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We compared 13 popular online learning platforms for all ages, budgets, and interests – our favorites include Coursera for certificate courses and MasterClass for creative arts classes

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• The rise of online learning is democratizing education by improving access to top-notch courses.
• We compared some of the platforms we cover the most to help you find the best ones for you.
• We looked at popular platforms like Coursera , edX , MasterClass , Skillshare , Duolingo , and more.

As online learning continues to grow in popularity, so do the options available to you. Whether you want to take a popular free Ivy League class for fun , pursue part of an online master's degree , boost your career with some additional certifications , or just learn a new language at your own pace , there are many options out there for you .

To help you decide which ones might work best with your schedule, budget, and goals, we compared 13 of the platforms we cover the most : edX , Coursera , FutureLearn , MasterClass , Skillshare , LinkedIn Learning , Udemy , Udacity , CreativeLive , Codecademy , Duolingo , Babbel , and Rosetta Stone .

The best online learning platforms for accredited university courses and degrees

• The best online learning platforms for career skills certifications

The best online learning platforms for creative skills and hobbies

• The best online learning platforms for learning a new language

Coursera , edX , and FutureLearn are three popular online learning platforms that offer courses, certificate programs, and even master's degrees from top universities as well as well-known companies and non-profit organizations.

All three have courses you can audit for free, as well as options to pay for a certificate of completion. They also have multi-course programs you can exchange for real college credits from select schools, or apply to their full master's programs.

The topics covered on each platform are incredibly diverse, covering everything from computer programming and finance to positive psychology and art history . They can be taken to advance your career or expand your knowledge in a subject for fun.

Keep reading below to learn the differences between edX , Coursera , and FutureLearn :

Cost: Individual courses are usually free to audit for a limited amount of time; certificates and longer programs vary in price.

Pros: You can most courses for free, including ones in longer programs (great for testing out a longer certificate program before committing to it); financial assistance is available

Cons: Some courses are archived, meaning you can still access them but can't earn a certificate; Charges one lump sum for courses instead of a subscription fee

You can browse all edX courses here .

Cost: Individual courses are usually free to audit; certificates and longer programs vary in price. You can also sign up for an annual Coursera Plus subscription ($399) and get access to 90% of Coursera's offerings.

Pros: Many programs charge a monthly fee, so the faster you finish, the more money you save; financial assistance available; offers some free certification courses

Cons: No financial assistance for Coursera MasterTracks; you can only audit one-off courses (you will have to pay for ones that are part of a Specialization)

You can browse all Coursera courses here.

FutureLearn

Cost: Individual courses are usually free to audit; certificates and longer programs vary in price. You can also subscribe to FutureLearn Unlimited for $189.99 annually to get unlimited access to courses.

Pros: UK-based, offers more international options; offers some free certification courses

Cons: Not as many course options as edX and Coursera; you can only audit one-off courses (you will have to pay for ones that are part of an ExpertTrack)

You can browse all FutureLearn courses here.

The best online learning platforms for career skill certifications

What all of them have in common

LinkedIn Learning , Codecademy , Udemy , and Udacity all offer online courses, programs, and bootcamps that can advance your career, including in in-demand subjects like omputer programming that boast high job satisfaction .

Unlike in-person or intensive bootcamp programs, these courses are self-paced and flexible, letting you practice and earn a certificate on your own time. They can be great for quickly picking up a new skill to boost your resume , testing out a potential job path before committing to a longer program, or gaining the qualifications you need to transition careers or move up in your role.

Keep reading below to learn the differences between LinkedIn Learning , Codecademy , Udemy , and Udacity :

LinkedIn Learning

Cost: A LinkedIn Learning subscription is $19.99/month (annually) or $29.99/month (month-to-month).

Pros: Short video classes broken down into digestible segments; certifications go right on your LinkedIn profile; LinkedIn occasionally makes popular career courses free for a limited time

Cons: Less interactive; no way to submit homework assignments or reinforce what you've learned

You can browse all LinkedIn Learning courses here.

Cost: Codecademy Pro is $39.99/month (month-to-month) and $19.99/month annually. Pro Student offers 35% off to eligible current students. (Note: Codecademy is currently offering 40% off Pro and Pro Student memberships through October 22 .

Pros: Some free beginner options ; a huge range of programming courses; Fun, hands-on projects

Cons: Less interactive than traditional coding bootcamps

You can browse all Codecademy courses here.

Cost: You can pay a one-time fee per course or subscribe to a Udemy Personal Plan for $29.99/month for unlimited access to all Udemy courses

Pros: Easy to use on mobile; offers a huge range of course offerings; popular bootcamps are updated frequently so you're working with the latest information; frequent sales on courses

Cons: Less interactive; harder to reinforce or test what you've learned; not all courses come with certificates

You can browse all Udemy courses here.

Cost: Nanodegrees can be paid for as you go, starting at $399/month or $1,017 total

Pros: Offers some free courses ; provides additional career resources and support to help you find a job after a Nanodegree

Cons: Nanodegrees can get pricey and involve a bigger time commitment if you want to finish faster to save money

You can browse all Udacity courses here.

While platforms like edX and Coursera are great for taking university-accredited courses for fun , MasterClass , Skillshare , and CreativeLive all offer subscriptions to unlimited online courses and are particularly great for growing creative skills like writing, photography, art, design, and acting — though they all offer courses in other subjects like personal development.

All three platforms offer courses from celebrities and experts at the top of their fields, from famous chefs and bestselling authors to well-known Stanford faculty members . They also offer courses in more niche creative subjects, from hand-lettering to bird photography .

While they don't offer the same direct feedback on your work as in-person instruction, they can be a fun way to unwind and learn a new skill at your own pace.

Keep reading below to learn the differences between MasterClass , Skillshare , and CreativeLive :

MasterClass

Cost: A MasterClass subscription is $180 annually (broken down to $15/month)

Pros: Beautiful and engaging video quality; celebrity instructors; offers a broad range of topics; digestible format; online forum provides a sense of community

Cons: No certifications; have to hold yourself more accountable to learn

You can browse all MasterClass courses here .

CreativeLive

Cost: You can pay a one-time fee per course or subscribe to a CreativeLive membership for $13/month.

Pros: Lots of in-depth bootcamps; great selection of in-depth courses to expand your skillsets

Cons: Less interactive; no direct feedback

You can browse all CreativeLive courses here.

Cost: A Skillshare Premium subscription is $32/month (month-to-month) or $15/month (annually)

Pros: Nice video quality; some celebrity and expert instructors; great for very niche topics

Cons: No certifications; mostly focused on art and design

You can browse all Skillshare courses here.

The best online learning platforms for learning new languages

Duolingo , Babbel , and Rosetta Stone are three language-learning platforms we cover a lot, and each has different strengths depending on which language you want to learn, your level of experience, and your time commitment. 

What they all have in common is flexibility — they can be great for brushing up on your high school Spanish or learning a few Japanese phrases before a trip .

Keep reading to learn more about the differences between Duolingo, Babbel, and Rosetta Stone:

Cost: Free; Duolingo Plus is $6.99/month for features like ad-free experience and unlimited tries

Pros: Great for learning new vocabulary; Fun, gamified experience; Easy to use on mobile; Lots of language options (including Yiddish )

Cons: Not as much practice directly speaking with someone in conversation

You can browse all of Duolingo's language options here.

Cost: $13.95 for 1 month; $9.95/month (3 months); $8.45/month (6 months); $6.95/month (1 year)

Pros: Focused on teaching you realistic conversation topics, such as travel or career-focused phrases; Uses native speakers to demonstrate lessons; frequent sales offered

Cons: Some language programs are not as strong as others ; Not as many language options as other services

You can browse all of Babbel's language options here.

Rosetta Stone

Cost: $11.99/month (3 months); $7.99/month (1 year); $179 lifetime (unlimited languages)

Pros: Fully immersive, mimicking real-life experience; Huge selection of languages to choose from

Cons: More expensive, requires more of a time commitment 

You can browse all of Rosetta Stone's language options here.

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• How to Make Your Coursework as Good as It Can Possibly Be

Many GCSE and A-level subjects are assessed in part by coursework in addition to exams, meaning that the mark you receive for coursework contributes to your overall grade. Many students prefer coursework, because it’s a chance to showcase your academic abilities away from the high-pressured environment of the exam room, making it ideal for those who don’t perform to the best of their abilities in exams. However, the time you have available for coursework, in contrast with the time constraints of the exam room, can lull some students into a false sense of security. Coursework is arguably just as challenging as exams, just in different ways – and, given the fact that you have more time, much higher standards are expected of you in coursework than in exams. Careful planning and research are needed for successful coursework, as well as strong data-gathering and essay-writing skills. In this article, we look at how to produce excellent coursework, from planning to proofreading. This information might also be useful to you if you’re planning on attending an Oxford Summer School this summer.

What is coursework?

GCSE and A-level coursework typically takes the form of an extended essay or project. Its objectives vary from one subject to another, but there’s usually an emphasis on the student conducting independent research into a topic of their own choice. Thus coursework often takes the form of some sort of investigation; it may, therefore, help to have your ‘detective’ hat on as you explore, investigate and analyse your topic. You can usually work on your coursework at home, though it’s sometimes completed under controlled conditions through sessions at school. To give you a better idea of how coursework varies from one subject to another, here are some examples:

• English – English coursework usually takes the form of an extended essay with a title of your choice. You’re usually given a choice of themes and/or texts to explore, and you could choose a format such as a comparison between a set text and another one.
• Geography – Geography coursework usually focuses on the gathering, reporting and interpretation of data designed to answer a particular geographical question. You could investigate usage of a shopping centre, for example, or look at erosion on a particular beach.
• Sciences – coursework for science subjects often takes the form of a scientific project or experiment that you conduct and report on yourself.

