable in the phone or email," she says. "I find it a little challenging, even though there are all these resources available, to decide which one is the best to use. Typically younger students want to do everything via chat and the more traditional students seem to want to get on the phone."
Learning New Habits
Nelis discovered that for her, learning didn't follow a predictable schedule. "I talked to some other people that had done online classes and study, to find advice that I could adapt that to my own current situation." Nelis spoke to one woman whose advice she found particularly helpful. "She said she would go to bed at night, then get back up at 11 or 12 at night and be able to be clear-minded and do hours worth of work. I found that worked for me too," says Nelis. "Oddly enough, I would not have ever thought that would work. I just thought 'I need to press on after dinner.' It was a huge step for me."
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