Frustrations of an online learner...

Today is supposed to be my day to dedicate the entire afternoon / evening to my online coursework. However, due to a family emergency, my mom (the babysitter) cannot come to watch our two daughters tonight. So... I am entirely committed to spending my entire day working on the course. However, due to the supposed flexibility of the online learner, it is me who will have to pick up the slack. My wife is in the alternate route teaching program, which is a face to face course. It is harder for her to miss that than for me to try to rearrange things to be the one to accomodate the scheduling needs. I am not trying to sound resentful. I am just feeling frustrated as I know how important this time is for me to study, but having some 'flexibility' might just be a terrible thing!

I think I have figured things out to accomodate to a point, but it is certainly not ideal. I'll spend my afternoon with the kids (things could be much worse than that :) ) and when my wife gets home I will leave in order to salvage the later part of the evening (i'm a big fan of sleep, so starting at 8:30 or 9:00 pm at night doesn't really give me much time when I have to get up at 5:30 am). However, I will be able to attend the online chat and do a little work.

Part of the frustration is this...

In the online course, I notice that people start reading / posting right away. I find it very difficult to 'catch up' if I post my initial thoughts late in the process and still have to respond to everyone's posts. It makes me feel like I am very far behind before I even start.

Well, that's certainly what's going on for this online learner at the moment.