Center for Academic Success
Contact
Name:
James Dyksen
Position:
Director, Center for Academic Success
Organization:
Office of Academic & Career Success
130 South Ninth Street
Edison Building, 18th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Contact Number(s):
Remote/Online Learning Strategies
Students are on campus and learning in class, lab, and clinic; however, many courses, in a number of programs, continue to utilize components of online learning, either synchronous or asynchronous – and of course, some courses are designed to be entirely run remotely.
With that in mind, we want to encourage using and developing the strategies and skills employed for remote or on-demand learning resources. Below we review some ideas, recommendations, and advice. These recommendations are general and are a starting point, and we encourage you to make individual appointments to discuss any aspects of your study (including learning strategies or writing support), or to otherwise contact us any time.
- Become familiar with the new format of your course delivery.
- Carefully read and review all instructions from faculty and syllabus updates.
- Identify how each component of the course will be delivered online and how to access the material.
- Identify all course-specific resources and related resources you plan to use.
- Identify all assignments and due dates.
- Be sure you know what is expected of you in terms of daily engagement, synchronous activities, collaborative work, and individual activities.
- Know how to ask questions and how to contact and engage with faculty, tutors, and fellow students – discussion boards, email, group communication, virtual office hours, or other means.
Get & Stay Organized
- Developing an explicit plan – for semester, week and day – is critical.
- For each class:
- Identify important dates – due dates and exams.
- Identify any scheduled course activities.
- Plan how much time each course will require for scheduled activities and independent study and task completion.
- Write this information down for each class, so you can easily see and refer to it.
Daily & Weekly Schedules
- Make an explicit plan for each week - refer to the Time Management page of our website and the downloadable weekly scheduling grid.
- See your week and plan when to work with both scheduled and unscheduled aspects of each course.
- With your weekly study needs in mind, also plan for self-care, exercise, relaxation and sleep.
- Plan your daily routines. Chunk periods of time for focused study and avoid multitasking. Commit to manageable time periods really engaging with material (use the Pomodoro Technique if such focus and concentration is difficult).
- Set up a progression of activities that may include periods of focused work on one course or subject, alternating with periods of focused work on another course or subject. Interleave work with subjects or tasks.
- Plan to include both time for daily processing of new material, and some review work that includes practice and question-based self-testing.
- Be sure to keep up with the course schedule – plan not to fall behind.
- It is crucial to keep to the course schedule and engage with lecture and process new material every day.
- Preview lecture – Preview slides before listening, or strategically preview related reading or video.
- Watch lecture at regular speed – Resist the urge to watch at faster speed, or to pause repeatedly for breaks, or to address questions. Return to questions in post-lecture processing.
- Engage with lecture – Listen and take strategic notes related to learning objectives or questions you have.
- Process new material by checking comprehension and recall – and planning next stages of study.
- For each course think about how to address learning objectives and how to self-test.
- Identify self-testing resources – Use learning objectives, study questions, problems, cases, flashcards, images to draw varieties of ways to test how well you remember and understand and can apply information.
- Make time for practice-based, question-based work every day.
- Do all you can to set up an environment that is good for you as a study space.
- Try to have a couple of options for study spaces and change to suit particular tasks.
- Avoid technological distractions.
- Set up breaks – Try to use breaks to genuinely rest and reset (meditation, walks, and even short naps have been shown to benefit learning when you return to study).
- Communicate with roommates or family to help them understand what you need and how they might help.
- Your course may already have structured ways to connect with classmates and to collaborate.
- Counter a sense of isolation or that you are studying alone by making efforts to engage with classmates and with faculty.
- Set up times to talk – Schedule Blackboard Collaborate Ultra or Zoom sessions.
- Use a platform that will allow you to share screens and refer to documents.
- If meeting about a project or coursework, share an agenda ahead of time and know what you’d like to accomplish.
- Check on each other – Offer help to others and seek help when you need it.
- Stay in contact with faculty and make sure you know how to ask questions and how to access help.