online education

Online College: How I study

Blog, Goals and Education

Going to school online can be hard. You need good internet access, you need time, and you need a tablet, laptop, or computer to truly be successful.

When I switched to remote learning, it was before 2020. I had teachers who didn’t communicate, and I was truly lost!

These are my tips on how I made it through Community College and into University-all completely online.

Create space in your environment to learn.

For me, great space is clean, colorful, and organized. I have my textbooks within reach, I have journals, and I often have some word document programs open for note-taking. It doesn’t have to be huge! My space is literally a corner of my room. But I started out with a simple desk and fold-out chair, and a tablet.

Schedule your learning in blocks.

Unless you have a required lecture, meeting, or class time you can typically schedule your learning around your own life and schedule.

I hate being up before 8:30AM, and I hate doing any work before 10-11AM. So I typically don’t schedule any meetings before then, and I’m not available to anyone before I want to be. (This is obviously a privilege, which I’m completely aware of, but adjust to your needs and life accordingly.)
From 11AM-3PM, I focus on one subject for an hour and a half before switching to another subject. Sometimes, if I feel motivated or I’m super deep into a project I can work later or into the evening.

I always make time for breaks. Lunch, dog walks, sometimes a nap, and a yoga session.

Listen To Your Body

It’s really easy to want to get ahead, but you can overdo it. Listen to what your body needs and take those breaks! Rest, relax, take a sick day. Trust me, learning happens even when you aren’t studying. I have often found myself pondering a problem or thought while I’m doing something else that I enjoy, and that is where learning truly happens.

Learning happens when we sleep

There are actual studies that have proven we are most effective when we are well-rested, well taken care of, and able to meet all of our functions. Staring at a screen all day will not make you more productive or educated in the long term, and it will be a waste of your time. Staying busy doesn’t make you smarter.

Schedule a meetup and note taking with other students!

If you’re struggling, or just not able to make all of the lectures. Reach out to some classmates and share notes. Create a shared OneNote or Google document where you can each provide information, and fill in each other’s knowledge. Combined knowledge is power and you’ll be more likely to pass that test. I have actually done this with a fellow student in one of my classes and we both wound up passing because of it! Seriously, I wouldn’t have been able to succeed without them!

If the quiz is open note, keep your notes open!

This is pretty self-explanatory, but even in the “real world”, you’ll always have access to information and knowledge. This is the era where knowledge is available. Obviously, for practical exams, this doesn’t apply, but for more theoretical work, it’s often the case.

Reach Out to Your Professors

Contact them to let them know what is going on in your life. Not everyone will be accommodating, but you might be surprised by the ones that are. Quite a few times I have had my computer crash, or internet crash and I would lose my progress and work. This once happened during a final, and I mad-rushed emailed the professor with who I had built a good connection and communication during the quarter, who allowed me to retake the quiz. This saved my grade.

Utilize Disability Services

Each school has a different method for disability services, but if you have a disability (and can often prove it), then you can get accommodations. Some that I request are: Additional test-taking time, Note-taking, Allowing notes for finals/quizzes, and I’ve even asked for things like PowerPoint slide documents, or closed captions to be added to lectures. ADA services aren’t a “cheat” or a way to “get ahead of other students”, it’s just a way to make it so you can be at the same level as someone able-bodied. 🙂 There is no shame in it, and the only people who know you use it are between you, the department, and your teachers that you give permission to know. (And they won’t know your condition or why you need it, just that you’re requesting services!)

If you liked this blog post, be sure to subscribe to my feed! I’ll be dropping one or two new posts each week on topics like this, gaming, and more!

Color Code Your Notes

This might be a personal thing, but I LOVE color coding. I actually love to use OneNote (free if you’re a student with a school that has Microsoft Education access!) because I can section things out by course (class), and by lecture, information, or anything else I want!

As you can see from the picture, I have my topics or courses under “Section” and each page I have dedicated to book chapters, lecture notes, and theory. OneNote has become my favorite tool to utilize for school, and I also use SNIPPING Tool (On PC) to clip images from the internet, lectures, or videos so that I can refer back to them later. This also saves space on my hard drive and PC because I’m only keeping knowledge on the cloud server, and can then access this on my phone, or tablet as well!

What I don’t Use:
Flash Cards

I don’t learn well from them. I don’t like rote memorization. I am much better at engaging with a topic, speaking about it with peers or educating someone else on it (to further retain the knowledge I just studied myself), than I have ever been on making flashcards and doing memorization tricks. I also find them to be kind of wasteful in both space and practicality, but I can see them being great for specific subjects and K-12!

Cheap Journals

This is really a personal preference, but every time I’ve bought the cheap paper, I have hated it. I won’t touch it, and I will gift it out because it does not bring me joy. Spending about 6-15$ on a journal that I like, if I want something physical is worthwhile to me!

University; My Personal Success Story

Blog, Goals and Education

Going back to school was a major life decision for me but this was something that I had always wanted to do. Getting my bachelor’s degree isn’t only a wish, but a necessity to get ahead in most fields in the United States when you come from nothing. In this post, I go into my own personal achievements, as well as the steps that I take to succeed in an online learning environment (Which are totally applicable to in-person learning too!).

