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With the current affairs of the world, a lot of classes and university programs have transferred to the online spaces. Students who have been accustomed to in person courses now have to learn how to shift their education online.
When I was finishing my master’s degree, I had to learn how to manage my time studying from home and shift to attending online classes.
Here are my 10 highly effective tips that helped me to succeed in my online classes! These tips will help you from being overwhelmed and stressed, as well as show you how to manage your time while you’re learning to navigate online courses!
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1. Make a timetable
The firs thing to do is make a timetable of all of your courses, seminars, as well as of your assignments and test dates. This will help you to keep organized and always be a step ahead of deadlines.
Additionally, it will aid you to not miss your online lectures and tutorials since they are crucial to your success. As in person classes, you should not be missing or skipping any of your online courses (even if it takes time to get used to them at first.)
To do this, you can plan your timetable digitally online or use a physical calendar or planner.
2. Make a routine
Although I only had online classes for about a month and a half, it was a big change for me who had been going to in-person classes during my entire undergraduate degree.
Therefore, I not only recommend making a timetable but also making a routine for yourself in order to make sure that not only you attend all of your classes and tutorials but also have the necessary time to study at home, eat good meals, sleep your 8 hours at night, and work out.
It’s always good to schedule your time if you want to make sure you stay on track and keep healthy mentally, physically, and emotionally while you’re spending all of this time at home, isolated from the people you would normally encounter and see in person.
SEE ALSO: 9 Best Study Tips for University Students
3. Keep your camera on during online classes
Another tip I recommend is to keep your camera on during online classes. This will help you to hold yourself accountable and give you a push to participate and engage with what your professors are teaching.
Keeping your camera on will also prevent you from browsing other tabs and/or going on your phone and on social media. Therefore, keeping you alert and engaged in the material. Plus, it will help you with your note-taking as you are more focused.
SEE ALSO: 5 Mental Health Reasons to Take a Break from Social Media
4. Set up workspaces
Another advice I have to offer is to set up a specific workspace or different workspaces. You can have one specific place with good lighting and limited noises (if that distracts you while studying.)
Or you can have different work spaces for specific things such as, the living room for online classes, your room for studying, or the basement for when you’re doing your readings. Changing things up – such as your workspace – every few days in order to help you concentrate more and change scenery if you’re always studying from home.
When the weather gets better, I also like to set up a work place outdoors in order to get some fresh air while I’m doing readings or working on my essays.
SEE ALSO: 10 Work From Home Tips for Maximum Productivity
5. Study with others
Studying with others is another great tip especially if you’re doing online courses. Sometimes you need the interactions with other people to motivate you to study and engage more with the material and the research you are doing. Learning doesn’t always have to be a solitary experience.
During the end of my master’s, when the world was in lockdown, me and my university friends would do Zoom calls and FaceTime calls just to motivate ourselves to work better and not feel alone and isolated when finishing our degrees.
You can talk to others about ideas and concepts from class. It’s like having little seminars. Not only does it hold you accountable; it enriches the experience. You can also study with relatives – you live with – in close proximity.
SEE ALSO: How to Attain a 4.0 GPA in University
6. Don’t procrastinate on homework
I would highly recommend to try not to procrastinate on homework even if you’re tempted to when working from home.
It allows you to stay on track and when you do your homework right away, the material remains fresh in your mind, making it easier to do your work more efficiently.
Same goes for other assignments such as essays and the likes. Start planning and doing your readings for the essay you think of writing as soon as you can.
It will greatly reduce your stress when you keep on track or else you might have a pile of work around due dates.
SEE ALSO: How to Fight Laziness
7. Schedule a day off
I know that it can be really exhausting to always be online and working. As a result, you should try to take a day offline. Try to study on paper or directly from you textbook if you like, do some physical readings instead of digital ones.
Furthermore, you can schedule a day (or half a day) off in which you don’t do any school work.
8. Check your emails daily
Another tip to succeed in online classes is to check your emails daily. I would recommend to check your emails at least three times a day.
You don’t want to miss an assignment due date, extra notes and instructions, even schedule changes or syllabus changes that your professors are sending out.
9. Understand online testing
You should also make sure you understand the online requirements for submitting and taking tests online.
Always read through your syllabus and the instructions given by your instructor. The last thing you want to do is to be penalized for an assignment or class because you didn’t pay attention to the instructions offered.
Also, feel free to ask your professors questions – send them emails – if you are unsure about something and can’t find the answer to your question anywhere.
SEE ALSO: How to Reduce Exam Stress
10. Participate in discussion boards
If you tend to forgot this step, add it to your schedule and treat it like a weekly assignment. You need to make you participate in discussion boards. This help show your instructor that you are engaged and active in your learning and the material of the classroom.
Also, similarly to studying with others, discussion boards can help clarify on the material you are unsure of. You can gain no ideas and perspectives from your peers. Plus, this helps you interact with others (as you would when you’re learning in real life.)
In most cases, discussion boards can count for participation points and therefore impact your grade. Set aside a half an hour to an hour a week to participate on the available discussion boards.
That concludes the 10 highly effective tips to succeed in online classes in 2021! Let me know which tip has helped you the most!
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