How the Online Classroom Works

If you've never taken classes online at colleges in Washington before, you might find that the virtual classroom takes some getting used to. Although you learn the same material in online classes, the learning experience is very different. On this page, we'll give you an overview of how the online classroom works and what you can expect.

Attending Class

Most online colleges in Washington will have the virtual classroom set up and accessible to students at least a few days before the class actually begins. To access your classroom, you usually enter through a portal on your Washington school's home page. Your school should issue you some sort of log-in name and password to enter the classroom portal. Once you see your class, you can click on it to view posts from your professor, read the syllabus, and begin posting messages of your own to the boards.

Interacting with Professors and Peers

The online classroom allows you to interact with your professors and peers in several ways. For the most part, colleges in Washington tend to rely on message boards to facilitate student participation and dialogue. You post short responses to questions or comments posed by your instructor or peers to generate a discussion. Alternatively, you can also interact with your instructor and peers one on one through chat and email. For group work, your instructor may set aside a special group message board or chat room so your team can discuss assignments. Most online Washington colleges grade participation by the number of comments you post and the number of days on which you do so. For instance, you might have to submit three posts on four out of seven days of the week.

Submitting Assignments

You can submit assignments on a personal message board that only your instructor can access for confidentiality purposes. Your instructor may also require you to submit some assignments via email. In both cases, you will send your assignments as attachments to the post or the message. For instance, many online colleges in Washington use Microsoft Word document attachments for written assignments. You might also have to author presentations using PowerPoint or complete spreadsheet assignments with Excel.

Reading Materials

Certain colleges in Washington still rely on paper texts, while others have gone completely to electronic reading materials. Some classes use a mix of both paper and electronic reading assignments. The text for the class will usually be mailed to you after you purchase it through the school's online bookstore. The rest of the reading materials are typically accessible as PDF or Word files in the online classroom.