There is a great advantage to having others go down a path ahead of you. There are so many ways to prepare someone for a journey if you know where the rapids are and which side is the easiest to scale the mountain. I am a big fan of online learning but I think for the first generation it requires someone in the community as a resource person. Little things can make all the difference such as someone saying:
1. What does your week look like? Is anything due this week?
2. In this course the teacher uses lrynx, facebook, blackboard and moodle. It's really important to stay on top of the practice quizzes in lrynx and the answers to the textbook work have been posted on blackboard.
3. Before writing a test on lrynx, you have to enable cookies for Java to open and here's how you do that. It's been awhile since you've used powerpoint? If you get stuck, I know the program.
4. If you experience problems with your computer, there is another computer located at _______ which is available for student use.