My Tips for Online Learning -- CoronaVirus Edition

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share my tips for successful distance learning during the Coronavirus outbreak. 

These are unprecedented times.  People are sheltering in place, everyone who can is working from home, and college students who normally learn on campus are home on lockdown trying to figure out how to best learn online.  I've been in grad school in a distance learning program for the past couple of years, so I thought I'd share some of my tips on how to make it go as smoothly as possible.  First, let's talk about the differences between 

Online vs. Classroom Learning

In my experience, with online learning you basically teach yourself by doing the assigned readings or watching the assigned videos and then you use that newly gained knowledge to answer discussion questions either directly to your professor or in an interactive forum like a text-only Blackboard discussion board, a FlipGrid video posting, or a VoiceThread which can be text, video, or voice only.  These are just the tools my school uses -- they may differ from yours, but the concepts are the same -- after all there are only so many ways that you can respond.  There is usually a requirement to respond back to your classmates to generate some interaction with your peers on the concepts you just learned.  This is referred to as asynchronous learning -- meaning you work at your own pace and don't have to be online at the same time everyone else is.  You will have deadlines, but within those guidelines everyone posts at times that are convenient for them.  Your professors may want you to engage in synchronous learning, where they would set up something like a Zoom video meeting and have everyone join, but I'm guessing it will be tough to require that everyone to be available at the same time.  It will probably take some time to work out the kinks in the process as all of these professors get used to the constraints of distance teaching.  So, what does this mean for you?  First of all, you'll need to

Get organized

The thing about distance learning is that you have way fewer touch points with your professors and other students to give you reminders of what you should be doing at any given time.  As a result, you will have to be more self-driven and more aware of what is due and when.  So, you need to get organized.  Gather all your syllabuses -- or syllabi -- whatever -- and go over them.  Remember that your professors are likely changing everything, so make sure you are looking at the latest plan for your classes.  What do you have coming up, what readings do you have, when are things due.  If you are doing asynchronous learning with weekly posts and responses, you'll need to figure out the deadlines for each of your classes.  This can be really confusing since you may have multiple deadlines per week per class: a deadline for your original post (and you'll need to have done all of your reading and preparation by then) plus a deadline to respond back to your classmates and interact with others online.  It may take a couple of weeks to get used to the rhythm of each class by which time you may have missed some deadlines, so print out a weekly calendar ( Here's a blank one:  http://www.blankcalendar.org/weekly_calendars/weekly_calendar_03.jpg) and write in when things are due for each class on a weekly basis.  Post that weekly schedule somewhere obvious until you get to the point where you don't need to refer to it anymore.

You also need to make sure you know when your other assignments are due.  Online classes usually have both weekly work and bigger assignments like exams, projects, or papers.  Go through the syllabus or plan for each of your classes and write down the due dates for your bigger assignments on a calendar that you refer to regularly.  You won't have frequent in-person classes to serve as a reminder for these looming assignments, so make sure you know those deadlines so they don't sneak up on you.  All of this initial organizing is kind of big picture structural planning.  I would also suggest that you establish a

Weekly Planning Day

That means on the same day every week, before you do anything else, you spend about an hour determining your plan for the week.  I do this on Mondays, but if you do a lot of your work on the weekends, maybe Friday or Saturday is the best planning day for you.  So, what do you do on planning day?  You go through each class, determine what you need to do for the week, when your deadlines are, and you schedule when you want to complete that work.  You can use whatever task management system that you already use.  I use Todoist and have a video on using it for College or University, but use whatever works for you.  This is also a good time to look ahead to some of your bigger assignments and start to break down how you are going to accomplish them.  Planning for bigger assignments is outside the scope of this video, but I do have a video on that process if you are interested.  Basically, planning day requires you to look at all of your classes in a holistic way and assign days to each of the things you need to do for the week.  Having a planning day is crucial to not letting things slip through the cracks.  To make date assignment easier, I would recommend

Blocking time

You are used to going to class a couple of times a week, right?  And that time is dedicated to that specific class?  Well, I would continue to block time for each class just like that.  I tend to frontload the reading for each class, so my first block is larger than the second or third, but I have a weekly schedule that spells out exactly when I'll be doing work for each class.  I would then add these blocks to your calendar and try not to schedule things on top of them.  This makes it so much easier on planning day when you are assigning dates for your work.  For example, if I'm looking at the weekly work for my Research class, and my first block for this class is on Monday, I will assign most of my tasks to that date.  I may have to collaborate with my homework team for our assignment, so I can't do everything on Monday, but I have another block scheduled for Wednesday and again on Friday for revisions and submission.   There are a couple of benefits to following a blocked schedule.  First of all, you can concentrate on one subject without having your brain distracted by other assignments.  After all, you know you have a block scheduled for that class coming up.  And second, it provides structure.  As much as we all disdain rigidity, this total free form lack of structure may actually drive us all crazy.  You'll need to create a certain amount of structure in your life just to keep sane and this will help.  And speaking of staying sane, I would recommend creating a good

Learning space

This may be challenging right now.  After all, if your house is like mine, everyone is at home trying to get stuff done.  There are only so many good study/work areas.  But really give this some thought.  If you are the kind of person who needs quiet to work, find a remote-ish area and set your space up there.  Get creative if you need to -- one of us is using a card table in our sunroom.  If you work better being around others, set yourself up in a well trafficked area, but make sure you are able to block noise with headphones or hearing protection.  Gather all of the study materials that you may need and make it as cozy and appealing as you can.  After all, you'll be spending a lot of time in this space.  And if it's not working somehow, don't be afraid to change things up.  And just a note on the challenge of crowded environments -- staying focused will be harder than ever.  I have a video on some of my tips for focusing, but don't forget to take breaks, give yourself rewards, and use music or sound blocking to help you.  And my final tip

Stay connected

Keep in touch with your professors and the other students in your classes.  Distance learning can be very isolating and the only way to combat that is by staying connected.  I have group texts with people from each of my classes where we complain, ask questions, and commiserate.  Professors also are super open to communications from students since they don't see them regularly in class.  It's the only way to maintain relationships and not feel so alone.  

And that's it.  Check out some of my other organizing and planning tips in my Grad School playlist.  And let me know what you think.  Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!