For quite a while now, those on the receiving end of knowledge—students—have been neglected by both those who have the responsibility of teaching them and online educators on the subject of how students can increase their productivity/learning speed. Therefore, the bold step of looking into the student’s life and discussing tips on facing the stress of studying for that next test, and applicable time management techniques will be discussed.
Education is Education
The average e-learner—adults included—rarely carry the educative mindset associated with a formal classroom to a virtual classroom and this anomaly is largely due to the informal setting associated with learning from the comfort of your home or office space. Therefore the first and most difficult challenge that impedes the e-learner is that of the mind also known as ‘the lack of motivation.’
The first step to fighting ‘learning fatigue’ is understanding the reasons why you registered for a module or online courses. Was it by the behest of your parents or Boss? Or for your own personal development? The answer to these questions will go a long way in determining how beneficial the tips below will be to your educational pursuits. So please read on.
- Redefine Your Goals: Once you have determined your reason of participating in an online program, the next step is to define your studying strategy to meet these goals. Therefore if you plan on just passing to get the required certification, then your study goals should lean towards using test materials to prepare for corresponding exams while if you are in for personal development, creating study strategies that incorporate that education into your daily life is the tip that should be considered by you
- Create your Learning Culture: the phrase ‘learning timetable’ wasn’t used here for we all know how unruly those things are. Its replacement ‘learning culture’ means studying how your brain assimilates and tailoring all your learning activities around those assimilation periods. Therefore if you are a morning or evening person, it is important that you take advantage of your learning personality/period by ensuring that educational inclined tasks occur around your most efficient periods since e-learning gives you the needed time flexibility.
- Set Achievable Goals: I believe most students know or have heard about the benefits of setting small goals that can be achieved within a limited time duration and if you fall into the category of students in–the-know, it is really something you should consider integrating into your study schedule. The innovative tip here is to start an ‘achievable goals’ campaign—such as studying for a test or building an app/3Dmodel/circuit board etc.— having a time span under a month, focus on your strategy of achieving that goal and then crosschecking the results of your achievement against results gotten without the aid of a personal goal. The difference is surely destined to change your work ethic and approach to learning.
- Employ Collaborative Tools: the difficulties associated with having your course materials spread amongst diverse platforms—mail addresses, LMS, MOOC platforms etc.—and multiple devices—PC, tablets, phones having different operating systems—makes the task of learning a nightmare. Therefore to increase your productivity, it is essential that you make use of tools that collaborate the efforts of one another. Whether you are an Apple or Google fan boy/girl, the tip here is to ensure continuity between your devices and online accounts, so you can access your materials at any time using all your devices.
- Always Take Notes: Google Keep, Microsoft’s Stick Notes, Evernote, Samsung’s S Memo etc. are just a few of the note pads available to users of diverse devices looking to store information titbits for further research. The popularity of these productivity tools only goes to show that regardless of your career or professional line, there is always something new to learn each day and for students, the ‘something new’ to learn are usually much over a short period of time. Therefore keeping track of these new ideas and information while paying attention to your studies can easily be done using the electronic note pads synonymous to your devices.
In conclusion, it is important to note that every tip provided here is designed as a support system to the most important factors needed to achieve success in any field which are constantly practicing and making your educational goals one of central parts of your life.