Before you start work on your coursework, it’s essential that you have a thorough understanding of the rules. Failing to conform to the rules – inadvertently or not – may result in your coursework (or possibly even your entire qualification) being disqualified, so it’s a serious matter.

• No plagiarism – this is particularly dangerous given the ready availability of relevant information on the internet these days. Make sure everything is in your own words; you’ll need to sign a declaration stating that it’s your own original work.
• There’s only so much help your teacher can give you . They can provide guidance on what you need to include, and on what the examiners will be looking for. You can ask them questions, but they’ll usually only be able to check through your first draft once and offer broad hints on updating it.
• Check the word count , and stick to it. Find out whether footnotes, appendices and bibliographies are included in the word count.
• Check what topics you’re allowed to do your coursework on; if there’s an exam on this topic, you’ll almost certainly have to choose a different one for your coursework.

Choose your topic wisely

Ideally, choose something you’re genuinely interested in, as your enthusiasm will come across and you’ll find it more enjoyable to write. If there’s something you’ve been working on for the course so far that you’ve particularly enjoyed, you may be able to focus more on this as part of your coursework. For science coursework, you’ll need to choose something to investigate that you can measure, change and control; it should be what’s called a ‘fair test’, meaning that you have to acknowledge all the controls you use in the experiment and why. Try not to pick a topic for which the scope is too vast, as you’ll struggle to research it properly and you’re unlikely to do it justice, and it’ll be hard to keep within the word limit. Ask your teachers for some guidance on choosing your topic if you’re not sure what to write about; they might even tell you a bit about what previous students have done to give you some inspiration.

Plan how long it’s going to take

Never leave your coursework until the last minute, even if this is your normal approach to essays and it usually works for you. Make sure you understand when the deadlines are, including time for submitting a first draft for comments from your teacher. Then schedule blocks of time for working on it, allowing plenty of time before the deadline to cater for any unexpected delays. Allow ample time for making corrections based on teacher feedback on your first draft, and keep some time aside before the deadline for final editing and proofreading. Because actual deadlines are few and far between, you’ll need to take responsibility for the writing process and impose some deadlines on yourself to ensure it’s finished in time. Write down your deadlines on a calendar, with the coursework broken into stages and dates assigned to each, by which time each task should be complete. You can base your stages on the next few points in this article – research and data gathering, a structure plan for the piece of work, writing up, and so on.

Conducting your research and gathering data

As coursework is primarily a research exercise, the research phase is crucial, so don’t be tempted to skimp on it and go straight to writing up. Use as many different resources as you can to gather data: books, journals, newspapers, television, radio, the internet and anything else you think might be relevant. For science and Geography coursework, you’ll need to base your work on a hypothesis, so the research stage should start by coming up with at least one hypothesis, otherwise your research will lack direction. The research phase for some subjects may involve site visits for gathering data, so allow plenty of time for this, particularly if you need your parents to drive you somewhere to do so. If it’s a scientific experiment you’re conducting for your coursework, you’ll need to pay careful attention to planning the experiment using rigorous scientific methods (also noting what Health and Safety precautions you are taking), as well as reading up on the background and theory so that you have an idea of what to expect from the outcome of your experiment. In the research stage, make notes about what you expect to happen, so that you can later compare your expectations with what actually did happen. The experiment itself also forms part of the research and data-gathering stage for your science coursework; in the write-up stage, which we come onto shortly, you analyse and write up the results.

Plan your structure

Once you’ve completed your research, the process of writing up begins. Before you get down to the actual writing, however, it’s advisable to write a plan for how you’re going to structure it – essentially an essay plan for English coursework and other subjects for which the coursework is based on an extended essay. It’ll look slightly different from an essay plan for science subjects and others that revolve around project work, but the principle is the same: plan out what order you’re going to present your information in. For big projects, this is particularly important, because with a lot of information to convey, you risk being disorganised and waffling.

Writing up your project

For any coursework, but particularly coursework based around an extended essay, you’ll need to perfect your essay-writing abilities. For science coursework, writing up your project also involves data analysis, as you interpret the results of your experiment and work your notes into formal scientific language. Follow the links below to find lots more useful advice on writing great essays.

• How to write dazzlingly brilliant essays
• How to write more original essays
• Techniques from creative writing that can improve your essays

When you’re writing up, it’s important to find a place where you can work quietly, without distractions that could cause you to make careless errors. You wouldn’t want noise or distractions when you were in an exam room, so treat your coursework with the same reverence.

Supporting materials and images

For some subjects, namely the sciences and Geography, it would be appropriate to include images, graphs, charts, tables and so on in your coursework. For example, for Geography coursework, your extra material could include annotated images and maps of the site you’re talking about, plus tables, graphs and charts. An appendix could then detail your raw data; if, for example, your coursework focused on the results of a survey, you could put the raw survey responses in an appendix and provide summaries and analysis in the main body of the coursework.

Footnotes and bibliography

As we said earlier, it’s important that you always use your own words in your coursework to avoid the possibility of falling foul of plagiarism rules. However, it’s acceptable to quote from another source, as you would in any piece of academic writing, but you must make sure that you state where it is from and use quotation marks to show that it’s a quote from somewhere else. The best way of citing another work is to use a footnote; word processors will allow you to insert one, and it just puts a little number at the end of the sentence and another in the footer of the document, into which you put the name of the author and work, and the page within that work that the quote can be found. At the end of your piece of work, include a bibliography that includes a list of every external source you’ve used in the creation of your coursework. Stick to a set formula when including books. A common format is: Author Surname, Initial. (Date) – Title of Book , page number For example: Lewis, C.S. (1960) – Studies in Words , p. 45 When you get to university, you’ll be expected to include footnotes and bibliographies in all your essays, so it’s a good habit to get into and coursework gives you good practice at it.

The final pre-submission check

Having completed a first draft, received feedback from your teacher, and honed your work into a finished piece of coursework, have a final check through it before you send off your coursework for submission.

• Sense check : have a read through your completed piece of work and check that it all makes sense. Make sure you haven’t contradicted yourself anywhere, or repeated yourself, or laboured the point. If there are any facts that you may have meant to look up to double check their accuracy, do so now.
• Word count : ensure that the completed work falls within the word count, and double check whether the bibliography should be included in the word count. If you’ve exceeded it, you’ll need to work through the piece and tighten up your writing, omitting unnecessary information, reordering sentences so that they use fewer words, and so on.
• Proofread : check your spelling and grammar, and ensure that there are no typos. Don’t just use the spellcheck – go through it with a fine toothcomb, manually, and if you can, ask someone to read through it for you to see if they spot anything you haven’t.
• Formatting : check that you’ve included page numbers, and that the font and line spacing is consistent throughout the work. Ensure that the font is plain and easy to read, such as Arial or Times New Roman.
• Bibliography : check that you’ve included everything, that the format is the same for all sources mentioned, and that the right information is included for each.

Once this stage is complete, you’re ready to submit your coursework along with your declaration that it’s entirely your own work. Get ready for a feeling of immense satisfaction when you finally send off your hard work!

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What Makes a Course Effective?

One of the most difficult parts of college-level instruction is assessing the effectiveness of your teaching.  Many of the conventional methods for measuring student achievement are far from guaranteed indicators of course quality. Student course evaluations notoriously favor professors who water down course content, while rampant grade inflation makes the comparison of grades across courses and semesters completely unreliable in assessing instructional quality. Measuring the effectiveness of our courses is a priority for us at the Philosophy as a Way of Life Project . We want to know if our courses are helping students to live more philosophically, and how to introduce targeted interventions when we do not accomplish our course goals.  In what follows, I will detail what our research has revealed about assessing the efficacy of college courses and how you can integrate these insights as you fashion your own classes for this coming semester.

Your Goal: Overall Student Satisfaction.  How to Measure It: Student Course Evaluations.

Getting student input may not always be the best way to judge course quality .  Not only do students give better overall reviews for inflated grades and easier classes , they are also influenced by factors that are irrelevant to effective instruction . With all of this in mind, should you bother looking at student course evaluations?  Even those who are critical of student evaluations agree on one thing: Course evaluations are reliable indicators of student satisfaction . Although students are poor at evaluating their own learning , they are much better at judging how they feel upon course completion.  Do they feel like they got a lot out of a course? Did the course content seem worthwhile?  Would they recommend this course to others?  Students are well-positioned to answer questions like these that capture how happy they are with their course experience, making student course evaluations an effective yardstick for measuring student satisfaction.

Your Goal: Rigorous Material. How to Measure It: Student Course Evaluations.

Of course, if you are just aiming for overall student satisfaction, you might be worried that you will sacrifice rigorous instruction at the altar of strong student reviews.  Students can be satisfied with a course simply because it was an easy A or because they feel they accomplished something worthwhile. How can you tell if strong course evaluations are more attributable to the latter than the former?  Fortunately for our purposes, student course evaluations are not only effective at measuring student satisfaction — they are also strong indicators of how challenging students find the course material. Students are quick to report a course’s workload as demanding or challenging , especially when the course is more difficult than they expected it to be , making student reviews an effective way to gauge a philosophy course’s rigor.

The primary difficulty with measuring both student satisfaction and course rigor via student course evaluations is that there is a tradeoff between the two.  Even if students ultimately enjoyed a course, courses with lighter workloads and easier grading are generally ranked more highly .  Because a challenging course might result in slightly lower rates of student satisfaction, you ultimately want to aim for a balance between them.  If students report high rates of course satisfaction but spent little to no time on the course outside of class, then the next move might be to make the course content a bit more challenging.  On the other hand, if students are overwhelmed with the amount of coursework, then it may be time to scale back and implement more course elements focused on student satisfaction.

