How to Take Online Classes Seriously

These things have been growing in popularity for years, there are free ones, there are cheap ones, there are expensive ones, talked to you by guys in their garages, and they’re even full-blown university courses that you can take online, even if you don’t go to that university.

Because while online classes can be very convenient in some ways, they can also trip you up and make your life more difficult in others. Hence, there are some things that I think you should know how to do so you can prepare to be as successful as possible in whatever online class you’re going to.

I bet I bet none of your teachers on Zoom have a set like this, which honestly is okay because good education doesn’t need overblown production values like this, unless, like me, you are a dancing monkey trying to also apply an algorithm that will inevitably day morph into a universe-dominating superintelligence and vaporize us all.

Anyway, today we’re talking about share some tips for helping you prepare for and get the most out of online classes. I think this is going to be helpful for anybody going back to school in a formal setting online, but this should also be helpful for anybody taking an online class independently.

How to Take Online Classes Seriously:

Tip number one is to treat these classes just like they are real, in-person classes. See, the problem with online classes is that they are usually taught asynchronously, with the instructor, the teacher prepares material ahead of time and then you do it at a different time.,

You might see a lot of classes taught through video conferencing apps like Zoom and Hangouts, but I still think it’s likely you’re going have a lot of asynchronous learning time. You’re going to be given a lot of independent reading assignments, and homework assignments, and you’re going to have to do them on your own at home.

If you’re not self-disciplined. In-person classes are in-person, and they happen on a schedule and that schedule makes it a lot easier to stay on top of your reading and all of your homework assignments. And in addition to that, it also gives your day a bit more structure as well. With online classes.

Just like they’re real classes, in terms of schedule, in terms of where you do them, in terms of everything. Now, maybe your teachers already have you covered, they’re going to make you set up a desk, and they’re going do all the classes on Zoom, but in case they aren’t, do it for yourself. Number one set up a dedicated workspace for yourself.

Calendar/Task Manager Tips:

Tip number two is to get serious about your calendar and your to do list. That mainly means adding new events to your calendar and new tasks to your to do list the moment you get them.

See, it is already hard enough to keep the jumble of events and tasks straight in your head during normal times, but when everything moves online, you lose one key component to what scientists call episodic memory formation, which is the process that your brain goes through to consolidate and encode new memories, and that is location.

Location is a huge part of this process as your memories get inextricably tied to where you were when you experienced them. And that’s why people often ask questions like, where were you when the Fire Nation attacked? Personally, I was sitting in front of the TV in my parents’ living room, probably eating a Fruit Roll-Up Anyway, we also know that two pieces of information in the brain get linked in a two-way relationship.

How to Get Digitally Organized:

Tip number three, American three this time, Grazie, is to get digitally organized. Now, maybe you think you’re already perfectly organized,

But when classes move online, we burn those vinyl disks and everything becomes organized digitally. So you have to learn how to flawlessly organize all of your handouts on your computer. So don’t be that guy who saves everything to the desktop, creating a giant jumbled mess of files and EXEs, and game saves and whatever else, create a folder in your file management system for every class that you’re taking, and then create a subfolder for any kind of project you have within those classes that has more than one file associated with it. Additionally, within your note-taking system, you want to have a notebook for each class. Whether you’re writing out notes with a pen on paper or using a tablet and a stylist, or you’re typing them into a computer you want to have a specific place where everything for each class gets organized and grouped together.

Also see: Online Classes, Technology in Transforming Sports