It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced all of us to make substantial changes to our daily lives. While online learning carries many positive benefits that make it the preferred choice for millions of students, it doesn’t come without its challenges—especially for students who are more familiar with in-person courses.
Here are some tips that can be helpful to make online learning more effective.
1. Look ahead to understand your assignment due dates.
Typically, students who take online courses interact with the subject matter and their assignments through a learning management system (LMS).
Whichever LMS your courses utilize, it’s crucial that you spend time familiarizing yourself with the interface and with your specific assignments. Look ahead at your scheduled assignments, and take particular note of your due dates so that you can better craft a realistic plan for completing all of your work.
2. Set the time to study and work in batches.
Many students pursue their education alongside other responsibilities and obligations. Work, childcare, family obligations, internships, and the like all compete for your time and attention, making it critical that you create a schedule that allows you to meet all of those challenges.
3. Communicate regularly for group projects.
College courses often include group projects and assignments designed to be completed alongside others in your class. This fact is just as true for online courses as it is for in-person courses. But whereas in-person courses facilitate group projects by bringing groups together face-to-face, online learners must take particular care to ensure that they are communicating effectively.
Whether it is via Zoom, email, phone call, instant message, shared documents, or another form of communication altogether, groups must prioritize communication if they are to avoid confusion.
4. Divide up group work early.
Along those lines, it’s also important for groups to divide up different tasks in an appropriate way so that everyone is responsible for their fair share, and so that everyone understands exactly what they’re responsible for completing.
5. Touch base with your professor often.
Just as it’s important for you to communicate with your groupmates and your classmates, it’s important that you also communicate with your professor or instructor. Make the effort to touch base with your professor, whether you have questions about an assignment or just want to let them know where you’re struggling.
6. Participate as much as possible.
Whether you’re taking courses online or in-person, participation is crucial to success. In addition to showing your professor that you’re engaged, active participation shows that you’re learning and that you’re willing to put in the effort that’s required to be successful. While education is often perceived by some as a passive process, participation turns it into an active process.
7. Be flexible.
Online learning requires flexibility, for yourself as well as others in your course—including your professors.
