If you’re aiming to finish your degree quickly, eight-week courses present a great opportunity. There are two main advantages to this format.
- It’s just eight weeks: they’re short and sweet!
- When you pair two eight-week courses together during the same term (one during the first session, another that runs during the second session), you achieve a full-time course load.
The more credits you earn each term; the bigger boost you get towards your finish line! Never taken an eight-week course? It may require a few adjustments to how you typically manage your schedule as a student, but it’s certainly within your reach. As always, talk with your advisor for guidance.
Here’s Our Advice!
Understand the Time Commitment
If you’re already a full-time student who takes two classes each term, you’ll have the foundation necessary to manage your time in the eight-week format. If you typically take one course each term, you may want to get the experience of studying full-time with traditional 12-week courses first. Then, if it works for your schedule, take on an eight-week course and experience the benefits.
Get Your Syllabus ASAP
With an eight-week course, there’s not a lot of breathing room in between deadlines. As soon as your course is available, prioritize reviewing your syllabus. From there, map out how each deadline will work with your schedule. Look for any personal commitments, like holiday get-togethers or vacation plans, and make sure there are no conflicts with the course deadlines.
Select a Course that Speaks to Your Passion
If there’s a topic that you’d like to fully immerse yourself in, the eight-week format will be a great fit. On a personal level, you’ll get great fulfillment from the opportunity to focus 100% of your attention in this area. On a practical level, this also means that you’ll arrive in class with lots of ideas to contribute to the discussion boards, helping you to finish your weekly assignments on time.
Make it a Daily Habit
Plan to log in daily to check for updates, read messages, post to the discussion board, and work on assignments. For an eight-week course, having a regiment is important, so seek out time management tools to help keep you on track, such as Evernote: a free app designed to organize tasks, take notes, and collaborate.
Feeling Stuck? We’re Here to Help!
Seek assistance immediately if you are experiencing any difficulties. Your instructor or advisor can be a great asset to problem-solving. We also offer online and on-campus tutoring. The online option, BrainFuse, is available in every Canvas course and if you haven’t used it, you should check it out. There are many areas of BrainFuse; you can drop in with a live tutor for quick questions, view study guides, use test preparation sections, submit a paper for review in the writing lab, and work with a live tutor one-on-one.