By Mast Media Staff
The chaos of spring semester has finally come to a close, and hopefully so has distance learning. However, online classes may still be a part of reality in the next semesters, so here are some tips for both students and professors for navigating this new form of education.
From student to student:
- Set up a space to do school work, a desk or a table away from distractions.
- Schedule a time for work and for rest–don’t try to do work all day long.
- If you can, invest in a pair of blue light glasses. I got two pairs on Amazon for like $20 (but don’t use Amazon, ew). They help with eye strain and screen headaches.
- Work with one hour intervals: 50 minutes of work, 10 minutes of rest. And set a bedtime alarm to get eight to nine hours of sleep. A regimented schedule keeps you organized.
- Invest in a physical calendar so you can write down due dates and see your entire semester all at the same time.
- Get the easiest assignments out of the way first so you can feel accomplished and motivated to do the harder stuff.
- Minimize distractions: it’s never been more easy to distract yourself from your work, so turning off your TV and closing out of YouTube can help immensely.
From student to professor:
- Send out a weekly schedule for class. The coursework is often updated from what is said on the syllabus, and it’s hard to catch the changes during virtual learning. Having an updated hard copy to look at creates stability for us and makes it easier to ensure we are actually prepared for class.
- Keep a regular virtual meeting schedule so that you and your students can have bearings on how to budget and schedule time.
- Spreading out the workload throughout the semester with short weekly or bi-weekly tests/papers will help keep us students accountable and will take the edge off of crammed final projects/papers.
