The world has changed quite a bit over the last couple of months. With the spread of COVID-19, school after school has transitioned to exclusively online learning. Because of the sudden changes to the learning platform, it’s been a bit of a bumpy road for many students. Here at The Tenney School, we are determined to maintain the highest levels of academic excellence even as we shift to online learning. Our transition has been extremely successful, and we appreciate everyone’s commitment to making this change. As we keep trying to ensure that our methods are as refined as possible, here are some tips to help make your online learning as successful as possible.
1. Persistence
The most important thing to keep in mind when learning online is that you need to be persistent and keep at it. Those people who are best at learning online are extremely stubborn and willing to go the extra mile and make the additional effort for their education. Online learning is naturally more complicated than traditional classroom learning. You are responsible for your own education and schedule rather than having a teacher tell you. The advantage of this is that you have a good deal more freedom to determine where your learning takes place. However, this can also be a downside because some people don’t do well with excessive freedom.
2. Time Management
If you want to be able to learn online time management is essential. Without a plan and specific routine, your online learning time will not go well. By it’s nature, in-person learning provides a schedule and a structure for completing your day. The amount of structure provided by online learning services various greatly, but certainly provides less structure than in-person learning. For in-person learning, you have built in time to be taught, classwork time with instructional assistance, and time to complete work on your own (homework). If you want to be a productive online learner, you need to create a set schedule and routine to complete these components of learning yourself. This is especially true when you are just starting out with online learning. A routine will help you develop a set rhythm which will allow you to have a more predictable and productive pattern for learning each day.
3. Have a Reliable Internet Connection
If you want to be able to effectively learn online, then you need reliable internet. If you are constantly disconnecting or your network is slow, then online learning wont work for you. And if you are among those people who are still stuck with dial-up then you are straight out of luck and will just have to either give up on internet learning or get high speed internet installed at your home.
4. Have a Dedicated Learning Area
Another thing to keep in mind is that you need a separate area for your educational pursuits. It’s important to allow yourself to mentally separate your personal area from your educational space. More than that though, this enables you to more easily avoid getting distracted from study by social media or other entertainment that catches your eye.
Find More Online Learning Tips & Tricks
While online learning can present a unique challenge, it also provides some great ways to be able to learn in a new way which offers you greater freedom and flexibility. To learn more about online learning and for additional tips and suggestions on how to maximize your online learning potential, please contact us with any of your questions or inquiries. Thank you and good luck!