1. Scholarship Principles for Academic Success
Starting an online degree requires a complete reset in how you approach a blank document. Before typing a single word of your assignment, read the prompt three times. High grades never come from rushing; they come from pausing long enough to catch the nuances of the task.
Online identity means holding ourselves to a standard where every claim is anchored in evidence. Your assigned readings are your primary authorities, and an argument only works when an in-text citation pairs with a matching reference entry. For example, for an open textbook, use this format:
Baldwin, A., August, L., Bennett, J., Mathues, S., Monroe, S., O'Leary, M. J., Pearson, A., Troesh, J., & Watts, M. (2020). College success. OpenStax.
https://openstax.org/details/books/college-success
Keep your paper formatting clean: a title page, double-spacing, Times New Roman 12pt, and a formal reference list following APA 7th Edition basics. When a rubric asks for depth, move past generalities. Bring in at least three sources, pulling from peer-reviewed articles in the university library, databases, books, or Google Scholar. AI cannot replicate your critical thinking or synthesize your lived experiences.
When you submit your work, follow instructor guidelines and submit it most commonly as a Word document. Keep PDFs or JPEGs strictly as supporting exhibits. Proofread before hitting submit so formatting errors do not obscure your insights. Check the word counts for each assignment when requested, and if you have a forum, ensure your discussion forum posts are up by due date (sometimes Sunday) to protect your grade. Success here is a messy process of discovery. Let your writing show that you are actually thinking.
2. Continuing Your Growth as a Scholar
During the first round of assignments and discussion forums, the instructor will make clear where the habits of thought are still forming. These points are not corrections; they are invitations to figure out why certain practices matter so the reasoning becomes yours.
- Paraphrasing and citation: Ask yourself what actually changes when you restate an idea. The words change, but the origin of the thought does not. Grasping that distinction is what keeps plagiarism out of your work.
- Your Program Advisor: Look at what a PA can spot about your progress that remains invisible to you. Advising only works when you bring actual questions instead of treating it like a bureaucratic box to check.
- AI disclosure versus citation: Acknowledge process, but credit sources. An AI tool might help you draft, but it cannot author an idea you can claim as your own. Understanding the gap protects you better than any compliance rule.
- Reading the rubric: Look past surface-level task completion. Points usually vanish not from carelessness, but from failing to unpack what each grading criterion is actually measuring.
- Selecting references: Before opening a search engine, ask what specific claim you are trying to defend. Tools like SIFT and APA exist to bring discipline to that search, not to frustrate you.
- Local Time: Examine your assumptions about deadlines. The institution might operate on a fixed time zone, but your relationship to it is entirely up to you. Submitting early is a habit of foresight, not blind obedience.
- APA rigor: Ask why every citation requires a reference entry. The answer is simple: traceability. A reader must be able to follow your thinking backward to its origin.
3. AI Use in Your Course - Advice & Expectation
Karen Hao points out a sobering reality about the tech industry: AI empires extract massive resources, human writing, personal data, land, energy, and water to run massive data centers, fueling privacy invasions and the automation of meaningful work.
AI doesn't lie; it hallucinates. It doesn't argue or engage in real dialogue; it synthesizes. It calculates the most statistically likely answer and passes it off as reason. But "likely" and "reasonable" are worlds apart. One is what gets repeated most often; the other is what is actually worth saying. Because AI predicts what sounds true rather than knowing what is true, it projects a false certainty without doubt or human feeling.
The quality of what you get back depends entirely on how you guide it. Before opening an AI tool, read the assignment twice, write down what you already know, and review your own notes. Only then should you consult an AI. If you use it, be transparent about it by adding a simple disclosure line, keeping in mind that grammar checkers count too.
Brainstorming ideas, clarifying a dense concept, or turning your notes into a study guide is fair game. Using AI to write your paragraphs, generate your thesis, or flatten your voice into something mechanical is not. When an essay relies too heavily on AI, the feedback is predictable: plenty of information, but no real analysis or weighing of evidence, because the tool defaults to taking both sides.
As Adam Grant notes, cheating isn't just a rule violation; it undercuts our efforts to build a just society and undermines the quest to become a person of principle. Keep your thinking your own, and watch what you type into these systems; it all feeds a lasting digital footprint.
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