Your Goal: Student Growth.  How to Measure It: Efficient, Effective Feedback.

Students enter Philosophy as a Way of Life courses with a wide range of abilities. Some are just starting college and have very little experience structuring their study time or writing term papers, while others are further along in their college degree programs and better prepared to meet the demands of a rigorous philosophy course. Regardless of where students are in terms of academic achievement, our goal is to create classrooms designed for optimal academic and personal growth, courses that both meet students where they are at as well as challenge them to take the next step. 

Though there is still some disagreement about the size of the effect , a sure-fire way to accelerate student growth in your courses is to give targeted, timely feedback .  When students complete any task in your class, whether that is a daily journal entry, multiple choice question, or essay rough draft, this opens up a window of opportunity.  Students want to know how they did: Did they get the multiple choice question right? Did they ace the rough draft?  And if not, what was holding them back?  We try to take full advantage of this window of opportunity, not only communicating correct answers to students, but also providing feedback for how they can improve on future assignments . 

This feedback can take a number of different forms. In my course at Florida State , we review the answers to daily reading quizzes immediately, discussing which parts of the text students found difficult to understand.  Rough draft essays are peer-reviewed within a week’s time, and all students are required to schedule a personal tutorial session at the virtual writing center.   However you choose to give feedback, make it a priority to give that feedback efficiently.  With timely feedback, students will be better positioned to learn from their mistakes and better able to incorporate what they learn in their future work.

Your Goal: Academic Achievement.  How to Measure It: Common Assessment Items.

It might seem like we’re missing something. Thus far, I have focused on ways to measure how your class is doing in terms of course rigor, student growth, and overall satisfaction, but I haven’t touched on one of the core elements of a college class – how much students are learning!  This is partially by design.  If the structure of your course emphasizes student growth in the midst of challenging course content, your students will be learning far more than they would in an easy course without much instructor feedback. 

Nevertheless, you might still want to check if your students are improving on particular learning objectives – whether they understand Kant’s Categorical Imperative or Berkeley’s Idealism for instance.  We have already seen that grades might not always be very telling.  If past classes were less challenging or had any grade inflation, creating a rigorous course may actually make course grades go down.  In place of comparing student grades, the best strategy for judging whether students are making strides on particular content items is by including common assessments items in multiple courses. Common assessment items can include identical multiple choice or short answer questions, or even similar essay prompts. These common assignments will allow you to directly compare past and present student performance to see if students are making progress towards specific learning goals. 

In order to use this method of measuring academic achievement, you do not need to copy all of the assignments from past courses in their entirety.  Instead, just select particular assessment items that you particularly like from previous courses, keeping the best parts of previous iterations of the class, using those to compare how well you taught different content areas in the past and present versions of the course.  This will allow you both to see how student understanding is improving as well as if there was anything you lost in your course redesign.  Common assessment items are thus a strong, objective method for measuring how much students are learning from course to course.

I hope that you enjoyed our series on how to make a course relevant , engaging , resilient, and effective.  For more pedagogical resources for creating engaging philosophy classrooms from the Philosophy as a Way of Life Project, check out our website or join our Instructor Community on Facebook!

Wes Siscoe is a Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellow at Florida State University and the Mellon Course Design Coordinator for the Philosophy as a Way of Life Project. He received his PhD from the University of Arizona and has been a visiting researcher at Brown, Notre Dame, and Rutgers. His research revolves around several themes – rationality, language, and virtue – and their importance for accounts of human excellence and achievement.

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How To Create a Better Online Course Experience (11 Actionable Tips)

Learn a series of actionable tips that will help you improve the experience of your online courses. Keep your students and get better reviews.

Did you know that the average completion rate of an online course is 15% or less?

This means that people buy online courses but often don't even finish them.

Simply because they don’t enjoy the course.

This can have huge consequences for you as a course creator: if students don't take at least a significant part of your courses, there is a good chance that they won't be buying from you again in the future.

Despite these low completion rates, many course creators thrive in this business.

For example, I have been teaching online since 2016, and I currently have an instructor rating of around 4.5 stars on Udemy .

So it's possible to create courses that your students will love so much that they will not stop until they complete them.

But to get to that level of student satisfaction, you will need to apply a certain number of principles while building your course.

These principles fall roughly into two categories:

• you want to increase the perceived value of the course as much as possible. A higher perceived value means a higher degree of satisfaction from your students, giving them the feeling that buying the course was a good decision.
• you want to make the learning process itself as effective as possible, making it as easy as possible for your student to take, complete, and fully absorb your course

So, how to improve the experience of your online course?

The following principles will help you create an excellent online course experience that your students will love:

• Known your audience
• Use an effective pace
• Split up your course as much as possible
• Present with excitement
• Avoid unnecessary jargon to enhance clarity
• Provide extra written material
• Use different content formats
• Include quizzes
• Give Assignments
• Build a Community
• Organize regular doubt-clearing sessions

You can also check out all the free guides that you have available here at the Course Creator Academy by clicking on the Academy link on the top menu bar.

So without further ado, let's dive deep into all these principles.

1: Know Your Audience

It all starts with this base principle, it's the basis of everything, so don't overlook it or gloss over it.

You don’t just pick your favorite topic and launch an online course. Instead, you first need to validate your idea. You need to conduct some initial market research .

Like in any business, verify that what you’re going to teach matches an actual market need.

You might be tempted just to start recording your course, publish it in a marketplace, and wait to see what happens.

I can't recommend you that approach because there is a high risk that you will come up with a course that people don't want to buy.

Instead, I recommend that you do at least some quick analysis using tools like Google Trends or Ubersuggest and that you sign up for online forums where your audience hangs out, mingles in and starts understanding better what people are looking for.

This research is an ever-going process that is better done on a daily basis at least in the beginning.

Later on, you won't need to do daily research, but in the beginning, I recommend that you do so.

Passive research is great too, but you should engage actively with your future students on a one-by-one level and ask them what they need in a course.

This does not have to take as long as it sounds. 😉

Half an hour to an hour of research per day should be more than enough to give you a much better idea of what your students are looking for.

The amount of feedback and the huge number of ideas that you will get for your course is absolutely invaluable and well worth your time.

By doing this, the risk of creating a course that people don't want is way lower.

For example, you can use Typeform to create a survey and share it with your existing audience, or on Facebook groups, Quora, and anywhere else where your students hang out.

2: Use an Effective Pace

One of the biggest problems that many online courses have is the wrong information pace.

If you go too fast, you are going to end up losing a lot of people along the way that simply couldn't follow your fast teaching pace.

But if you teach your course too slowly, you risk ending up boring not only the faster-learning students but also any student in general, for that matter.

Remember that teacher you had in school that spoke in a boring tone that put all the class to sleep every time? You don't want to be that teacher.

One of the main reasons that students quit before completing the course is because they’re either overwhelmed with too much information or bored because of the slow pace.

You want to avoid both problems by striking a careful balance of always teaching at an optimum pace: not too fast and not too slow.

You want to speak at a slightly higher pace than you would do in a normal conversation, and you want to add more changes to your tone of voice than you normally would, but without exaggerating.

This takes time and practice, but it makes a huge difference to your students and is well worth learning how to master.

This tip is very closely related to our next tip.

3. Split up your course as much as possible

Besides the speed at which you actually speak, the way that you organize your course makes a huge difference to your students.

Did you know humans process information better in chunks ?

In order to avoid overwhelming your students with too much information, you want to make sure that you split up your course into as many sections and lessons as it makes sense.

Each individual lesson should cover one and only one topic, from A to Z.

The lesson can be as small as 3 to 5 minutes, and it's better to avoid making lessons much larger than 15 minutes.

Larger lessons are a good sign that the lesson should have been split up into a couple of separate lessons and that the course is overall not very well thought out in terms of its structure.

Short lessons that only cover one thing at a time are a great way for your students to identify clearly what are the parts of the course that they are struggling with the most.

It's also a great way to reduce overwhelm and to encourage your students to keep taking the course, one 5-minute lesson at a time.

There is almost nothing more discouraging for a student to see that the next lesson is something like 21 minutes.

This will almost immediately result in thoughts like, "maybe I should continue the course tomorrow"...

4: Present With Excitement

A lot of the satisfaction that your students will associate with your course will be coming from the tone, the pace, and the overall "excitement" (for lack of a better word) that you used while presenting the course.

I know that presenting with an excited tone is easier said than done, especially for certain topics, and it does not come naturally to most people, including me.

You are, after all, an online teacher, not a comedian. 😉

But you don't need to go overboard with this.

If you simply decide to make a constant effort to pay close attention to your tone of voice and pace and make sure you avoid presenting in a monotonous tone, you will already make a huge positive difference to both you and your students.

Just by simply adding some more variety to your tone of voice, even if it's just a little bit, just by paying close attention and by being willing to work on this aspect of the course creation process, you should immediately see some positive results.

Any small change at all in the tone and pace of your voice is going to be tremendously helpful to your students in the sense that it will help them a lot to pay more attention to the course and learn more from it.

5: Avoid Unnecessary Jargon to Enhance Clarity

You might be tempted in your course to throw in a lot of advanced terms to not only highlight your expertise but it in the hope that it will make the course easier to understand for your students.

The problem is that it doesn't work like that. Unnecessary jargon and the overuse of complicated and advanced terms make the course that much harder to absorb by your students.

Of course, some topics are super technical, and some level of jargon is inevitable and even necessary, but in general, the language in your course should be simple as possible.

If there is a simpler term available to explain something, use that instead of the more complicated term. If you introduce some jargon or abbreviation in your language, make sure that you explain it thoroughly before continuing to use it throughout your course.

