How to Adapt to Online Classes

As people continuously adapt to the pandemic, we have come to grasp the idea of picking up education through online classes. With this, students may resume learning with the use of modules and different video conferencing tools online. Although it may be a successful adaptation to the pandemic, there is the question of the effectiveness of this method as an alternative learning style.

Advantage and Disadvantages

In online classes, most curricula take the course of self-paced learning. Here, students are given modules, handouts, pre-recorded lectures, and book references online. Lectures may be synchronous or asynchronous. Asynchronous lectures are those that are pre-recorded and posted online. It will then depend on the student when and how he will study. While Synchronous lectures are live conferences where students are required to attend and participate in using their webcams and microphones.

This type of learning may “culture shock” students initially. Self-paced learning needs a great amount of discipline. Also, with asynchronous lectures, the teacher may go on about talking without having the student’s input. This meant that the student can’t ask the teacher real-time, questions, and clarifications about the topic. Although on the plus side, students could replay the video, pause, and even fast forwards or backward according to his/her own space.

How can students adapt to online classes? By simply adjusting the two factors that could affect concentration. And that is, creating a routine and controlling the environment.

Creating Routine

Creating a routine builds the momentum for concentration. For instance, sleeping at a specific time every day gives signals to our brain whenever it’s already near bedtime. Thus, creating a body clock and so we wake up at the same time without much need for alarms. The same goes for our work and rest schedule. There is a specific time every day of what we have to do, to mentally prepare ourselves

With routine, stress levels are significantly reduced. This is because the things we have to do for the day are planned beforehand, that is why there is less decision-making on our part. With less decision-making, we can focus all our energy on deciding on the most important aspects of our lives.

In addition, having a routine could also break our procrastination habits, help us prioritize tasks,  make us more efficient, and help us gear faster towards our goals.

Creating the Ideal Environment

Aside from having a healthy routine, creating the ideal environment could help a lot in studying. It is recommended that a quiet room with natural lighting is the ideal place to increase concentration. Also, many would say that in creating the ideal environment to “make it comfortable but not too comfortable.” The idea is, to choose the chair and desk that would facilitate working in front of a computer but the cushioning and comfort should not be so much that it would increase the likelihood of falling asleep.

Having an indoor plant around is a helpful addition to the study room. In our article entitled, How you can Benefit from Plants, we discussed some advantages you can get from plants. This includes improving mental health, increasing work productivity, and improvement of air quality indoors.

Moving from one place to another when studying may not be helpful at times. There is what we call the Context-Dependent Memory wherein recall of a particular topic is dependent on where it is learned. This means that when taking an online exam, it is best to be in a place where one studied for that particular exam. And so, choosing one ideal place for studying and recreating it is best for online classes.

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