Thriving in online classes during COVID-19 can be difficult. However, this is necessary to make the most of what has become the norm for ending off this semester for students globally.
This transition to online classes comes with a high degree of anxiety as it came as a swift change to how the school operate.
Now that all classes are online the majority of students have to completely change how they approach school. This change definitely comes with challenges and unfortunate losses, but allows for an extremely unique opportunities for learning.
No time in history has universal online classes been a thing. It will truly test the world’s education systems to see if they can produce quality education online. Students will really learn what thriving in online classes look like.
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(Related: What To Do In Times Of Uncertainty (COVID-19))
What To Do About Classes
Write down due dates
The first thing you want to do as you have transitioned to online classes is to write down all the due dates for assignments, quizzes, projects, exams and test.
Since your interaction with your classmates will inevitably decrease, this can help you to stay on top of all the assignments that may go unnoticed otherwise. You can also have a friend from class as an accountability buddy to mutually help each other stay on top of classwork.
I know lots of people prefer to be taught in person. That’s what most of you paid your money for right? So this change to online classes may present more difficulties in your classes. Thus, ensuring you don’t lose marks on missed assignments should be the first way to help yourself for the rest of the semester.
Interact in your online classes. Ensures you are activielty
During my graduate career, I have done both online and on-campus classes. I’ve realized that it can be easy to disengage from the online class, unless you actively trying to interact during classes.
This online format of classes gives you the ability to interact and stay engaged if you block out other distractions.
Some part of your online interaction may be in the form of responding to classmates forum post. When doing this, ensure you are giving thoughtful creative criticism. This will help you better understand the content while also giving meaningful feedback to your classmate to help them learn.
Learn The Technology
Many different school’s have chosen different ways to host their online classes. With many taking place using web conferencing apps like Zoom. It’ll be extremely helpful if you learn how to optimize the use the technology to help in your learning.
Whether your school is using Zoom or another web-conference app, get to know how to use its features that would be beneficial to you as a student. Check out the video below for some tips on Zoom for students to thrive in online classes.
Use Checklist
Whether it’s for outlining a research paper, a project, or just your morning routine, checklist can really maximize your efforts.
Checklist have the power to drastically increase your productivity. Use this to your advantage for doing the work you have to for your online classes. Doing this will surely help you to thrive in online classes.
You can start with small checklist for different classes and work your way up as you build the habit. But aim to start using checklist to assist in your transition to online learning. You can use simple note apps or get more elaborate checklist apps to make this an easy thing to utilize.
Check Email & Online Portal Regularly
As you shift to online and you are stuck in your dorm room, apartment or house, you will more than likely be keeping up on your school notifications. But I just wanted to ensure that this is an important to do. Especially now more than ever as things are uncertain and change from day to day.
Make a habit of regularly checking your email or online portal for any new updates that will be important for you during these times.
(Related: 4 Things I Wish I Did In Graduate School (MPH))
Acknowledging The Cons
Graduations Cancelled
Apart from the crushing news that classes are moved to online and everyone has to stay in doors, graduations have been cancelled. This truly is heartbreaking for those of you who have worked so hard for your degrees and won’t be able to walk across the stage to commemorate this accomplishment.
I truly sympathize with you all and hope that you are doing well. Hopefully, there will be plans to have a future ceremony to honor all of you. Keep your heads up.
At the same time remember that many are dying and there is a lot of fear so let’s put our hearts together in these trying times.
Online Has Been Stressful
The change to online has created many drastic changes and unknowns in our daily lives. This is no different for students.
Some students have to deal with not having access to some of their lab classes – and for some this is a huge component to their learning. There is yet a way that I have heard of that is being used to do lab classes.
Being forced to stay home, has added an added layer of stress to the mix for students. Staying home also has the potential to create new distractions that one didn’t have when attending on-campus classes.
Internships Cancelled
I’ve known several people who have had their internships either cancelled or the duties severely decreased. This will be the trend across the board as many organizations are struggling to make ends meet as countries stop all business except for essential services.
This can really affect peoples future as they aren’t able to get the needed internship experience to take into their career searching strategy. I really do hope that organizations will be taking this into consideration when looking to make new hires in the near future.
(Related: How My MPH Degree Helped Me Get a Fellowship)
How to Make the Most of Online Classes
Above all, your mental and physical health will be something that you have to focus on a little extra as we stay indoors over the coming weeks.
Routine
When you had in person classes, you were forced to get up and get ready to go to class. Now with classes being online, having a routine will be vitally important for thriving in online classes during your COVID-19.
Having a morning routine to get the day started can be hugely helpful in keeping your days at home productive. You can:
- Make up your bed
- Take a shower and brush your teeth
- Change clothes from pajamas/sleeping clothes
Don’t only set up a routine for your morning, but also for how you will approach each day of the week. Maximize your effort by getting routines in place.
Get a Designated Space
Another part to thriving in online classes it to have a designated space or spot that you do all if not most of your work. Having this dedicated space will allow you to easily mentally check in and check out to your work throughout the day.
This will help you to keep productive during the day so you know when you are in your space, you are there to put in work. An ideal way to make the most of your spot is to couple it with a checklist. This can be used to help you keep on track of what you are supposed to do everyday.
Though you may have a designated spot, you may find yourself losing focus in your initial spot. So don’t be afraid to be flexible and change up your designated spot if you find yourself losing focus.
