(Newswire.net — September 6, 2020) — Thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in part to changing cultural expectations, online classes are becoming much more common. Whether you’re going to college for the first time and learning about art history, or you’re taking continuing education courses to keep your certification as a respiratory therapist, you’re likely going to be attending hours of online lectures and reviewing hours of online materials.
If you want to be successful in this online environment, there are several strategies that can help you.
Take the Class Seriously
The most important tip is to take the class seriously. Too often, people treat online classes as if they’re somehow “less” than physical classes. You’re going to be more comfortable on your couch with a laptop than you would be in a plastic chair in a lecture hall—but that doesn’t give you an excuse to take the class less seriously. Plan to attend every lecture and every meetup, and commit to completing every assignment from the beginning. The right attitude will help you focus and achieve your goals.
Review the Schedule, Assignments, and Materials
As soon as possible, take the time to review everything associated with the online class, including the schedule, the syllabus, your upcoming assignments, and the resources and materials available to you. This way, you’ll be far less susceptible to “sneaky” deadlines—if you know there’s a major assignment due in 3 weeks, it can’t take you by surprise. This is also a good way to take care of some early troubleshooting; if you can’t access a certain resource, or if you’re confused about the wording of the syllabus, you can ask for help early, before it’s too late.
Create a Workspace for Yourself
Next, try to create a designated workspace for attending classes and completing coursework. You could easily work on the couch, in front of your TV, but that’s not an environment conducive to productivity. In a best-case scenario, you’ll have a designated home office you can use, including a desk (and free of distractions). Otherwise, establish a dedicated space for yourself that isn’t used for anything else—like a corner of your bedroom.
Manage Your Time
Perfect the art of time management. You’re going to have a fixed amount of time and a fixed number of assignments to complete, so it’s your responsibility to split those assignments and divide your time wisely. For many people, the best way to do this is to break things down; if it’s going to take you 10 hours to write a paper, try to work on it an hour a day for 10 days in a row, rather than spending 10 hours scrambling the night before it’s due.
Take Advantage of the Flexibility
One of the biggest advantages of online classes is that they’re flexible. In most cases, you can work on assignments whenever you want, and in some cases, you can watch lectures at your leisure as well. Use this to your advantage. Figure out your peak productivity times, and plan your days around them; for example, if you find it easier to pay attention to a lecture in the morning than at night, try to watch lectures in the morning. If you find that taking a short nap between study sessions makes you more effective, do it regularly. Experiment to figure out what works for you.
Talk to Your Peers
Online classes make it harder to communicate with the people around you, but you should still go out of your way to do it. Break off into smaller groups, engage in group forum discussions, or just send emails to some of the other people in your class. Find out what they’re struggling with and how they feel about the class; give them help and ask for help in return. Classes are much easier when you have a social support system.
Check Your Email
Speaking of email, make sure to check your email regularly. Professors of online classes often rely on email as a primary mode of communication; they’ll use this channel to let you know of new resources that have become available, lecture-related announcements, and deadlines that have changed. Don’t miss out on an important message.
Ask for Help Early
Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Most professors are actually happy when their students reach out for extra help; it’s a sign that they truly care about learning. Just make sure you ask early, and not the night before an exam.
While there are some advantages to in-person classes that online classes can’t match, online classes are preferred by an increasing percentage of students. If you can learn to succeed in this online environment, you’ll be able to learn more—and more efficiently—than you ever did in a physical classroom.