The impact of technology in the educational sector cannot be overlooked. Today, regardless of where you reside across the world, you can access top educational institutions, and obtain degrees online. Degrees range from Bachelor, to Masters, even PhD. This form of education is referred to as “e-Learning” or distant learning.
With distant learning comes a new learning environment and technologies. For many students and teachers, adjusting to this kind of learning has proven to be quite challenging. The challenges faced could be social or technological. Hence, there is a need to change the learning and teaching pattern.
First of all, they must learn how to cope with new social situations like developing personal relationship in a virtual environment. Furthermore, they must get acquainted with certain types of hardware and software. In this article, we have compiled some great tips to help you cope with distant learning.
5 Tips to Cope with Distant Learning
These 5 easy tips are sure to motivate you if you are a distant learning student.
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Have a Plan
To successfully complete a distant program, ensure you prepare in advance for the program, semester or class. One way to be ahead is to get across to the syllabus as soon as it is made available. Keep your ears on the ground for announcements or electronic postings about courses, or upcoming guest speakers. This will help you set class-related goals, even establish semester and program-long objectives.
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Understand the Learning Platform
Distant learning involves utilizing quite a number of technologies, even computer hardware and software. In some cases you might be required to install some software from the web. However, regardless of the learning platform being used by your institution, you must be familiar with navigating the platform. It is vital you know “how to”, and “where to” find something (even resources) in the digital space.
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Maintain Communication with Instructors and Classmates
Distant learning comes with a variety of communication technologies such as face-to-face, text chats, even email. Oftentimes, these tools are used to deliver lectures. Thus, they can be a great way for you to get in contact with your instructors and fellow students. During lectures, ensure you ask necessary questions. Also, make use of the available forums to discuss topics with your peers. Don’t forget to reach out to your instructors when faced with a challenge.
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Create a Routine
When you are enrolled in a distant learning program, it is important you create and keep a daily routine – wake up, shower, have breakfast, get dressed. Starting your day in the right way will help you focus on your school work. Also, endeavor to set fixed time for other academic activities such as going through your notes and completing your assignments. Distant learning programs have assignments as part of its coursework. Often times, students tend to forget or ignore assignments in a distant learning course. Allocate sufficient time, in advance of your online lessons, for your independent study and completion of assignments.
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Keep Your Focus
Distant learning, often times, require you learning from home. And as such, there can be a whole lot of distractions. Thus, it is vital to KEEP YOUR FOCUS. Ensure you treat your online classes as a real classroom. We suggest not taking phone calls, engaging on social media or watching television during classes, as you will not do this in a physical classroom.
CONCLUSION
No doubt, distant learning has come to stay. A lot of institutions from all over the world are adopting this form of education. Hence, it is important for you as a student to commence adjustment process to this form of education. If you are already engaged in a distant learning program, the tips above will help you cope with distant learning.
Also, if you are a teacher and you find out that your students are struggling with distant learning, you can refer them to follow these tips.
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