A typical term for an online course lasts anywhere from six weeks to fifteen weeks, and the course starts on the designated first day of the class. The instructor determines the number of sessions per course, prepares the curriculum and posts it for the class to get familiarized with.

Most classes do follow regularly scheduled deadlines for projects and assignments. For asynchronous classes – or classes that are not time or space-bound – lectures are posted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so that the students can log into the class at their most convenient time and read the lectures, post answers for the discussion questions, follow the threads, submit their assignments and so on. There is really no defined schedule that asynchronous classes follow because it is premised on the point that anyone can take the class at anytime and anywhere they may be. Hence interaction and response time is slower than in a normal, traditional class and even in synchronous classes where the instructor sets a time for the class to meet. In asynchronous types of classes you can log on for as little as one hour a day, but this would be disadvantageous for you in the long run as you might not be able to catch up with the readings and the discussions. A good practice would be to aim for at least 10 to 12 hours a week so that you could keep yourself abreast on the developments within the course.

Online classes do not have the same timeframe as a normal class has, nor do they observe regular meeting schedules. You are only required to log in at least once a week but posting your answers to the questions on the boards is important. There is a high level of autonomy and individualization in the conduct of an online class as the instructor merely serves as a facilitator and a guide for the students, with most of the lessons posted and refreshed on the boards. Students are free to schedule their own group meetings, instructors may provide their feedback to each student as soon as they have graded or evaluated the student’s work.

For synchronous classes, meetings are scheduled at least once a week at a regular day and time, from a minimum of 30 minutes live chat to over an hour with presentations and group discussions. Here online attendance and participation are considered important factors for evaluating a student’s performance.