The idea that using a lot of jargon will make you look like an authority figure will quickly backfire on you.

Yes, your students will be somewhat impressed and be a bit more convinced that you do really know about your topic.

But they will also start thinking that even though you know the topic, you simply can't teach it to them well enough because you can no longer put yourself on their level and explain the topic in a way that is understandable to them .

If you provide a lot of written material or script your videos, an app like the Hemingway app is going to be super useful to check the reading level of your text.

6: Provide Extra Written Material

Most online courses are usually based around video, but the video should ideally not be the only form of content in your course.

If you want to enhance the course experience a lot for your students in a simple way and make them perceive your course as much more valuable, you can add extra material to your course besides just videos.

You can add descriptions with formatted text and messages to every lesson in your course and link to other resources available online.

For example, you can easily add rich-text descriptions to each lesson (formatted text with images) using our platform OnlineCourseHost.com .

Here is how to add a rich-text description to a lesson using the Edit Course screen:

And if you want to add PDFs or other downloadable files to your course, you can also create a digital download lesson and add it to your course:

If you have a blog post or another document covering the same topic as some of your videos, you can create a PDF from it and include it in the course as extra material.

7: Use Different Content Formats

Besides adding written content to your course, adding other types of content to your course makes the course not only look more valuable but it also increases the chances that your students will actually consume the content and learn from it.

Here are some of the content types that you can add to your course; these are supported in the OnlineCourseHost.com platform:

• rich-text lessons (formatted text with links and images)
• extra downloadable resources like PDFs, spreadsheets, templates, etc.
• audio lessons
• PDF templates
• downloadable worksheets

8: Include Quizzes

This is maybe the most powerful tip on this list.

People don't like finishing boring tasks, but they certainly will spend time doing fun things. And students love quizzes because they’re easy and fun to do.

Plus, each correct answer boosts confidence. Quizzes encourage students to keep learning.

Adding a well-thought-out and relevant quiz after each video lesson or at least at the end of each section is going to increase a lot the perceived value of the course in the eyes of your students, and it does not take a lot of time to create.

You can add as many quizzes as you need in the course on the OnlineCourseHost.com platform by choosing the “Quiz” option:

Students will access quizzes as a normal lesson on their dashboard, they will keep track of their progress and they will receive hints in case they don't guess the quiz the first time:

9: Give Assignments

Giving assignments is the most effective trick to encourage students to complete the lessons. Assignments provide hands-on experience and help to motivate your students to keep taking the course, as they will get that direct feedback from you that they can't get in video form.

So, how to create assignments that enhance your student's learning experience?

Simply try to create a mix of easy and complex questions that are challenging enough but not too difficult.

Once you have the assignment sheet prepared, upload it and add it to your course.

To create an assignment on OnlineCourseHost.com, simply choose the Assignment lesson type:

You can then add the assignment templates, the assignment instructions, and more:

Students will then upload the worksheets on their student dashboard by clicking on the “Upload assignment” button:

10: Build a Community of Students

Always create a place where your students can learn and grow together.

This could be a Facebook Group, a Discord chat, Slack, a Subreddit that you own, or any other free online community software that allows you to create a community and moderate it as an admin.

You can then start discussions or assign group activities in the community and set and enforce the community rules that you choose.

If students don’t interact with each other, they might feel isolated and less motivated to continue taking the course.

Besides giving students that accountability and shared experience that they need, you can watch them closely in the community, see what questions they ask the most frequently, and collect insights to improve your course experience.

11: Organize Regular Doubt Clearing Sessions

One of the biggest fears of a student after paying for a course is that they won't get any access at all to the course creator anymore.

Regular doubt clearing sessions not only give your students the support they need to move forward but also benefit you in two ways:

• you get to build strong relationships with students and strengthen your brand image.
• you can then upsell to these more engaged students in the future.

So, organize Zoom meetings or Google Meet meetings and talk to your students regularly. It doesn't have to be every day; somewhere between once a week to once a month is ideal.

Clear doubts, tell your story, and build relationships.

Encourage students to put their questions below the lesson content. If you can't answer questions all the time, then hire someone to do it as your business grows, but make sure their questions get answered.

Keep nurturing your students even after the course is over via email, as they are the most likely candidates to purchase your next course.

Conclusion: How to Create a Better Online Course Experience?

In summary, here are the main things you can do to improve the experience of your online course:

• really get to known your audience
• make sure to use an effective pace, not too slow and not too fast
• always split up your course as much as possible into sections and lessons
• Try to present with some excitement, just a little bit goes a long way
• Don't complicate your language, avoid unnecessary jargon as much as possible
• Provide extra written material like spreadsheets, worksheets, summary sheets and other downloadable resources
• Use different content formats, like video, audio, rich text, or digital downloads
• always include quizzes, this is one of the most effective engagement techniques
• Hand out assignments, that you get to correct personally
• Build a community around your courses, and participate as an active community leader
• Organize regular doubt-clearing sessions, and ask your students to engage with each other and help each other out.

All these measures will contribute a lot to increasing student satisfaction, and help you make sure that you are providing your students with the best online course experience.

Now you already know how to make online classes more effective for students. So, go ahead and create an amazing course on OnlineCourseHost.com .

There are so many people waiting to learn from you!

I hope this guide helps you cut through the noise. More so, I hope it’s given you the confidence to start your online course journey.

If you are looking to ask any questions you need on online course creation, you can reach me here on my Facebook group:

Join the Course Creator Academy Facebook Group

If you would like to get notified when other guides and useful content on online course creation is available at the Academy, then you can join us here:

You can find many other guides like this in our Free Course Creators Academy

Here are some of our other popular articles and guides:

• How To Create An Online Course (In 15 Super-Practical Steps)
• How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells
• Affordable Online Course Equipment - Complete Practical Guide
• The Ultimate Online Course Launch Checklist
• How To Create The Perfect Online Course Sales Page
• Create A Powerful Brand For Your Online Courses (In 5 Steps)
• How To Sell Online Courses? The Ultimate Guide
• How To Promote Your Online Course - Complete Guide
• How To Handle Negative Reviews In Your Online Courses (and how to avoid them)

I hope you found this post helpful, let me know in the comments below what other topics you would like me to cover, or any questions that you have?

Thanks for reading… and enjoy the course creation process! 😉

Vasco Cavalheiro

OnlineCourseHost.com Founder & Online Course Creator

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Celebrating 150 years of Harvard Summer School. Learn about our history.

Your Guide to Conquering College Coursework

Getting good grades in college can be a lot tougher than in high school. For many students, it requires building new skills and establishing new habits. Learning those skills now—before starting college—will help make your transition as easy and as successful as possible.

Mary Sharp Emerson

The transition from high school to college is a big one. Meeting new friends, living on your own, and creating your own schedule are just some of the new, exciting challenges that await you.   

In the excitement of starting a new life on campus, college coursework can sometimes become a second priority.

However, adjusting to college coursework is often the biggest challenge of all. Even the best students may be surprised at how difficult college courses are. The subject matter is more complex. The workload is larger. And instructors’ standards are higher.

Mastering college-level courses requires a new level of independence, advocacy, engagement, and time management.

You can prepare yourself to succeed before you even get to campus. Identifying the skills you need, and building those skills into established habits, will help make your transition to college academics, and college life, easier, less stressful, and more successful.

Be engaged in your college coursework

College courses require your full attention and active participation.

And the more you engage with your teachers, teaching assistants, and classmates both in and out of the classroom, the easier it will be for you to succeed in that class.

The importance of active listening

Active listening is one of the most critical parts of engaging in a course, according to Gina Neugebauer, assistant director of Harvard Summer School’s Secondary School Program.

“Professors and teaching assistants can tell if you’re actively listening. They notice if you’re taking notes and making eye contact. They also notice if you’re distracted by your phone or computer,” notes Neugebauer.

Active listening means not checking your social media accounts or texting friends during class.

It also means really giving the instructor and your classmates your full attention.

It sounds easy in theory but it takes practice. It can be tough to not think about all the work you have or your next party. But the more you work on actively listening, the easier it will be to not get distracted and miss important information in class.

Different ways to actively participate

Beyond active listening, there are many ways to participate in a course. And you can tailor your level of engagement to your personality and comfort level.

“It’s all about gauging what you’re comfortable with,” says Neugebauer.

“You may not be the person who raises their hand all the time but you actively respond to online discussion posts, for example. You may not feel comfortable talking in front of hundreds of students in a large lecture hall but you take advantage of TA office hours and email the instructor with questions.”

But don’t be afraid to push yourself if you aren’t someone who usually speaks up in class.

It’s ok to start small. Work on raising your hand in small seminars or discussion sections. As you gain confidence, you’ll find it gets easier to answer questions and share your opinions.

Build independence and advocate for yourself

In college, you are responsible for your own success. You will need to advocate for yourself and know when—and how—to ask for help. That requires a level of independence that you may not have needed in high school.

The good news is that instructors and teaching assistants want to help you.

“Instructors, on the whole, enjoy hearing from you. And they’d rather hear from you right from the start, rather than have you struggle on your own for three weeks,” says Neugebauer.

If you have a question about an assignment, send your instructor an email. Are you upset about a grade you got on a recent test? Visit your instructor or TA during office hours to discuss what went wrong and how you can improve.

But remember, says Neugebauer, professors are busy and you are only one of many students.

“Your email should include your full name, what course you’re taking, and a brief description of your question or concern. And you cannot expect an answer at 2 a.m. because that’s when you’re studying. When you reach out to an instructor, give them 24-48 hours to respond.”

And remember, always be respectful and non-confrontational.

Challenge yourself in a college course. Get a sneak peak at college life.

Explore summer programs for high school students.

