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This week’s module was about maintaining motivation. It discussed this topic in two primary ways: 1) Building Motivation and 2) Mind, Body and Motivation. For me the most helpful part of this module was slide 11 which talked about the tools that you can use to eliminate online distractions. Personally, I really enjoy experimenting with new tools and strategies to try to be more productive. Of the tools detailed on this slide, I thought the self control app was particularly useful. I’m someone who is prone to getting sucked into “youtube rabbit holes” or just find myself scrolling mindlessly on the internet when I’m supposed to be doing work. This tool allows me to not be allowed to do that in times I should be working.

I wish I had found this extension earlier in my college career (though I’m excited to graduate next week!), it would have enabled me to be a lot more productive and spend less hours studying so I could have more time to hang out with my friends and enjoy my extracurriculars.

Overall I thought this course did an excellent job at framing helpful tools and resources for college students, and did a good job of crystallizing the information I learned through trial and error during my four years here at Ohio State.

This weeks lesson was very helpful for me, and would have been especially helpful for me early in college. This weeks lesson focused on helpful strategies for how to search the internet appropriately and how to conduct research using reliable sources. This was done through coverage of the following topics: 1) Writing in College; 2) Searching and Researching. For me the most helpful part of this module was the second part that covered how to appropriately search. The slide 8 that shows the clip of “how not to search” describes how I used to search the internet when I entered college.

The most helpful slides were slide 19 – 21 which detail how to use keywords and boolean logic to use google to more effectively search the internet.  This was a strategy that I learned in college and allowed me to quickly find helpful articles when working in my research lab, or trying to find credible sources for papers. Even something as simple as knowing how and when to use AND, OR and NOT appropriately can lead to search results that are extremely precise. The other piece of advice that was helpful was using the site keyword. adding “site: .edu” into your google search will only show .edu sources in your results — helping get more credible information faster.

Module 5 generally focuses on what optimal learning strategies are, particularly during a lecture. It does this in 3 ways, first by discussing how to use notes to support your learning, second by outlining what active listening is and why it is useful, and finally by discussing online resources that can be used to support your learning. Personally, I think that most students have a good idea of what online resources exist by the time they are in college, because the internet is the first place students turn when they get stuck or need help in a class. Personally for me, the most interesting part of the lecture was part 2 about active listening. This is a skill that I’ve been trying really hard to get better at, and on slide 15, the video that outlined the 5 different types of Note-Taking did a good job at crystallizing what are good about the different aspects of note taking.

On particularly good piece of advice from the video was to actively be trying to distill and summarize the content that professor is going over to make it easier to take notes, and then go back and add more detail to those notes easier. From personal experience, this is a really good idea because if I’m writing too much detail in my notes, I realize I’m not paying enough attention to the professor, and I inevitably end up missing something important.

This weeks modules focused on three things: 1) Active Reading, 2) Memory as a Foundation for Strategic Studying and 3) Boosting your Learning with Technology. All three of these are important aspects for learning effectively — especially the lessons in the first part of this module. Like it mentions on slide 7, not mindlessly highlighting information is really important — having a system for what and where to highlight is. This is something I have struggled with in the past, and have had to spend a lot of time reviewing and re-learning content because of inefficient study methods like over-highlighting.

Another extremely useful piece of information from this module was “boosting your learning with technology”, there were plenty of websites and tools mentioned I hadn’t heard before but seem useful in implementing into my workflow is Zotero. As a student that works in a research lab, having a tool that acts as a research assistant to help catalog and organize the papers that I read would be extremely useful for me. Having this tool would enable me to write research papers much faster because I will already have been keeping track of the papers (and the highlights in them) that are critical to the projects I am working on.

This weeks module focused on 3 topics — each related: 1) Procrastination and How Stop it; 2) Time Management Strategies and Tools; 3) Digital Distractions. All three of these topics are important for students to understand, and I definitely wish I had the resources in this module to teach me about these topics earlier in my academic career. I think the most salient topic for me is limiting digital distractions. I am the type of person who could spend an endless amount of time scrolling on Reddit, Youtube, or any number of websites. The suggestions outlined on slide 23 are all good ones — Turn off Notifications, Only check email at designated times of the day, Place your phone in another room while working, and set a timer for working and a timer for break — and all strategies I have tried to varying degrees of success.

Personally, the strategy I have had the most success with has been the last one. I’ve discovered one of the best ways for me to be productive is to use the Pomodoro Technique. I have found that turning my phone completely off and having a timer on my computer for 25 minutes and just working until I hear the alarm is an effective way for me to make sure I get my work done.

In a world where you’re surrounded by digital tools it’s easier than ever to have access to Social Media and the internet to distract you. Thankfully, methods like the ones outlines in the slides can be successful if you have the discipline to implement them.

This module focused on two things: 1) how to be an effective online communicator 2)what tools are available for communicating online? Both of these topics are important for students to understand in their own ways. Being in college for four years, I have had plenty of good and bad encounters when communicating with professors and TAs online — and many of the “do’s and dont’s” I’ve come to realize through experience are outlined in this week’s module.

For example: How you write, and structure an email is important. This can be seen on slide 8 of this weeks lesson powerpoint. Including a subject line, greeting, context, and closing, are all critical components of writing an effective email. Without each of these your professor or TA is often left confused and can lead to delays in getting a response to your email.

Additionally, there are a variety of useful methods for communicating your thoughts to an online audience — one of which is a blog. The university provides a free, easy to set-up, blogging service for students at u.osu.edu, and you can use it to showcase your skills to prospective employers — or to just share your thoughts to the world. I definitely wish this was something I knew about earlier in my college experience, so I could have easily made a project portfolio.

This week’s module was really useful, and there are a number of different aspects that were helpful. The most useful piece of information I learned this week, was about how to set up a blog at u.osu.edu.