Success Tips for 8-Week Courses
If you’re a student used to classes running 10, 12, or even a full 16-week semester, or a first-time student nervously eying your schedule, 8-week classes can seem daunting. However, if you’re aiming to finish your degree quickly, 8-week courses present a great opportunity. The good news is that, like the other aspects of your CPS education, the 8-week format can be flexible and can work with you to help you best meet your goals.
Advantages to this format:
- You can take one 8-week course at a time, or two, based on your financial and/or enrollment goals.
- Two classes at a time too much? You can take one class each 8-week term to earn credits, but at a pace that works better for you.
- Use the two terms to create a schedule that works for you! Need more time to focus on math, but love your psychology courses? Take math by itself in one term, and two other classes in the next!
- By taking two 8-week classes each term, you are maximizing your earned credits; more classes taken means more credits earned, which means more efficient progress toward your goals!
- Four 8-week terms between fall and spring, plus the fifth term in the summer, means more opportunities to take classes and earn credit toward your program.
The more credits you earn each term, the bigger boost you get towards your finish line! If you’ve never taken an 8-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, connect with your advisor for guidance.
Here’s Our Advice!
Understand the Time Commitment
We recommend devoting 20 hours of work to each class, each week of the term. This time is for reading, research, replying to forum posts, working on your assignments, group work, or studying. To help with scheduling, you may want to consider using time management tools to stay on track, such as Evernote: a free app designed to organize tasks, take notes, and facilitate collaboration.
Familiarize Yourself with the Course ASAP
With an 8-week course, there’s not a lot of breathing room in between deadlines. Luckily, courses are available in Canvas the week before the term begins. As soon as you have course access, prioritize reviewing your syllabus, the course shell, and any course requirements. From there, order any required materials and 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. If you have questions or concerns that you’ve identified early, reach out to your instructor immediately.
Start with One at a Time
If you’re nervous about the eight-week format, try starting with just one class per term. This will allow you to ease into the pace and better assess your strengths, opportunities for growth, and overall capacity so you don’t burn out. Starting with one class can help you find your rhythm as you add ‘student’ to the list of hats you wear!
Make it a Daily Habit
Asynchronous classes are an amazing convenience for a busy learner, and it may feel like a relief not to have to schedule time to “go to class”. To set yourself up for success in an 8-week asynchronous course, we highly recommend logging into your class daily to check for updates, read messages, post to the discussion board, and work on assignments, and catch any announcements or notes from your instructor. Since those 8 weeks can fly by, having a regiment is important.
Feeling Stuck? We’re Here to Help!
Seek assistance immediately if you are experiencing any difficulties. Your instructor or an OPAL (if your class has one) is your best resource for class-specific questions, and your advisor can support you with providing resources, navigating process and policy, and just being there to encourage you! We offer online tutoring, and you also have access to BrainFuse available in every Canvas course. BrainFuse has access to live tutors, study guides, test preparation sections, and a writing lab, where you can submit a paper for review.
In Conclusion…
You’ve got this! You’ve committed to achieving your goals, and we are here to support you. Ask your advisor if eight-week courses are right for you!