Online courses toward your degree are supposed to be easy! But if you're spending too much time online and not enough time in the real worl, why not take your course work with you. These iPhone apps are among the most useful we encountered when going back to school (especially if it's been a while) and they should make getting your online degree easier than ever.

Evernote

Evernote makes iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad into an extension of your brain and lets you keep notes, ideas, snapshots and recordings. Instantly synchronizes from your iPhone to your Mac or Windows desktop. Key features of Evernote:

• Capture text, photo and audio notes

• Auto-synchronize notes to Mac, PC, and Web

• Makes text within snapshots searchable

• Favorite notes for quick access

• All notes include geo-location information for mapping and search

Documents To Go.

This is now a Universal app for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch, but we had to mention it here, just in case you haven't checked it out in its entirety. Documents To Go is essential for whatever class you might be taking. DocsToGo lets you:

• Edit, create & view Word files (including Word 2007, 2008, 2010)

• Edit, create & view Excel spreadsheets (including Excel 2007, 2008, 2010)

• View PDF, PowerPoint, iWork & other files

myHomework

How many times have we said it? Get organized FAST. myHomework is a simple iPhone app to track homework, classes, projects and tests while interacting with a cool interface. Quickly enter your online class schedule distinguish between homework assignments, myHomework notifies you when you have late and upcoming assignments by numbering them, and marking them in red, warns of upcoming assignments and lets you easily identify homework entries by day or calendar view. You can also transfer homework or class entries to friends and email homework reminders.

Solutions

Two complete chemical databases in your pocket!

Solutions is the chemical database that keeps chemistry students stirring. Affordable and totally useful. Solutions provides:

• Intuitive, easy to use interface for calculating volume, weight, and molarity of chemical solutions.

Calculates Molecular Weights instantly

Built-in PubChem and Chebi database search engines

Keep track of chemicals you've already used

Graphing Calculator

This one is a whiz for math and statistics students. Turn your phone or iPod into an intuitive high-resolution function plotter and scientific calculator.

• Powerful, easy to use scientific calculator

• Plot and trace multiple equations on the same graph

• Custom keyboard enters equations

• Evaluate graphs at any x value using the calculator screen

Dictionary.com

Ok, this one is a little bit easy, but Dictionary.com's app for the iPhone is still the most useful dictionary for your iPhone. The app makes words accessible and easier than a book and now the version 2.0 includes 50,000 more words than before. The thesaurus can keep you writing even when you're brain is sleeping.

• English and Spanish Word of the Day

• Nearly 1,000,000 words and definitions in the Dictionary

• More than 90,000 synonyms and antonyms in the Thesaurus

• No Internet connection required for Dictionary and Thesaurus

The number and quality of iPhone apps grows every day, just like the quality and number of your online courses. Keep after them and keep up on the latest. Every designer of these little apps is working for your success too, so take advantage of them!