My personal achievements and education background:

Over the past year as a student at EWU, I have really grown into my own and feel far more confident in my abilities to connect with others, collaborate, and ask for help! I made the Dean’s List for my second time (the summer quarter doesn’t count, unfortunately) and have maintained a solid GPA of 3.7-3.8 since Spring 2021! I am so proud of myself for the hard work and dedication I have put in with Eastern Washington University and I look forward to starting the winter quarter next week!

As a remote student, finding a good in-state university that is accommodating (for students with disabilities, low-income students, and who are LGBTQ+) was a big challenge for me, but when I came across Eastern I just fell in love with it. For the first time, I felt welcomed and accepted for who I was, not what I was.

I’ve always loved school, but being disabled has made attending classes in person a real challenge, and being immunocompromised means that I can’t be around sick people without a serious risk of illness. When it came to Covid-19, many schools had to adapt to online learning but they didn’t have the processes in place to really help students in the process. Or the schools that were online utilized proctored testing services, overpriced fees, and webinars and ebooks to teach. There was little, if any, support for people like me.

The online program with Eastern was different and has actually been structured well. While each professor has a different teaching method and style, they all are easy to access from a smartphone, tablet, or computer! Most of my classes have been without any lectures, but I have had at least one with a daily zoom lecture that required participation. This participation actually did lead to a better grade and allowed me to chat with other students and share notes.

I can’t speak on the 100 level courses aside from ASL, which has mainly used video modules and weekly chats with other students and quizzes. ( I transferred from a community college and if you’re interested I’ll write more on this later and what I would have done differently.)

Eastern has really allowed me to communicate with my professors, join clubs (PRSSA), and feel like I’m a part of the college experience all while being fully online and away from campus.

What it’s actually like being a remote student and handling virtual learning:

I will be the first to admit that learning how to learn, in a virtual environment, requires having a good grasp on the best ways you learn, the communities that you require to learn, and the environments that make you successful in gaining knowledge.

Some people learn best with others, with a teacher guiding them and instructing them, with intimate conversations. Others prefer books and video lectures. Online learning is extremely independent and not very intimate. It can be really lonely, and you have to be self-disciplined.

Online learning doesn’t really allow that intimate community you get from in-person opportunities unless you facilitate that. You have to reach out to classmates, to your professor, to anyone that you want to connect with, and make that step because they won’t. In-person classes, you can be introverted or a social butterfly and still develop friendships without sending messages or emails. It’s harder to build a connection online, but it is possible!

Building Quality Study Habits for 2022:

Set a daily schedule for yourself.

Whatever that looks like, or is, you need to dedicate at least 1-3 hours a day to educational work (with 2-3 days off).

How you structure your day is completely up to you, but for me, I find working from 11AM-3PM or 4PM with a break or two is best for my own health and schedule. Sometimes I do work at night, or early in the morning, but mid-day is actually my favorite.

Create an educational map.
“But What IS an educational map, Marina?“

Educational Maps help you outline your goals and can be broken down into weekly, monthly, or quarterly structures! Just write down your motivation, your goal (intended outcome), the steps it’ll take to get there, and your reasoning or purpose for achieving your goal. By setting yourself up in this way outside of saying “I want to pass my class”, you can actually see how it’s achievable!

I’ve been using this method for a little over a year now and it really has made achieving my goals that much easier. I’ve actually been able to take on more projects, including the Queer Esports mentorship program. (Sign up for their Spring 2022 cohort here: https://www.queeresports.org/mentorship)

Here’s an image of my own template. If you’d like a copy (PDF), you can download one through my Etsy! (Link Here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1139489060/educational-map-goal-setting-digital?ref=listing_published_alert)

Defining your motivation and purpose really does make a difference because it can tap into the reward center of your brain. Yeah, passing your classes is cool; but now what?

Ask yourself: How can I utilize my knowledge? My skills now? Hopefully, with the educational map, you can really dive in to your own personal reasoning for the courses you’re taking!

This would have helped me immensely when I started school in 2017, but I didn’t even have the knowledge at the time that this strategy could be useful! Needless to say, I struggled a lot on defining goals, figuring out plans, and wound up taking the really hard route of self-discovery through community college and university.

Hopefully, with this, you can avoid all of that (and save money long term so you aren’t picking useless courses that won’t benefit you long term)!

Be kind to yourself and don’t procrastinate.

This tip may seem like a no-brainer, but as a person who struggles with perfectionism, I wasn’t always the kindest to myself. I viewed a flaw in a grade as a failure in myself, and that affected me. Learning to be kind means accepting that even if you fail, you can still try again and that your path isn’t over just because you’ve had one setback.

It also means learning to ask for help when you need it. From working with a tutor to creating a group study meetup through Zoom, Discord, or Microsoft teams. It also means informing your professors when you’re struggling, when something happens, and not waiting until the last minute.

Procrastination might seem like an easy answer, and you might even get away with it for a while, but you won’t be learning to your full potential, or engaging with that educational community which could very well help you reach your next goals in life post-graduation.

Final Thoughts:

Finding the education style that works best for you can take some serious planning and time. But if you’re an online student like me, then welcome! I’m here to help. If you like this post and want to see more like it, be sure to sign up for my RSS feed and leave a comment or share with your community!

Until next time friends,

Marina