Some students opt for online classes to avoid the distractions of a traditional college classroom. However, students living with parents, spouses or children sometimes encounter their own distractions at home. If you have kids at home, it is especially difficult to control the learning environment, at least during their waking hours. If you find it difficult to control the chaos during the day, you might have to schedule reading and classwork time at night.
Because "college from home" typically means "online courses," technological barriers often present challenges. On its online page, Lane Community College noted that online classes are at least as challenging as traditional classes. Technological requirements include emailing, uploading and downloading documents, forum posting and discussion, and completion and submission of documents. Even before engaging in core class activities, you need a reliable computer and Internet connection just to engage in the online course platform. You don't have immediate access to college tech support, either, when problems arise.
College from home inherently means you don't typically engage in the on-campus college community. You don't interact with peers or faculty in regular face-to-face settings. While this is often part of the choice in online education, students may not develop the same sense of belonging or attachment to the school, degree or class. You don't get as much regular feedback or personal rapport with faculty. You also can't easily catch them with questions or needs. Additionally, home-based students don't build a social peer support system in the same way as many traditional classroom students.
For many home-based college students, lack of self-motivation and self-discipline are among the most pressing challenges, according the University of Oklahoma's "Successful Strategies in Online Education" web page. Students sometimes don't realize the time commitment -- typically anywhere from four to 15 hours per class each week. Some common student struggles are the inability to pace work and to schedule the necessary time for reading, homework, papers, projects and test completion. If you don't have the discipline or drive for in-class work, you won't likely have it for home school, either.