Sarah

Goal

Get a degree in psychology so she can help others.

Bio

Sarah grew up in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three children. She loves to read and learn, but struggles with social interactions in the classroom. She became interested in psychology to understand herself better.

She enrolled at University Park, but was overwhelmed by the stress of attending a large university. She dropped out to live at home and works at her family’s restaurant, Mary’s Cafe, part-time while seeking an online degree.

She loves the anytime, anywhere flexibility of online learning. The reduced need for social interactions is easier for her, and she has accommodations that allow for extended deadlines when needed.

Frustrations

• Text-heavy lesson pages with no headings to break up content
• Deadline-intensive courses with limited flexibility
• Highly structured sequential content where you must learn A before learning B
• Having to do a lot of group work

Works Best When

• The course has consistent navigation and pages have a clear heading structure
• Graphical organizers and organization tools are available
• Assignments have clear instructions
• Flexible assignments allow her to choose writing topics that interest her
• She can have options for assignment deliverables: paper, or video, or poster, etc.
• Videos are captioned and transcribed so that she can use transcripts for note taking
• Lessons are printable so she can work offline