Don’t be afraid to seek help

If you have excelled in high school without extra help, you might be tempted to persevere on your own.

In college, Neugebauer points out, asking for help is the norm.

“Once you get into your undergraduate program, you’ll find that almost everyone has, at some point, asked a TA for extra tutoring, gone to a tutoring center, or a writing or math center for extra help. It’s part of the learning process of an undergraduate program,” Neugebauer says.

Colleges have a variety of support systems in place to help you succeed.

TA office hours are a great place to start if you find yourself struggling with a specific concept or assignment. Peer tutoring programs enable you to learn from students who have been through the course themselves. Academic coaches can help with more general study tips or exam-related stress.

The key is seeking out help proactively, before you get too far behind. As the courses become more difficult, catching up becomes increasingly difficult.

Build time management techniques

Balancing everything that comes with life on a college campus can be difficult for many incoming college students.

“The biggest challenge we see facing high school students who are trying to adapt to college life is overcommitment. Students want to engage in every activity, a full course load, and even sometimes a part-time job. They don’t schedule enough time for self-care, quiet time, doing laundry, and plenty of study time. All those things take time,” Neugebauer says.

Good study habits and time management are key to avoiding the stress that comes from getting overcommitted.

Neugebauer recommends getting into the habit of keeping an accurate and up-to-date calendar.

“The best thing I can recommend is a calendar, such as Google Calendar. Use it to schedule everything: your class, your lunch time, time at the gym. It may seem counterintuitive, but work on scheduling literally everything, even sleep.”

Be sure to include assignments, tests, and other deadlines, as well as office hours for your instructors, TAs, and academic coaches.

Use your calendar to block off dedicated study time. And once you schedule it, stick to it! Avoid the temptation to procrastinate or use that time to hang out, play video games, or scroll on your phone.

Your calendar should also include dedicated time for self-care.

Regular mealtimes, good exercise habits, and a full night’s sleep are not only critical for your physical and mental health. You’ll also be surprised at how much they contribute to your academic success.

Challenge yourself as you engage in college coursework

Getting outside your comfort zone is a critical part of preparing yourself for the exciting challenges that await you in college.

“Being uncomfortable allows for growth. It means saying to yourself, ‘this is new. I want to try it. I want to see how it feels.’ This is all about adapting to a new environment but also examining yourself as a person,” says Neugebauer.

Taking on a new challenge—regardless of the ultimate outcome—builds resilience, mental toughness, and confidence, all of which you will need to succeed in your college courses.

But, warns Neugebauer, it’s also important to know your limitations.

“That uncomfortable feeling should be manageable. It should be a challenge but not so challenging that you feel panicked and wake up in cold sweats every night. It should be something that gets you a little nervous but also excited about what you’re involved in every day.”

However you decide to challenge yourself, it’s never too early to start if college is in your future. The sooner you start identifying and mastering the skills you need in college, the better prepared you’ll be to succeed right from day one.

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Digital Content Producer

Emerson is a Digital Content Producer at Harvard DCE. She is a graduate of Brandeis University and Yale University and started her career as an international affairs analyst. She is an avid triathlete and has completed three Ironman triathlons, as well as the Boston Marathon.

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8 Tips for Excellent Coursework: Boost Your Performance

Are you ready to boost your coursework performance and study well? We’ve got some awesome tips just for you! Whether you’re a student trying to improve in school or someone who wants to improve their learning skills, we have the perfect guide to help you succeed. Say goodbye to staying up late to study or feeling stressed at the last minute. With these eight fantastic tips, you’ll become a coursework wizard quickly! Prepare for an exciting learning journey and triumph as we show you how to shine in your studies!

Understand the Requirements

Understanding the requirements of your coursework is crucial to producing excellent work. It’s important to thoroughly read and analyse the guidelines provided by your instructor. Pay attention to the formatting requirements, word count, and specific instructions. This will help you structure your work effectively and avoid unnecessary mistakes. Make a checklist of all the requirements and refer to it throughout your coursework to ensure you meet all the criteria.

Planning is key to successful coursework. Once you understand the requirements, break down your coursework into smaller tasks and create a realistic timeline for completing each task. Consider using a planner or digital tools to help you stay organized. Having a clear plan allows you to allocate sufficient research, writing, and editing time and avoid last-minute rushes. This will reduce stress and allow you to produce high-quality coursework.

Conduct Thorough Research

To create outstanding coursework, you need to conduct thorough research. Start by brainstorming the key points or arguments you want to address in your work. Then, gather relevant and reliable information by utilising various sources, such as books, scholarly articles, reputable websites, and academic databases. Remember to take detailed notes during your research process, making it easier to reference your sources accurately later. Incorporate the information you gather into your coursework to strengthen your arguments and demonstrate a deep understanding of the subject matter.

Create a Clear Structure

A well-structured coursework assignment is easier to follow and understand. Start by creating an outline that includes your coursework’s main sections and subheadings. This will give your work a logical flow and make navigating your ideas easier for your readers. Each team should have a clear purpose and contribute to your overall argument. Ensure to include an introduction that grabs the reader’s attention, body paragraphs that provide evidence and analysis, and a conclusion that summaries your main points.

Write in a Clear and Concise Manner

Writing quality coursework requires clear and concise communication skills. Using complex jargon or unnecessary technical terms might create confusion for your readers. Instead, aim to maintain a conversational tone, using simple, direct language to convey your ideas effectively. Instead of presenting complex concepts all at once, try to dissect them into smaller, more manageable pieces. Each piece should be explicitly explained to ensure your audience fully grasps your message.

In addition to breaking down complex concepts, ensure your sentences are well-structured and convey meaning clearly. Proofread your work to confirm the clarity of your ideas and detect any grammatical or punctuation errors. Use transitional words and phrases to facilitate smooth transitions between paragraphs and ideas, maintaining a logical flow in your writing. Coursework Writing Services UK is available to provide enriched academic support if any student needs assistance in achieving clarity and concision in their work. Their professional expertise can guide your writing efforts, helping you present your ideas more effectively and gain a better coursework outcome.

Edit and Revise

Editing and revising are crucial steps in producing excellent coursework. Once you’ve completed your initial draft, take the time to review your work. Eliminate any grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors that you come across. Check your ideas’ overall coherence and flow, ensuring that your arguments are well-supported and logical. Taking a break before revising is often helpful in gaining a fresh perspective on your work. Consider reading your coursework aloud to identify any awkward sentences or areas that need improvement. Seek feedback from classmates or friends to gain different insights and perspectives.

Seek Feedback

Don’t hesitate to seek feedback from your instructors, classmates, or peers. Their insights and suggestions can help you improve your coursework significantly. Consider joining study groups or forming study partnerships to exchange ideas and receive constructive criticism. Additionally, many educational institutions offer academic support services where you can get guidance from tutors or writing centers.

Take Breaks and Manage Your Time

While it’s essential to dedicate time to your coursework, taking breaks and managing your time effectively is equally important. Working non-stop can lead to burnout and decrease your overall productivity. Schedule regular intervals to relax, rejuvenate, and recharge. Engage in activities that help you de-stress and clear your mind, such as walking, practicing mindfulness, or pursuing hobbies. By managing your time wisely, setting realistic deadlines, and prioritising tasks, you’ll maintain a healthy work-life balance and produce higher-quality coursework.

The Benefits of Professional Assignment Writers Online

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, coursework can pose challenges requiring additional support. That’s where professional assignment Help UK comes in. These services offer expert guidance and assistance to students who need extra help with their coursework. Talented writers can provide valuable insights and solutions if you need help understanding the requirements, conducting research, or structuring your work.

Opting for professional help, you can benefit from the expertise of experienced professionals with a deep understanding of academic writing and the subject matter. They can offer personalised guidance tailored to your needs, helping you navigate complex concepts and providing clarity when you’re stuck. These services often offer proofreading and editing assistance, ensuring your coursework is polished and error-free. 

Outsourcing some of the workload to professionals frees up valuable time that you can allocate to other important tasks. This allows you to maintain a balanced schedule and focus on different aspects of your academic and personal life.

You now know the knowledge and strategies to excel in your coursework. Implement these eight valuable tips, and notice a remarkable improvement in your performance, confidence, and overall learning experience. Success in your studies is not just about hard work; it’s about working smartly too! Embrace the power of effective time management, organisation, and seeking help when needed. Stay curious, stay motivated, and never stop striving for your goals. With dedication and these newfound skills, there’s no limit to what you can achieve academically. So take charge of your education, and let your brilliance shine through! Your future awaits, and it’s brighter than ever before! Best of luck on your journey to academic excellence!

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5 Simple Ways to Manage Coursework

Nov 22, 2016 | Pupils | 0 |

Coursework can be one of the most stressful parts of your education. You have a strict deadline, and a lot of work to do within that period of time. As a result, many students end up feeling stressed and overwhelmed by the workload.

Feeling overwhelmed often leads to procrastination and a lack of enthusiasm for your work. However, it does not have to be that way. There are quite a few techniques that you can implement to make things easier.

Managing your coursework has never been easier than with these five simple management methods.

Plan Carefully

Before you begin your coursework, you need to carefully plan how you are going to lay your coursework out. Plan where each section will go as well as the topics you plan to cover.

This way you can calculate how many words are required for each section, where the information goes, and a firm structure that you can base the final piece on. Often, the first day is spent planning so that when you start the process is much faster.

Be Realistic

When it comes to planning time to work on your coursework, be realistic about the time each section will take you to complete. It’s unlikely that you are going to be able to complete a section in an hour, so set aside two to three hours per area.

That way, you are not putting yourself under unnecessary pressure and if you finish earlier than the allotted time it can give you a good confidence boost.

