For many students considering pursuing an online degree or certification, competency-based programs are becoming an attractive option.

Because such programs allow students to quickly prove what skills they already possess and move on to learning those they don’t, they can help working professionals earn a degree more quickly and cheaply than they might otherwise.

As attractive as saving time and money can be, however, experts say participants in competency-based programs can risk feeling disconnected in such a self-paced environment, especially if they lack academic confidence or have had bad past college experiences.

In short, these programs aren’t for everyone. But experts say the chance of navigating one successfully and earning a long-desired credential should increase if students remember these four tips.

Learn about how [competency-based learning can provide perks for online students.]

1. Get social: Because students often enroll in competency-based programs because they believe they may be a quicker and cheaper route to an education, they may not care about making social connections with others in their program.

But Yvonne Simon, the chief learning architect at College for America at Southern New Hampshire University, says taking the time to make those connections appears to make students more productive.

Specifically, the 80 percent of College for America students who are members of the school’s online learning community progress, on average, about twice as quickly through their study path as the 20 percent of students who aren’t learning community users, she says.

“There’s nothing wrong with going more slowly, but we do let our students know that fact, so if they are reluctant to join, they have more reason to do so,” Simon says.

Additionally, since College for America is based on project-based learning, students are often matched with group members who are at a similar point in their academic progress. While students have a variety of individual and group projects throughout their studies, they are typically assigned a group project early with the idea that it will help them become comfortable in the model more quickly, says Simon.

2. Map out your time: When Jacob Sullivan enrolled in Capella University’s FlexPath self-paced program to complete a bachelor’s degree in business administration, he had to tackle his history of procrastination head on.

“It’s very easy for someone that’s not very organized with their thinking or their execution to get away from the assessments and put off work for a week, or put it off for another week,” says the Iowa resident, who graduated last fall. “Sooner or later, you’re snowballing.”

Discover [four time management tips for online students.]

Having unsuccessfully balanced work and the pursuit of a bachelor’s degree at a brick-and-mortar university, Sullivan took the unusual step for online students of leaving his job to focus solely on his Capella course work.

With that time, he broke courses down into segments, created a regular school work schedule and set ambitious deadlines for assessment completion. That approach, he says, is still effective now that he’s returned to the workforce as a human resources manager at Target while enrolled in Capella’s MBA program.

“I’m not moving at as fast of a pace right now,” Sullivan says, “but I still feel like it’s totally doable.”

3. Ask more from your coach: Instead of instructors who impart the same content to a group of students on the same schedule, competency-based programs typically use learning coaches, who are employed to offer feedback to students at a wide range of points along their path of study.

Mitsu Phillips, the associate provost of mentoring at Western Governors University, a pioneering institution in competency-based education, suggests students ask coaches to help them set regular academic goals.

“We offer a mentoring model that actually sets really specific goals week after week after week in small, very isolated sections, that allow a student to really feel like they’ve got a pace,” Phillips says.

Coaches look at student data to see which competencies someone may be struggling to master, but they’re less unlikely to respond to a student who is simply inactive, experts say. That means students need to be good at knowing when they are struggling and comfortable with asking for help.

Consider these four things [before pursuing competency-based education.]

4. Know your mission: Even the most self-starting student will occasionally struggle for work motivation in a competency-based model, says Sean Nemeth, the associate vice chancellor of advising, retention and enrollment services at Brandman University.

For that reason, he says it’s important for students to remember the meaningful change that will occur in their lives once they complete a competency-based degree or certification, whether it’s a promotion, a new job possibility, or just the satisfaction of framing a new diploma.

When students are making the decision to, for example, watch TV that night or do some work in their competency-based program, that touchstone is what helps them move forward and be motivated, Nemeth says. “That’s a thing that helps a student to be more successful.”

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4 Tips to Finish an Online, Competency-Based Degree originally appeared on usnews.com

Correction 04/01/15: An earlier version of this article misspelled Capella University.