** Note: Check out the section titled Course Expectations. You can use or adapt this for any course that relies on Case Studies, Current Events or other practical matters.

Whether you are new to online learning or you are a pro, every course has its own structure, pace, and types of activities. The following are some tips or strategies that will help you be successful in this course:

Establish a Routine

Look through the syllabus, calendar, and module layout, and establish a routine. Take time to get familiar with the routine of the class, and schedule your own work time accordingly—ideally, multiple times during the week.

Help students manage their time by breaking down the course into its main components and proposing a study plan based on the work involved. The following is an example:

Each week, you should allow:

1-2 hours to watch video lectures. Be sure to watch actively, take notes, and regularly review your notes before joining the Live Sessions and attempting the problem sets and exams. If you would like a deeper dive, I suggest skimming and scanning the recommended texts or articles. First, read through all of the headings/subheadings, images, charts and graphs. Then, focus in on the sections that are relevant to the lectures and read in-depth.
1-2 hours for the Problem Set Homework.
1 hour each week to contribute to the discussion boards (Questions for the Live Session and the Current Issues boards)
1 hour (every other week) to participate in the weekly Live Sessions on Zoom.

You should allow a roughly 4-6 hours per week. However, some weeks may have a heavier workload than other weeks.

Take time to familiarize yourself with the routine of the class, and schedule your own work time accordingly, probably multiple times during the week. Because this class is fully online, the activities you'll do each week are a combination of what would've been, in a face-to-face class, both in-class work (3 hours/week for a three-credit course), and homework (typically calculated by the university to be about 6 hours/week). This means that each week of this course will appear to have a substantial amount of work, but this is because you're seeing both of these types of activities.

Don't wait until the last minute to finish everything. Pace yourself. Research indicates that students who distribute their study throughout the week, and regularly review learning materials, have better recall and improved learning over students who opted for fewer, more intensive study sessions.

Tips for Deep Learning

It is not enough for you to perform well in this class; you also need to be able to perform "out there" in the real world. To do that, your learning needs to be memorable, deep and long-lasting. That's why you should use these strategies to help you transfer the learning you do in the classroom to the work place and beyond.

Reflect on your Prior Knowledge

Connect new knowledge and skills to what you already know. Before you begin a new module in the course, ask yourself, "What do I already know about this topic?" and "What would I like to know more about?" As you encounter new material, consider how it reinforces or undermines your previous knowledge. Do you need to correct any misconceptions or assumptions? Can you add detail to any areas you had previously only had a vague understanding of?

Investigate Connections

The more connections you can make with the new material, the easier it will be to remember.

Follow industry trends. Think about how developments in the real world may impact what you are learning in the classroom. Consider the implications of government polices, environmental regulations, corporate governance, technological development, supply chain issues, etc. on the Oil and Gas industry.

Pay attention to capital market conditions and the broader economy. Track (or try to forecast) the closing values of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the NASDAQ index of stock prices, the 10-year treasury bond interest rate and the price of Oil and Gas.

Consider Applications in the Industry

Most instruction simplifies practice (both in breath and depth), and is insufficient on its own to help you transfer your learning to more complex applications in the real world. It is up to you to seek out opportunities to practice in the wide range of contexts in which you are expected to perform.

If you currently work in Oil and Gas, consider how you would apply the material you are learning to cases and situations you encounter in your job. If you do not yet work in Oil and Gas, search for articles, blogs, videos that touch on current events and hot issues in the industry.

Monitor your own learning

Skillful learners naturally reflect on their own thinking processes in order to improve learning and performance. Think about when and how to monitor your own thinking processes and performance.

My goal is to create instruction that is directly applicable to how the content is used in the real world. By following the strategies above, you can help ensure that your class learning will transfer beyond this course and into your professional practice.