Most students work on online degrees and classes due to the great flexibility of not having to go to a set class at a set time and place. But, what about on holidays and when a student wants to take a vacation and or on holiday break(s)?

Many online institutions and even individual online faculty members do have guidelines, policies, and procedures on given popular holidays like Thanksgiving, Independence Day, Christmas, New Years, etc. Most of these online institutions and online faculty will work out their academic and class schedules so that no assignments are due on these holidays but not all.

Traditional colleges and universities on campuses usually follow a semester system where there are set breaks during most of these holidays, but with online institutions many do not have set semester systems and have random schedules. Some of the bigger online institutions start new classes almost every week. It might be beneficial for you as an online student to check these policies on holidays and assignments being due.

Also, with vacations you should always plan ahead to see what you will need to do. In many cases you can work ahead when taking a vacation. It is always good to work with your individual online faculty members in these cases. I know most online faculty will allow you to turn in assignments ahead of time, but you might be challenged with the class discussions because you are mostly required to participate during that specific week. This might force you to still work on your classes while on vacation. I know some students will actually take a quarter off from online classes for this case if they know they won’t have online access on vacation. But, with increasing access to your online classes by cell/smart phone, this might be easier to still work on your classes while still on vacation. Please see my previous blog post on using your cell/smart phone for online classes: http://www.associatedegreeonline.com/2011/10/online-classes-from-your-cellsmart-phone/

Most faculty will work with you in most of these cases just as long as you contact them before hand. Nothing is more frustrating and more challenging then when you tell a faculty member why you missed class due to a holiday or vacation after the fact!

And finally, some students actually like holidays because they are off from work and have more time to catch up or work ahead in their classes. I have been noticing this more and more as an online faculty member. I often think that on holidays my classes and grading would be less, but this is often not the case.

Would you or do you find yourself working more on your online classes and assignments during holidays to catch up or work ahead in your classes? Have you thought about what you will do in your online classes during holidays and or if you were taking a vacation? Let me know via Twitter @onlinefac

Please stay tuned until next week when I blog on another topic in online education and classes.