Take Breaks

One of the worst things you can do when you are working on your coursework is go all day without a break.

The brain becomes tired and sloppy after constant work, and it is during this period that you are more likely to make severe spelling and grammar mistakes that you could miss later on. Make sure you schedule breaks into your work day to refresh your mind and take time for yourself. Working in chunks has the best results.

Proof Reading

Your coursework’s first draft should be finished two to three weeks before the final deadline. When this is done you should show it to a friend or family member and ask them to read through it, pointing out any spelling or grammar errors that they come across while reading it.

This means that you have time to correct anything that is wrong, so if a sentence makes no sense or there are quite a few grammar errors, you have plenty of time to work on it and get it checked through again before handing it in.

Reward Yourself

When you are doing your coursework, you often forget to reward yourself for your good efforts. Part of coursework management is ensuring that you reward yourself for working hard, which boosts your motivation and ability to work.

Whether it’s an object or some time out with friends, it is important to keep your spirits up while you work.

To Conclude

Coursework can be stressful at times, but with these five tips for coursework management, you will be able to get through it with minimum stress. Just remember to set your work hours and plan as soon as possible. The earlier you start, the less stressful it will be for you.

Just remember to leave yourself enough time for breaks and to never start your coursework close to the deadline.

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Coursework vs Exams: What’s Easier? (Pros and Cons)

In A-Level , GCSE , General by Think Student Editor September 12, 2023 Leave a Comment

Coursework and exams are two different techniques used to assess students on certain subjects. Both of these methods can seem like a drag when trying to get a good grade, as they both take so many hours of work! However, is it true that one of these assessment techniques is easier than the other? Some students pick subjects specifically because they are only assessed via coursework or only assessed via exams, depending on what they find easiest. However, could there be a definite answer to what is the easiest?

If you want to discover whether coursework or exams are easier and the pros and cons of these methods, check out the rest of this article!

Disclaimer: This article is solely based on one student’s opinion. Every student has different perspectives on whether coursework or exams are easier. Therefore, the views expressed in this article may not align with your own.

Table of Contents

Coursework vs exams: what’s easier?

The truth is that whether you find coursework or exams easier depends on you and how you like to work. Different students learn best in different ways and as a result, will have differing views on these two assessment methods.

Coursework requires students to complete assignments and essays throughout the year which are carefully graded and moderated. This work makes up a student’s coursework and contributes to their final grade.

In comparison, exams often only take place at the end of the year. Therefore, students are only assessed at one point in the year instead of throughout. All of a student’s work then leads up to them answering a number of exams which make up their grade.

There are pros and cons for both of these methods, depending on how you learn and are assessed best. Therefore, whether you find coursework or exams easier or not depends on each individual.

Is coursework easier than exams?

Some students believe that coursework is easier than exams. This is because it requires students to work on it all throughout the year, whilst having plenty of resources available to them.

As a result, there is less pressure on students at the end of the year, as they have gradually been able to work hard on their coursework, which then determines their grade. If you do coursework at GCSE or A-Level, you will generally have to complete an extended essay or project.

Some students find this easier than exams because they have lots of time to research and edit their essays, allowing the highest quality of work to be produced. You can discover more about coursework and tips for how to make it stand out if you check out this article from Oxford Royale.

However, some students actually find coursework harder because of the amount of time it takes and all of the research involved. Consequently, whether you prefer coursework or not depends on how you enjoy learning.

What are the cons of coursework?

As already hinted at, the main con of coursework is the amount of time it takes. In my experience, coursework was always such a drag because it took up so much of my time!

When you hear that you have to do a long essay, roughly 2000-3000 words, it sounds easily achievable. However, the amount of research you have to do is immense, and then editing and reviewing your work takes even more time.

Coursework should not be over and done within a week. It requires constant revisits and rephrasing, as you make it as professional sounding and high quality as possible. Teachers are also unable to give lots of help to students doing coursework. This is because it is supposed to be an independent project.

Teachers are able to give some advice, however not too much support. This can be difficult for students who are used to being given lots of help.

You also have to be very careful with what you actually write. If you plagiarise anything that you have written, your coursework could be disqualified. Therefore, it is very important that you pay attention to everything you write and make sure that you don’t copy explicitly from other websites. This can make coursework a risky assessment method.

You are allowed to use websites for research, however you must reference them correctly. This can be a difficult skill for some students to learn also!

What are the pros of coursework?

Some of the cons of coursework already discussed can actually be seen as pros by some students! Due to coursework being completed throughout the year, this places less pressure on students, as they don’t have to worry about final exams completely determining their grade.

Some subjects require students to sit exams and complete some coursework. However, if a student already knows that they have completed some high-quality coursework when it comes to exam season, they are less likely to place pressure on themselves. They know that their coursework could save their grade even if they don’t do very well on the exam.

A lot of coursework also requires students to decide what they want to research or investigate. This allows students to be more creative, as they decide what to research, depending on the subject. This can make school more enjoyable and also give them more ideas about what they want to do in the future.

If you are about to sit your GCSEs and are thinking that coursework is the way to go, check out this article from Think Student to discover which GCSE subjects require students to complete coursework.

What are the cons of exams?

Personally, I hated exams! Most students share this opinion. After all, so much pressure is put on students to complete a set of exams at the end of the school year. Therefore, the main con of sitting exams is the amount of pressure that students are put under.

Unlike coursework, students are unable to go back and revisit the answers to their exams over many weeks. Instead, after those 2 (ish) hours are up, you have to leave the exam hall and that’s it! Your grade will be determined from your exams.

This can be seen as not the best method, as it doesn’t take student’s performances throughout the rest of the year into account. Consequently, if a student is just having a bad day and messes up one of their exams, nothing can be done about it!

If you are struggling with exam stress at the moment, check out this article from Think Student to discover ways of dealing with it.

Exams also require an immense amount of revision which takes up time and can be difficult for students to complete. If you want to discover some revision tips, check out this article from Think Student.

What are the pros of exams?

Exams can be considered easier however because they are over with quickly. Unlike coursework, all students have to do is stay in an exam hall for a couple of hours and it’s done! If you want to discover how long GCSE exams generally last, check out this article from Think Student.

Alternatively, you can find out how long A-Level exams are in this article from Think Student. There is no need to work on one exam paper for weeks – apart from revising of course!

Revising for exams does take a while, however revising can also be beneficial because it increases a student’s knowledge. Going over information again and again means that the student is more likely to remember it and use it in real life. This differs greatly from coursework.

Finally, the main advantage of exams is that it is much harder to cheat in any way. Firstly, this includes outright cheating – there have been issues in the past with students getting other people to write their coursework essays.

However, it also includes the help you get. Some students may have an unfair advantage if their teachers offer more help and guidance with coursework than at other schools. In an exam, it is purely the student’s work.

While this doesn’t necessarily make exams easier than coursework, it does make them fairer, and is the reason why very few GCSEs now include coursework.

If you want to discover more pros and cons of exams, check out this article from AplusTopper.

What is Coursework? An Ultimate Guide to Coursework Writing

Coursework is the most significant part of academic writing that requires so much time and effort. You should consider the guidance of your teachers and your seniors who have similar experiences in writing a coursework. This makes the process of working faster and more effective, which leads to the best outcomes. This guide will help you to understand what coursework is and how to write coursework effectively. 

What is Coursework?

Coursework consists of all basic assignments given to students to evaluate their level of understanding. It includes following types of assignments, such as essay writing , research papers, discussion boards and written reports. To get excellent grades and grade point averages (GPA), students must understand the basic concepts of their courses.

Coursework is difficult to define, even though it is usually important to complete a specific program. This kind of assignment can be completed in a wide range of formats.  If you require any coursework help, you may contact Nerdpapers . 

Importance of Coursework

Coursework is the most common type of assignment that teachers give students to understand their level of learning on a specific topic or subject. Moreover, it shows how well a student understands and uses the topic in various contexts. Through coursework writing, students may improve their research abilities, increase their understanding of a subject, develop their analytical skills, and apply the knowledge they have discovered to use independently. Furthermore, students learn to summarize the topic with key arguments and then draw conclusions from it. 

Types of Coursework

Do you need a "do my coursework writing services"? But do you know that coursework has different types? Five different types of coursework are given to students to write:

Analytical Coursework

Analytical Coursework presents a thesis statement or claim and demonstrates how to study different things. It usually focuses on the literary style of the text rather than the synopsis.

Supportive Commentary

Supportive Commentary helps students to create a single piece of media writing. Coursework should be written in an experimental mode, such as written, spoken, or multimodal. Students must also include a supporting statement that contains all the information and aspects. 

Journal Coursework

Writing journals for coursework is regarded as an act that promotes casual writing as a regular activity. This can take many different forms and is useful for multiple purposes. It can be both creative and personal. In order to organize their thoughts, compose their ideas, and respond to them, students are always expected to keep journals as part of their coursework.

Analytical Study

Analytical study is the process of sharing an analysis of the chosen work and how it relates to the relevant material. It also shows how well the writer understands the entire process of writing. Students should use proper vocabulary and must maintain word consistency. Also, understand the structure and format of writing.  

Commentary and Creative Writing

In commentary and creative writing coursework, students are asked to generate creative content that reflects the tone or style of the assessed text. It also helps to share comments to support the knowledge. Additionally, the major purpose of creative writing and commentary is to demonstrate knowledge, test skills, and engage the target audience through various languages.

Coursework Writing Tips

There are some key points that you should keep in mind while writing coursework. 

It is the worst possible scenario for any kind of academic writing assignment. Today, the internet has tons of relevant information, and professors become rigorous in the context of plagiarism. Your own words should be used in all writing! Use the advised citation style and make references list if you choose to include quotations from the sources. Claim that it is your own project and sign the declaration.

