A Day in the Life of an Online Student

8 a.m.

You’re a working student off to your job. You're also on your way to earning a degree in communications as an online student at University of Phoenix. Your sights are set on moving up in the company, but first, you have a paper due in your class. You have access to your instructor through email and electronic forums, so you have already asked questions and received answers. You've also received input from students on your learning team.

10 a.m.

Time for a quick break at work and a chance to review postings in your online classroom. You log on and discover a posting from a classmate that will be useful for your paper. It's a remark on an article about interpersonal communication. "This is going to be a great paper," you think to yourself.

Noon

You delve back into your paper during your lunch hour. Earlier in your workday, you attended a meeting and jotted down observations on non-verbal communication. You outline this firsthand observation in an email and send it to your home email account.

Remembering the University's online library is available at all times through your personalized student website, you log on and click on the 'Library' icon. You click on a database and do a search of the key words your classmate mentioned earlier in her posting. In minutes, an article has piqued your interest. You read it and email it to your home account.

Before finishing your lunch break, you reply to your classmate's posting, sharing information from the new article you found. You also reply to a posting from another classmate. You now only have three more days required to post this week!

8 p.m.

After some downtime with your family at home, it's time to complete your paper. You've gathered information at work and were able to incorporate your career practices into your paper. As you type, you realize University of Phoenix classes really do escape the physical classroom. They are a part of your everyday life. They are a part of you, and your future success.

10 p.m.

Hitting the 'Enter' key, you submit your paper. You smile. You will use your techniques in workplace communication as you begin another day tomorrow at 8 a.m.