Schedule Breaks (mental/physical)
A good practice for students when you are staying home is to ensure that you are scheduling breaks into your days. This will allow you to take time to reset. If you are still able to go outdoors, then go for a walk. If not, walk around your apartment/dorm/home. Maybe go and do some stretches.
Taking time away from whatever it is will be important, especially as the number of activities we are able to do is drastically decreased. Focus on breaks that help your mental and physical health.
Schedule 15 minute breaks during your day to break up your work and refocus your mind. With this change in to online classes you can even schedule more naps during your day.
Bundle your Assignments
Bundling assignments can really help you save time and be most productive with your time. Getting all your assignments done at one time can be extremely beneficial and stress relieving.
Whether you bundle assignments by the same class or different classes. Sitting down and getting a bunch of your work done and out of the way is very rewarding. This can allow you to open up more time for Netflix or to talk with loved ones.
Set up large chunks of time to get many assignments done so you have more time to focus on the things that you want to. If you are able to work ahead and do assignments also, this will help you to be more informed of the content that is coming in future lectures.
Have an Accountability Buddy
Thriving in online classes during this semester can be helpful by having an accountability buddy. This would be most helpful if they are in the same class that you want accountability for. But can also work with a friend that you shared your assignment schedule with.
It may be a little difficult to adjust to online classes and therefore an accountability buddy can be the perfect resource to keep you on track of your work. They can help by reminding you of assignments and quizzes or even could help with motivating you to keep doing your work.
It’s always best when this relationship is mutually beneficial. Where you both holding each other accountable for online classes.
Make Time For Loved Ones
As mental health is being tested with on-campus school closure, now more than ever it’s important to have social connectedness.
Everyone more or less is home now, so finding time to connect with loved ones has become a lot more convenient. However, if your loved ones are in the front lines battling COVID-19, make sure you are reaching out to them to ensure that they are doing okay as well.
Put aside some time throughout your day to reach out and connect with friends and family.
30 Minutes of Self-Development
This is definitely a bonus tip to do as a student as you are probably feeling pretty overwhelmed. If you are able to put aside 30 minutes a few times a week to focus on self-development, do it. Your future self will be thankful.
This can take the form of reading a book that expands your mind or it can also be taking an online course from LinkedIn Learning. If you are able to put this time aside to work on your self, you can reap the rewards of this growth many times over in your career.
However, don’t overdo it or burn out yourself. Be practical in how much you take on to get the most benefit from this practice of self-development.
Unintentional Gain
There will be some unintentional gain that comes from the transition of students to online classes.
This unique time allows opportunity to gain skills that would not have been available otherwise. And this drastic change has also affected companies and how they are working. Will this lead to a revolution of online workers? I don’t know, what I do know is that there will be unintentional gain from this time of uncertainty.
Online learning/Teaching
Both the teacher and the student are going through this drastic change together. This will obviously take some time for both parties to get use to and thrive in the online learning environment.
However, after you have passed the online learning curve, you will be versed in many online technologies and communication techniques you were not use to. These tools and techniques may be huge when shifting to a work force that may look very different in a few years. Consider your mastery of Zoom or you school’s online portal.
In-home/Online workouts
I have seen many challenges on social media focused around in-home physical activity. This is great. I love to see people innovating and switching to in-home or even online workouts.
As we are staying at home over the coming weeks, it’ll be important to find ways to exercise and let out some steam. If you haven’t started a routine of working out, maybe try to focus on starting one in the coming days. It’ll help keep you sane.
Connectedness in the technology age
Social connectedness by means of the internet has really taken the forefront of this pandemic. With people being asked to stay home, phones and other devices have become our outlet to connect with friends and family from all over the world.
I have been connecting more with people than typically. Whether this is through video calls or just messaging. If it’s one thing, we are all in the same place when it comes to this uncertainty. So help each other out and connect with the technological means we have available.
Enhanced importance of self-care
I have seen many people start talking about self-care in the last weeks. With all the drastic changes to society. You may not think so but thriving in online classes requires that you take care of your self-care.
These anxious and uncertain times make it clear why we need to all focus on means to practice self care. Self-care means different things for different people.
Some examples would be:
- Taking a long hot bath or shower
- Making a gratitude list
- Stretching
- Unplugging from technology or Netflix for a day
- Stretching
Whatever your self-care practice is, consistently work on this to ensure that you are protecting your mental health.
Environmental Benefit
While everyone is staying at home to stop the spread of COVID-19, this has led to the environment getting a chance to repair itself. If this impact will last term, we are yet to know this for sure. One thing is for sure as places are still shut down, these incremental improvements in our environment will continue to occur in the coming weeks to months.
An interesting undercurrent during this pandemic is our need to dramatically address climate crisis. Moving forward maybe we (individual + societal) can make some habitual changes that will continue to improve our long term future.
(Related: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome)
Summary
To summarize, thriving in online classes during COVID-19, this article walks you through what to do about online classes, acknowledging the cons of the situation, while showing your how to make the most of online classes and some unintentional gains that have arisen.
As all classes have shifted online, it has created a new dynamic for learning for the rest of the semester. This has impacted both the students and the professor. But knowing what you can do to make the most of these uncertain times will be essential for your ongoing development.
Thriving in online classes will be a neccesary step students have to take to deal with uncertain times cause by the COVID-19 pandemic.
How are you adjusting to online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic?