Keep in mind the precise guidelines for the coursework's length. Specify whether the references, appendices, and footnotes are counted as part of the word count.

Browse the possible topics. Try to pick a relevant coursework topic that is similar to the subject of the upcoming exam if one will be held on it. 

Get Help from Tutor

Never ignore your teacher's advice; ask for their guidance on your topic. Also, to learn more, ask questions, but remember they may only read the first draft once and give general suggestions.

Perfect Coursework Writing Structure

The precision required for coursework writing depends not only on the writing process but also on the design. Even if you produce a stunning and thoroughly researched paper for the professor, poor design will still result in bad grades. We have chosen the most significant components to build a flawless coursework structure for you after reviewing many coursework standards. The structure consists of the following main components:

Introduction or Opening

The first step is to write the coursework introduction after choosing a topic. This introduction section needs to be extraordinary to catch the reader's attention. Make sure to include all essential details, and keep it brief or precise. 

Include any background data about the topic you have chosen. Write down your goals as well. This section should contain your thesis statement. Also, write the introduction in such a way that it serves as the reader's guide.

Main Body 

Your hard work and dedication will be reflected in this section. In the body section, you should add every minute detail you discovered on your research journey. Additionally, this section will be written in the past tense with an informative tone. 

Readers may find research findings boring because they are just stats and figures. Therefore, this section should include appealing tables, graphs, infographics and charts to make it interesting. Mention each statistic as it is; do not change any findings. 

Summarize your whole coursework in this section. The conclusion needs to be short while covering all the details. You might mention the essential takeaways from the coursework.

How to Write a Coursework: Step-by-Step Guide

It's time to start researching and writing once you've chosen a topic that excites you. 

Research is the most crucial part of any writing project. A lot of effort and time is required, but it is worthwhile because it serves as the core of your work and helps establish and defend your point of view.  You can find the necessary information from many primary and secondary sources. Always double-check the information you get online because not all of it is reliable, and some of it can be out of date. Make notes on each source you consult while researching, including the definition, quotation, or information you discovered. Make a table with citations or links to web sources. It is also very helpful to utilize such a table while writing the bibliography section.

Planning 

At the planning phase, it is advised to make a rough outline of your coursework, decide which information you will add, and what points you should add in each section. Making a plan first and then sticking to it is very helpful.  For example, create a table and include all steps of your work with the dates when you want to work on them. This is a fantastic method for time management and a great way to quit delaying things so you can finish them before the deadline.

Drafting 

It could be challenging to write the initial draft of a lengthy article. However, there isn't much you can do about it. In this scenario, the sole piece of guidance that is appropriate is to start writing. Once you start putting together your coursework, you'll observe that there aren't a lot of differences between your paper and other typical written assignments. The section for which you have the most information should come first. These academic papers are never written according to the structure's order. The opening portion of your paper is where you can begin writing because it is more general than the rest.  You can pick out some interesting, pertinent coursework examples or reports to discuss in your writing so your reader will better understand the issue you are gradually focused on. You can go on to terms and situations that are more precise after acquiring the background information.

The last step is to edit and polish your document. While proofreading, it's crucial to focus on consistency problems, stylistic errors, and grammar and punctuation errors.

Many tools, including Grammarly , are available to help you with grammar. You should use these tools because you might miss some errors. No software can help you fix your writing style and logical structure mistakes. However, you can turn to a team of expert writers and editors for a high-quality editing service and a properly polished document.

Verify the word count and formatting specifications provided by your educational institution. Before submitting your work for review to your professor, you should also allow time for the editing phase, so plan accordingly.

Formative vs Summative Coursework Assessments

Formative assessment assesses students' understanding of a subject by offering them practice in essay creation and structure. It assists students in evaluating their strengths and weaknesses and focuses on areas that require improvement. Moreover, formative assessments help instructors in identifying students' areas of difficulty and taking prompt action to resolve issues

Summative assignments, on the other hand, evaluate students' knowledge at the end of the semester. Summative assessment includes mid-term exams and final-year project. When completing courses, it is vital to understand the type of review you are submitting to. If you understand the coursework meaning and finish your assignments on time, you might obtain an A+.

Get Coursework Help from Experts

If you want to write your coursework successfully, follow all the steps mentioned above. If you still have difficulty writing coursework, you can get our coursework writing services with one click. We have a group of experienced writers who can offer you timely, cost-effective coursework help online. 

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Listen: we know homework isn’t fun, but it is a good way to reinforce the ideas and concepts you’ve learned in class. But what if you’re really struggling with your homework assignments?

If you’ve looked online for a little extra help with your take-home assignments, you’ve probably stumbled across websites claiming to provide the homework help and answers students need to succeed . But can homework help sites really make a difference? And if so, which are the best homework help websites you can use? 

Below, we answer these questions and more about homework help websites–free and paid. We’ll go over: 

• The basics of homework help websites
• The cost of homework help websites 
• The five best homework websites out there 
• The pros and cons of using these websites for homework help 
• The line between “learning” and “cheating” when using online homework help 
• Tips for getting the most out of a homework help website

So let’s get started! 

The Basics About Homework Help Websites–Free and Paid

Homework help websites are designed to help you complete your homework assignments, plain and simple. 

What Makes a Homework Help Site Worth Using

Most of the best sites allow users to ask questions and then provide an answer (or multiple possible answers) and explanation in seconds. In some instances, you can even send a photo of a particular assignment or problem instead of typing the whole thing out! 

Homework help sites also offer more than just help answering homework questions. Common services provided are Q&A with experts, educational videos, lectures, practice tests and quizzes, learning modules, math solving tools, and proofreading help. Homework help sites can also provide textbook solutions (i.e. answers to problems in tons of different textbooks your school might be using), one-on-one tutoring, and peer-to-peer platforms that allow you to discuss subjects you’re learning about with your fellow students. 

And best of all, nearly all of them offer their services 24/7, including tutoring! 

What You Should Should Look Out For

When it comes to homework help, there are lots–and we mean lots –of scam sites out there willing to prey on desperate students. Before you sign up for any service, make sure you read reviews to ensure you’re working with a legitimate company. 

A word to the wise: the more a company advertises help that veers into the territory of cheating, the more likely it is to be a scam. The best homework help websites are going to help you learn the concepts you’ll need to successfully complete your homework on your own. (We’ll go over the difference between “homework help” and “cheating” a little later!) 

You don't need a golden piggy bank to use homework help websites. Some provide low or no cost help for students like you!

How Expensive Are the Best Homework Help Websites?

First of all, just because a homework help site costs money doesn’t mean it’s a good service. Likewise, just because a homework help website is free doesn’t mean the help isn’t high quality. To find the best websites, you have to take a close look at the quality and types of information they provide! 

When it comes to paid homework help services, the prices vary pretty widely depending on the amount of services you want to subscribe to. Subscriptions can cost anywhere from $2 to $150 dollars per month, with the most expensive services offering several hours of one-on-one tutoring with a subject expert per month.

The 5 Best Homework Help Websites 

So, what is the best homework help website you can use? The answer is that it depends on what you need help with. 

The best homework help websites are the ones that are reliable and help you learn the material. They don’t just provide answers to homework questions–they actually help you learn the material. 

That’s why we’ve broken down our favorite websites into categories based on who they’re best for . For instance, the best website for people struggling with math might not work for someone who needs a little extra help with science, and vice versa. 

Keep reading to find the best homework help website for you! 

Best Free Homework Help Site: Khan Academy

• Price: Free!
• Best for: Practicing tough material 

Not only is Khan Academy free, but it’s full of information and can be personalized to suit your needs. When you set up your account , you choose which courses you need to study, and Khan Academy sets up a personal dashboard of instructional videos, practice exercises, and quizzes –with both correct and incorrect answer explanations–so you can learn at your own pace. 

As an added bonus, it covers more course topics than many other homework help sites, including several AP classes.

Runner Up: Brainly.com offers a free service that allows you to type in questions and get answers and explanations from experts. The downside is that you’re limited to two answers per question and have to watch ads. 

Best Paid Homework Help Site: Chegg

• Price: $14.95 to $19.95 per month
• Best for: 24/7 homework assistance  

This service has three main parts . The first is Chegg Study, which includes textbook solutions, Q&A with subject experts, flashcards, video explanations, a math solver, and writing help. The resources are thorough, and reviewers state that Chegg answers homework questions quickly and accurately no matter when you submit them.  

Chegg also offers textbook rentals for students who need access to textbooks outside of their classroom. Finally, Chegg offers Internship and Career Advice for students who are preparing to graduate and may need a little extra help with the transition out of high school. 

Another great feature Chegg provides is a selection of free articles geared towards helping with general life skills, like coping with stress and saving money. Chegg’s learning modules are comprehensive, and they feature solutions to the problems in tons of different textbooks in a wide variety of subjects. 

Runner Up: Bartleby offers basically the same services as Chegg for $14.99 per month. The reason it didn’t rank as the best is based on customer reviews that say user questions aren’t answered quite as quickly on this site as on Chegg. Otherwise, this is also a solid choice!

Best Site for Math Homework Help: Photomath

• Price: Free (or $59.99 per year for premium services) 
• Best for: Explaining solutions to math problems

This site allows you to t ake a picture of a math problem, and instantly pulls up a step-by-step solution, as well as a detailed explanation of the concept. Photomath also includes animated videos that break down mathematical concepts to help you better understand and remember them. 

The basic service is free, but for an additional fee you can get extra study tools and learn additional strategies for solving common math problems.

Runner Up: KhanAcademy offers in-depth tutorials that cover complex math topics for free, but you won’t get the same tailored help (and answers!) that Photomath offers. 

