Work Smart, Learn Smart: Making Online Learning in the New Normal Work for You

It has been more than a year since the worldwide COVID-19 Pandemic forced the shift from traditional face to face classes to alternative learning modalities. You may remember the shift was sudden, causing the education sector to scramble for ways by which learning could continue without exposing educators and learners to the risks posed by the virus.

The transition that both teachers and students had to go through this past year was full of challenges. I have been a college educator for 12 years now and I have to admit that the first year of the pandemic was definitely the most trying academic year I have ever gone through. I also saw the experience of my students, their struggles with completing coursework, internet connection trouble, and, most importantly, achieving authentic learning during school from home. Online learning can present unique challenges that a student has to work through.

Some students found it difficult to make the change work for them that they turned in poor, if not, plagiarized work. Some students could not complete the coursework at all because of their lack of gadgets or slow connections or because they simply were not able to do the work at all. There were also some who stopped altogether. However, there were also students who made the situation work for them – being able to turn in their work on time, doing well in the coursework, being able to participate meaningfully in class and successfully completing their courses. Some have even been able to juggle work and school. So why do some students make this school-from-home set-up work so well for them while others cannot? I have observed that my most successful students realize the advantage of the flexible learning set up most schools are implementing now and take charge of their learning.

In this article I will share some Learn-from-Home practices of my most successful students as they have shared to me. My insight from their sharing is that they don’t necessarily work harder, they just work smarter and are doing very well in spite of having to learn outside of the traditional classroom.

Start out informed and stay updated. At the start of every course, teachers make sure to give the class an orientation on the course. Typically the orientation includes course management policies, the grading system, major requirements, and the outline of the course topics as well as contact information of the course professor. All of these are important to know. If you can, get a copy of the course syllabus so that you can take note of readings for any given topic as well as deadlines for the coursework.

Stay updated on the course for any assigned work so that you don’t find yourself cramming to get work done at the last minute. You most probably might have a class group chat for this purpose or your online learning environment has this specific function. Check periodically for new announcements and posting of new content so that you can balance your time and work better. In the traditional face-to-face set up, your professor would be able to actively remind the class of policies and coursework as part of regular class routine. Now, the responsibility of remembering how the course is managed and keeping deadlines in mind has become the sole responsibility of the student.

Allocate time for everything and stick to a schedule. Even pre-pandemic, time management is a college student’s best friend. Set aside time for everything – for schoolwork and everything else, including time for leisure activities. The average college student takes about 6-8 courses per semester. This is a huge workload and the stress of the load can get even more stressful if you are trying to do everything at once. Give yourself the structure of a schedule where at any given time you are only supposed to be doing specific tasks and nothing else. It’s easier to focus and check things off when you are getting them done one by one. Factor your deadlines into your schedule in such a way that you are able to hit all your short term tasks but, at the same time, work incrementally on the heavier, long term tasks that are typically due at the end of the semester.

Whatever you do, do not procrastinate. This may sound cliché but this is a proven strategy in effectively performing any task. Remember that whatever you don’t do now, you will have to do later. Procrastination leads to a buildup of back log and in turn causes stress; ultimately resulting in poor performance. One student told me he was going to drop the course because there was just too many tasks. When I asked why there were so many when I had given them a very workable timeline, he said the deadlines simply all caught up with him and he ended up with too much to do. This could be avoided by simply sticking to a schedule. Your academic life would be easier in the long run if you are able to accomplish your tasks on time or better ahead of time.

Break down the work into smaller, manageable packages. The flexible learning set up is based on the premise of leaning regardless of “time, place, pace, content and mode of learning”. Use this to your advantage by breaking down the work. A course would typically require a multimedia presentation like an online lecture (live class) or instructional video, required reading, a topic specific activity, learner assessments and major requirements. You don’t have to do all of this in one sitting. The key here is to not get overwhelmed by the work.

After turning in an excellent paper that showed me he had done a reading, I asked my student how he gets things done because I knew he was also a call center agent. He shared that he would make sure to get one reading done per day. For him, if there was only one reading per day he could take the time to read it carefully and thoroughly and take notes for the assigned task which he would do at another scheduled time. This practice is effective because it lessens strain on your focus and memory. You are better able to absorb and retain information and meaning if you only have to deal with smaller tasks.

Master how to use the tools of the online environment. One of the advantages of learning away from the traditional classroom is that you have more flexibility in doing the work. I am often amazed at the output that some of my students give me. They shared to me that you need to find tools that will make the work easier. In one online session I remarked to them how their report slides looked so much better than my own lecture slides. They taught me how to use Canva, which I have since learned to use and has cut down my lecture slide presentation time in half. There are many tools that are available for you to use. Find tools that work for you online and make the most of them. There are apps for everything – apps for making citing your work easier, apps for checking plagiarism, online libraries that make searching for book references, data bases for journals and so on. Maximize Google, Google Scholar, Google Images and the Google Workspace.

With the end of the pandemic nowhere in sight, online learning is here to stay. CHED Commissioner Prospero de Vera is even quoted as saying that we may never fully return to traditional face-to-face learning. While we long for our return to campus, this is our reality. Succeeding in a Learn-from-Home environment can still be a rewarding experience if you are able to find ways to make it easier and less stressful. Since all experience is learning, this time of pandemic is also teaching you to be more flexible and resilient in your academic journey and in your life. (Monique Musni- Tagaytay, MA.Ed / Social Sciences Faculty, University of Southeastern Philippines)