Top 10 Common Mistakes in Online Classes and How to Avoid Them

The satisfaction of learning from the comfort of your home cannot be matched. Get up at any time you want, freshen up, and switch on your laptop to start learning. But this flexibility comes with a few disadvantages. Students often take a casual approach to online learning and tend to miss classes, keep their tasks on hold, and end up struggling with their courses. 

To ensure you are on top of your courses from the beginning, go through these common mistakes most students make, along with the ways to overcome them: 

A. Time Waits for No One

You wait for the time, but your deadline will not wait for you. Procrastination is the first and one of the major mistakes students make. The flexibility of online classes makes students too comfortable, and they tend to take things casually. 

Please remember that doing things online does not mean they will take less time. You would have to invest a lot of time in researching, creating an outline, and writing your papers. Keeping things on hold often leads to last-minute stress, lack of immediate support, and eventually bad grades. 

Here’s how you can avoid such situations: 

• Create a schedule and follow it religiously
• Learn and implement time management techniques like POMODORO, time blocking, the Eisenhower matrix, or setting SMART goals
• Review your syllabus early 
• Keep some buffer time in case you need more time to finish one task

B. Being Too Close for Comfort

The bed is not where you study. Many students can do their assignments or attend an online classroom session with a pillow on their lap. Well, that’s not how you study, right? You must have a dedicated study space. 

Since your degree depends on how well you perform in class, you must give up the comfort when studying. It’s always better to get a good night’s sleep after you finish your work than to stay awake throughout the night, stressed about how you wasted another day. 

This is how you can avoid making this mistake: 

• Choose a quiet, comfortable space where you can study (not your bed)
• Minimize all sorts of distractions

C. Doing Too Many Things at Once

Online classes allow you to work on various tasks at once. But is that the right thing to do? You might feel that when your teacher is teaching, you can do your research on the pending assignment. 

Let us give you an example of John, who tried doing two tasks simultaneously. He started working on an assignment during a live session. As a consequence, he could not focus on any of these. He failed to find relevant information and missed out on an important lecture that due to some reason, was not recorded. 

You would not want to be in John’s position, right? Here’s what you need to do: 

• Close all unrelated tabs and concentrate on one task
• Practice taking notes, both during research and live sessions
• Focus on what you are doing, keeping all other things on hold

D. Radio Silence

Did you just avoid asking a question to your professor? You have already made a big mistake. Not asking questions is one of the common mistakes online students make. This not only affects their understanding of a topic but also hampers the entire learning experience. 

Clarifying your doubts in real-time will help you in the long run and make it easier for you to answer all the tricky questions. Yet, most students keep their mouths shut in virtual classes. 

Here are a few ways for avoiding common mistakes like this: 

• Participate in forums
• Talk to your professors, clarify doubts (do not shy away)
• Attend virtual office hours

E. Ignoring Netiquette

You must have come across funny reels on social media where people working from home kept their cameras off throughout a meeting. It’s good for a laugh, but if you have ever thought about using the trick, stop right there. 

Students often unintentionally wear casual clothes during classes or keep their cameras off throughout the session. This is not the right thing to do. Online etiquette, or netiquette, is something you must know and follow.

Look at the ways you can avoid such mistakes and be attentive in class: 

• Mute your microphone when you are not speaking
• Raise your hand when you want to speak
• Read the educational institutions’ rules and guidelines

F. No Plan B

The biggest perk of online classes is that you can access every article and class notes saved on cloud platforms or shared devices. But the problem here is that students rely on them completely. 

What if there’s a tech failure? Your digital resource library will not come in handy. However, students are always reluctant about these things and often keep them saved on these devices. 

Let us tell you how you can increase the effectiveness of saving assessments and quizzes: 

• Keep your assignments saved in multiple locations
• Set a weekly reminder to save your files
• Use the auto-save feature on cloud platforms

G. Not Asking for Help

Students often hide problems with their online courses until the last minute. This is one of the common issues in online classes. They struggle to find the right help at the last moment and miss deadlines. 

It is not wise to skip your problems with the course structure, assignments, or questions. 

Go through these ways to avoid such common problems faced in online classes: 

• Look for online resources that can help you with the tasks
• Avail ‘pay someone to take my online class’ services to get expert guidance

H. Feedback Isn’t Background Noise

Your instructors share feedback every time the results are published. However, you often look at the grades and ignore the feedback your instructors provided. Believe it or not, this is one of the major mistakes most students make. 

The feedback is shared with you to help you understand where you lack and work on them accordingly. It is important to keep improving in your curriculum and get the best results. 

• Review the feedback your professors shared
• List down the common mistakes you make while working on assignments
• Talk to your instructor if you need additional tips

I. The Self-Paced Assumption

Yes, online classes are self-paced, but not all of them. Some online course platforms have strict schedules, group deadlines, and live sessions. So, if you assume that all your online courses are self-paced, think again. 

Such assumptions often lead to missed deadlines, grade penalties, and other problems. You need to keep in mind that the online education system is not always self-paced. 

Here’s how you can stay on top of everything: 

• Go through the syllabus and course requirements before starting
• Keep live sessions, deadlines, etc., marked in your calendars
• Set reminders for group activities, deadlines, etc. 

J. No Breaks

Students tend to attend online classes and complete all assignments in one go, leading to eye strain, headaches, or burnout. Consequently, this leads to added stress and failure to stay focused. 

The need to take breaks has always been important for learners across all breaks. With online education making a massive impact, learners often fail to make time for themselves and give their eyes some rest.

Don’t worry, we have a few ways you can avoid such mistakes and concentrate better: 

• Follow the 20-20-20 rule
• Keep some time out for breaks and stretch sessions
• Use blue light filters and maintain a good posture.