Ah, my last blog post.  I can honestly say I have enjoyed this class a lot more than I thought I was going to.  The lessons really helped me develop my time management and study skills which have needed improvement for way to long.  I think my biggest problem was always motivating myself to get started.  I have a lost of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational sources but my fear of failure always holds me back from confidently attacking my assignments head on. Instead, I let my deadlines dictate my life and complete my assignments just so I don’t fail.  I haven’t completely resolved this issue but I have started to improve the way I view my school work.  I have a lot of long term goals for myself,  I want it so badly that I’m terrified of what will happen if I don’t reach them.  I have started to use this fear as a more positive motivator and now I know that as long as I do everything I can possibly do to achieve my goals, I will be proud of myself no matter what.  This is my new  motivation and it has already helped me improve my study habits and reduce my distractions.  I embrace the help of technology and also know when to distance myself from it.  My best advice that I could give for a student is give yourself a reason to succeed;  find something that you want to achieve more than anything and I promise you that once you have this goal for yourself, you will have the motivation to do whatever it takes to get it done.

I have to say,  I am really starting to freak out about how coincidental this class has been.  First, I add this class about online learning strategies and then all of my classes become online.  Then I have a lesson about time management after having the most unproductive week of my life.  Then I have a lesson about studying right before a big physics exam and now I have a lesson about research when I’m writing my research paper.  Anyway,  I think the most important thing I learned from this lesson was google scholar.  I had no idea it existed but I was so surprised with how great the sources were.  They were so helpful with my paper and I’m so grateful that I learned about it when I did.  I think moving forward when I move into the second draft of my paper, I will definitely be planning out my paper better like the girl in the video did.  She gave some really good advice that I plan on using in the future.  The best advice that I would give to student would be to make sure to take the time to properly research for your assignment.  The best material comes when you put the work in and it will dramatically improve the quality of your project.

The most useful thing I learned from this weeks lesson was how to improve my note taking.  I had forgotten about helpful methods like the Cornell method which help organize and engage your mind in the note taking process. I currently use notability which is one of this lesson’s online note taking tools for all of my classes and it’s great having all of my notes one one devise.  The font color changing feature is really helpful for me because I can color coordinate all of my notes.  I will definitely start improving my notes by using the Cornell method.  I found when I was reviewing my notes for my physics test that I didn’t know what some of the equations I had written down were for.  By using the Cornell method, I’ll know what everything is, why I wrote it down and how I can use that information to solve problems.

My advice for other students would be to make sure to take advantage of the iPads that we are given.  There are so many ways to use them to improve our learning and by using different apps and methods, everyone can create their own personal system that engages them in the material while preserving it for later review.

The most important lesson I learned from this week’s module was how to reopen my eyes to online learning tools.  I used to use tools like quizlet all the time in high school but once I got to college, I stopped taking advantage of those resources.  This module forced me to go back to these resources and rediscover all of the helpful tools they have to offer.  I have already been using Chegg to find expert solutions to hard physics problems and it has helped me out tremendously.  Now, I have discovered that they have helpful quizzes for specific subjects in my class.  I’m very excited to use this feature to help me with my upcoming midterm.

Another resource that I rediscovered was the Purdue Online Writing Lab.  I was always shown this resource in high school but never used it because high school teachers practically held my hand through formatting my papers.  Now that I’m in college, I don’t have to stress out about having to remember how to format because I can go to the OWL and find all the information  I could ever need.

My advice to students would be once you know what your classes or assignments are going to be, take the time to search for helpful online tools because they make a huge difference in your comprehension and overall academic performance.

I have struggled with procrastination my entire life.  I feel like it has held me back from performing at my full potential and despite the years of feeling this way, I have never been able to quit my habit.  This lesson has provided the most hope for potential change that I have ever experienced.  The TED talks seemed to speak directly to me, I never realized how much control the instant gratification monkey has on my life.  With each new slide I found more and more information on how to combat my procrastination and take back control over my life.  Somewhere along the line, I realized that my procrastination was caused by to main factors.  I am both constantly distracted by my phone and deathly afraid of failure.  When an important assignment is coming up, instead of preparing or starting the work days in advance, I will get so scared of failing the assignment that I will escape into my phone where I don’t have to worry about my own life.  I will spend hours and hours disengaged from reality and then rush to get everything done last minute.

In order to combat this, I will be using the new tools and strategies that I learned in this weeks lesson.  I will utilize my new google calendar to plan and adhere to a healthy schedule where I get my work done in little chunks at a time and still have other time to accomplish other personal goals that I’ve set for myself.  I have removed all of the non essential apps from my phone and I now have my distracting apps blocked until 10 pm every night.  This allows me to get more accomplished during the day and still enjoy leisure activities at night after I’ve finished everything I had to do.

One of the most helpful things that I learned form this weeks lesson is how to properly email professors.  I have always felt really uncomfortable emailing professors because I never really learned how to properly write an email.  It seems like very common knowledge but it was never a topic covered in school and by the time I needed to actually start using email, I realized I had no idea what I was doing.  While I understood that it was important to use proper English, I had no idea how to format it.  Some told me that it should be formatted like a letter and others told me that it could be formatted like a grammatically correct text message.  On top of everything, I had no idea what CC meant or what was appropriate for the subject line.  I found the universities instructional video extremely helpful.  It went over everything I hoped it would and even went into stuff I hadn’t even thought about like how to address your professors.  I learned a lot from the video and it feels great to know that if I ever have any doubts about emailing, I can always go back to this resource to double check myself to make sure I always make a good impression when I communicate through email.

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