If you’re considering taking an online course, then you may be wondering what benefits it could have on your future. Well, in terms of transferable skills for university and the workplace, an online course will help you to develop a whole host of them.

Take a look below at just a few of the transferable skills we believe an online course will help you to develop.

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Organisation

Studying from home means you need to be super organised to complete all your schoolwork and assignments by your deadline. Organisation is an essential skill, not only for an online course, but for the future workplace too, helping you manage tasks efficiently, without becoming overwhelmed. 

As you study online, you’ll need to balance your tasks carefully, ensuring that you know what reading and independent project work you need to complete before your webinars, tutorials and assignment submission dates. Though it may seem tricky at first, once you get into the rhythm of your course and have created an effective timetable, you’ll soon become a pro!

Time Management

Tying in with organisation, time management is again one of the more obvious transferable skills that you’ll develop during your online education. Being able to balance your studying with any extra regular school work or activities you may have, as well as your free time is an important skill to have. If you can achieve the perfect balance, then you should be able to complete your work each day, with enough free time to spend as you wish for relaxation time. 

We recommend that you create a schedule for both your schoolwork and your free time, so you can visualise your deadlines, be able to schedule free time, and ensure that you don’t miss out any tasks that you need to complete. 

Reasoning

Our online learning platform, Melio, delivers online academic courses which have tutorials scheduled into the timetable.

These tutorials are an opportunity for you, your tutor and possibly another student, to delve deeper into subject matter, using evidence to construct and debate topics that interest you. As a result, you’ll be able to better evaluate information in the future, weigh up the pros and cons, and verbalise your opinions coherently.

Determination

It’s inevitable that at some point during your online course that you’ll encounter an obstacle, be it a difficult topic or a question which you don’t understand in your project work. 

If you need to ask and wait for your tutor to respond for help, it could be an opportunity for you to try and work through the issue yourself. The more times you are able to do this, the more determination you will build as you persevere through things you find difficult. 

Self-motivation

Self-motivation is a tricky skill to keep up. Finding the motivation to do an online course can be hard enough, let alone doing one on top of virtual classroom studying with your school. Through regular studying and classes, you’ll soon get into a rhythm of study and the motivation will come more naturally to you. 

As a transferable skill for the future, self-motivation is a great one to show off to universities and potential employers. Showing that you took the initiative to study outside of class on a subject that interests you will show a huge amount of dedication and willingness to ‘go the extra mile.’ It’s sure to help you stand out from the rest.

Confidence

An online course or online tutoring programme is often a personal journey, which you take to improve your subject knowledge and skills, and is a journey which will help you grow in confidence as you work through difficult subject matter and challenge yourself with assignments and join in webinar discussions.

Confidence is an essential skill for the future, giving you the boost you need to apply for university and jobs, as well as help you to shine in interviews. 

Listening

Listening is definitely an underappreciated skill, and one that is a great skill for the workplace, when working effectively as a team or managing others. 

An online course will definitely help you to develop your listening skills. Studying online is much different to studying in a classroom. It’s more difficult to pick up on physical social cues, and so you need to hone in on your listening skills to make sure you understand everything your tutor and classmates are sharing. 

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About the author

Rhys Mackenzie is the Website Marketing Manager at Oxford Summer Courses. With extensive experience in SEO and digital content management, they are passionate about showcasing the best that Oxford has to offer. Their previous role at Experience Oxfordshire gave them a deep appreciation for the city's unique cultural and academic offerings. Learn more about Rhys here.