Best Site for English Homework Help: Princeton Review Academic Tutoring

• Price: $40 to $153 per month, depending on how many hours of tutoring you want 
• Best for: Comprehensive and personalized reading and writing help 

While sites like Grammarly and Sparknotes help you by either proofreading what you write via an algorithm or providing book summaries, Princeton Review’s tutors provide in-depth help with vocabulary, literature, essay writing and development, proofreading, and reading comprehension. And unlike other services, you’ll have the chance to work with a real person to get help. 

The best part is that you can get on-demand English (and ESL) tutoring from experts 24/7. That means you can get help whenever you need it, even if you’re pulling an all-nighter! 

This is by far the most expensive homework site on this list, so you’ll need to really think about what you need out of a homework help website before you commit. One added benefit is that the subscription covers over 80 other subjects, including AP classes, which can make it a good value if you need lots of help!  

Best Site for STEM Homework Help: Studypool

• Best for: Science homework help
• Price: Varies; you’ll pay for each question you submit

When it comes to science homework help, there aren’t a ton of great resources out there. The best of the bunch is Studypool, and while it has great reviews, there are some downsides as well. 

Let’s start with the good stuff. Studypool offers an interesting twist on the homework help formula. After you create a free account, you can submit your homework help questions, and tutors will submit bids to answer your questions. You’ll be able to select the tutor–and price point–that works for you, then you’ll pay to have your homework question answered. You can also pay a small fee to access notes, lectures, and other documents that top tutors have uploaded. 

The downside to Studypool is that the pricing is not transparent . There’s no way to plan for how much your homework help will cost, especially if you have lots of questions! Additionally, it’s not clear how tutors are selected, so you’ll need to be cautious when you choose who you’d like to answer your homework questions.  

What Are the Pros and Cons of Using Homework Help Sites?

Homework help websites can be a great resource if you’re struggling in a subject, or even if you just want to make sure that you’re really learning and understanding topics and ideas that you’re interested in. But, there are some possible drawbacks if you don’t use these sites responsibly. 

We’ll go over the good–and the not-so-good–aspects of getting online homework help below. 

3 Pros of Using Homework Help Websites 

First, let’s take a look at the benefits. 

#1: Better Grades Beyond Homework

This is a big one! Getting outside help with your studies can improve your understanding of concepts that you’re learning, which translates into better grades when you take tests or write essays. 

Remember: homework is designed to help reinforce the concepts you learned in class. If you just get easy answers without learning the material behind the problems, you may not have the tools you need to be successful on your class exams…or even standardized tests you’ll need to take for college. 

#2: Convenience

One of the main reasons that online homework help is appealing is because it’s flexible and convenient. You don’t have to go to a specific tutoring center while they’re open or stay after school to speak with your teacher. Instead, you can access helpful resources wherever you can access the internet, whenever you need them.

This is especially true if you tend to study at off hours because of your extracurriculars, work schedule, or family obligations. Sites that offer 24/7 tutoring can give you the extra help you need if you can’t access the free resources that are available at your school. 

#3: Variety

Not everyone learns the same way. Maybe you’re more of a visual learner, but your teacher mostly does lectures. Or maybe you learn best by listening and taking notes, but you’re expected to learn something just from reading the textbook . 

One of the best things about online homework help is that it comes in a variety of forms. The best homework help sites offer resources for all types of learners, including videos, practice activities, and even one-on-one discussions with real-life experts. 

This variety can also be a good thing if you just don’t really resonate with the way a concept is being explained (looking at you, math textbooks!).

Not so fast. There are cons to homework help websites, too. Get to know them below!

3 Cons of Using Homework Help Websites 

Now, let’s take a look at the drawbacks of online homework help. 

#1: Unreliable Info

This can be a real problem. In addition to all the really good homework help sites, there are a whole lot of disreputable or unreliable sites out there. The fact of the matter is that some homework help sites don’t necessarily hire people who are experts in the subjects they’re talking about. In those cases, you may not be getting the accurate, up-to-date, and thorough information you need.

Additionally, even the great sites may not be able to answer all of your homework questions. This is especially true if the site uses an algorithm or chatbot to help students…or if you’re enrolled in an advanced or college-level course. In these cases, working with your teacher or school-provided tutors are probably your best option. 

#2: No Clarification

This depends on the service you use, of course. But the majority of them provide free or low-cost help through pre-recorded videos. Watching videos or reading info online can definitely help you with your homework… but you can’t ask questions or get immediate feedback if you need it .

#3: Potential For Scamming 

Like we mentioned earlier, there are a lot of homework help websites out there, and lots of them are scams. The review comments we read covered everything from outdated or wrong information, to misleading claims about the help provided, to not allowing people to cancel their service after signing up. 

No matter which site you choose to use, make sure you research and read reviews before you sign up–especially if it’s a paid service! 

When Does “Help” Become “Cheating”?

Admittedly, whether using homework help websites constitutes cheating is a bit of a grey area. For instance, is it “help” when a friend reads your essay for history class and corrects your grammar, or is it “cheating”? The truth is, not everyone agrees on when “help” crosses the line into “cheating .” When in doubt, it can be a good idea to check with your teacher to see what they think about a particular type of help you want to get. 

That said, a general rule of thumb to keep in mind is to make sure that the assignment you turn in for credit is authentically yours . It needs to demonstrate your own thoughts and your own current abilities. Remember: the point of every homework assignment is to 1) help you learn something, and 2) show what you’ve learned. 

So if a service answers questions or writes essays for you, there’s a good chance using it constitutes cheating. 

Here’s an example that might help clarify the difference for you. Brainstorming essay ideas with others or looking online for inspiration is “help” as long as you write the essay yourself. Having someone read it and give you feedback about what you need to change is also help, provided you’re the one that makes the changes later. 

But copying all or part of an essay you find online or having someone write (or rewrite) the whole thing for you would be “cheating.” The same is true for other subjects. Ultimately, if you’re not generating your own work or your own answers, it’s probably cheating.

5 Tips for Finding the Best Homework Help Websites for You

Now that you know some of our favorite homework help websites, free and paid, you can start doing some additional research on your own to decide which services might work best for you! Here are some top tips for choosing a homework help website. 

Tip 1: Decide How You Learn Best 

Before you decide which site or sites you’re going to use for homework help, y ou should figure out what kind of learning style works for you the most. Are you a visual learner? Then choose a site that uses lots of videos to help explain concepts. If you know you learn best by actually doing tasks, choose a site that provides lots of practice exercises.

Tip 2: Determine Which Subjects You Need Help With

Just because a homework help site is good overall doesn’t mean that it’s equally good for every subject. If you only need help in math, choose a site that specializes in that area. But if history is where you’re struggling, a site that specializes in math won’t be much help. So make sure to choose a site that you know provides high-quality help in the areas you need it most. 

Tip 3: Decide How Much One-On-One Help You Need 

This is really about cost-effectiveness. If you learn well on your own by reading and watching videos, a free site like Khan Academy is a good choice. But if you need actual tutoring, or to be able to ask questions and get personalized answers from experts, a paid site that provides that kind of service may be a better option.

Tip 4: Set a Budget

If you decide you want to go with a paid homework help website, set a budget first . The prices for sites vary wildly, and the cost to use them can add up quick. 

Tip 5: Read the Reviews

Finally, it’s always a good idea to read actual reviews written by the people using these homework sites. You’ll learn the good, the bad, and the ugly of what the users’ experiences have been. This is especially true if you intend to subscribe to a paid service. You’ll want to make sure that users think it’s worth the price overall!

What’s Next?

If you want to get good grades on your homework, it’s a good idea to learn how to tackle it strategically. Our expert tips will help you get the most out of each assignment…and boost your grades in the process.

Doing well on homework assignments is just one part of getting good grades. We’ll teach you everything you need to know about getting great grades in high school in this article.

Of course, test grades can make or break your GPA, too. Here are 17 expert tips that’ll help you get the most out of your study prep before you take an exam.

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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QB Shedeur Sanders attends first in-person lecture at Colorado after more than a year

Colorado quarterback has been doing coursework online instead. university life ain't what it used to be..

University of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders attended an in-person lecture on campus for the first time recently, more than a year after he enrolled as a student, according to a video posted to his YouTube channel Wednesday.

The video shows him being trailed by videographers as he enters a chemistry class in Boulder, then causing a quiet stir during the lecture as some fellow students notice him and the cameras.

“Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been to one in-person class?” Sanders says in the video after leaving the lecture hall.

His nine-minute video is entitled, "Shedeur Sanders Attends In-Person Lecture For First Time."

This does not mean he hadn’t attended classes at all. Just not in-person.

But then college is not what it used to be.

Just ask Shedeur’s father, Deion Sanders, Colorado’s head football coach .

In January, “Coach Prime” spoke about this during a podcast with host Bret Boone, his former baseball teammate with the Cincinnati Reds.

“It’s so different now man because most of the school is online,” Deion Sanders said. “Like, they go to classes and I’m like, 'You guys are missing the best part of college − to be on campus, to walk around and build the atmosphere and build relationships on campus with other students outside of football.' That’s the best part of it, but now you have so many kids, they’re just online. I don’t even know if Shedeur has partaken a class on campus in his college career.”

Shedeur Sanders is a senior sociology major at Colorado in his second year at the university after transferring from Jackson State and enrolling at CU in January 2023.

“It’s actually not all that uncommon, especially for student-athletes, whose schedules with class, practice, and competition can get really complex,” CU Boulder spokesman Steve Hurlbert said in response to a question about online-only learning at the university.

Shedeur Sanders has additional responsibilities in the meantime. He is in middle of spring football practice, which concludes with the annual spring game on April 27.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer . Email: [email protected]