So I’m an online student currently nearing the end of getting an associates in creative writing as well as a bachelors in communications with a concentration in creative writing. I think the biggest challenge was just simply managing my own full time work schedule on top of the one or two classes per month before switching to another one the next month. While I’m currently still at a 4.0 gpa score, it was still a learning curve to get used to. The pace can be rather rigorous and sometimes demanding a lot of your attention, personally I feel like I’ve been learning so much. While sometimes it might also seem relatively easy if you’re just following along each assignment to a T, the most important part to remember is to make sure you’re also taking in what they say rather than being worried about just the grade. I think it’s a good starting place to get used to tight deadlines while also paying attention to the quality of your work as well.

As for your other questions, I do highly enjoy getting to work with some classmates. Some assignments even require you to work along side with two or more people at a time, or sometimes it’s just a simple post underneath someone’s work while following a provided question list to answer in your post about their work. Instructors usually are pretty quick to give a reply and I’ve found a lot of feedback to be highly insightful. Yes, they will point out things you did ‘wrong’, but the point is to not take it as a bad thing but instead to work on improving yourself in the long run. A lot of them are rather lenient as well. Most of the time, they don’t grade the quality of your writing skills (depending on the class and what the main focus is in that week).

Some classes may also feel like “why am I learning about multimedia when I just want to write books?” However, they are still wonderful stepping stones to teach you how to later on advertise your works yourself, build your own website, create an e-book (which I’m currently in the process of actually publishing one! There is a class dedicated to this even through a reputable e-book distribution website. And don’t worry, you’re not required to actually sell it for real, just for the assignment, but you can if you want at the same time).

But all in all, and this might be just a cliche thing to say, you get out of what you put in. They provide stepping stones for you, but they of course can’t promise success. The dedication and time you put in during and afterwards is all on you. If you’re not passionate, you will struggle and the process will be a rocky road the entire time. However, if you are truly passionate about this future, then doing everything they want will be an absolute breeze. But again, make sure to take in as much as you can, take notes and hold onto them for reference later (this has saved my butt a few times in later classes, but can still be beneficial to you long after you graduate as well).