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As students it is hard to stay motivated in certain aspects of your life. Especially when it begins to feel like you have so much work to do and your free time is spent with friends its hard to keep motivated in other areas of your life such as working out, eating healthy, etc. Whether you are dealing with a motivational issue such as that or just the motivation to write your paper due tomorrow there are ways and apps to help motivate yourself. The most useful thing I learned from this is the workout motivation apps. For me since high school sports ended it has always been a struggle to stay on a workout routine cause I was so used to the workout routine of playing 3 sports. I know many college students who have that issue and the apps I have discovered have really helped me to get back on track and set goals for where I want to be. My advice to my fellow college students is find the area of your life that you really want to improve but sometimes struggle with being self motivated for it and look for that motivation. Whether it be an app like me or a friend doing it with you motivation can come in all kinds of ways. Find the way that works for you.

Academic writing and research is something we all face as students at a University, but that doesn’t mean it is easy. Academic writing and research takes a ton of practice and then is becomes a great skill. We’ve all had that research paper final project where you struggle to find research that really fits your topic because you aren’t sure how to search for it or are searching in the wrong places. Google is hard to use when researching for reliable articles that perfectly fit your topic. You may find some but you need to make sure they are reliable. More often than not scholarly articles will be best and in my experience as a student the university libraries online research databases are perfect. They help you find quality, reliable articles that work perfectly for the research question you are trying to answer. The libraries databases is a specific example I learned in this class that I have used throughout my college career and led me to success. For all college students really my advice to you is that you learn how to use your university online research databases. It will take time to understand and get used to but in the end will make your research much easier. And you know it will also lead to a higher grade in the end as well.

As students with all this readily available technology we have to now choose between paper and pencil or electronic when we are taking notes for class. Going through high school I always used paper and pencil so when I entered college I continued paper and pencil although most students around me had gone toward using their laptops or iPads to take notes. To me at the time I thought it was so odd but it can also be very useful if done properly. The most important thing I learned from this week was that there is pros and cons to both methods and that even though I may be super convinced on writing by hand there are pros to electronically as well. This has given me ideas to do electronic note taking because it is easier to look back on to study and find notes than it is when you write by hand. I may put some electronic note taking into my strategies to be able to better read through the notes at a later date. Overall, my advice to my fellow students is to find the right note taking process for you. It is most important that whatever you choose works for you no matter the pros and cons. Personally I prefer the pencil to paper because I feel like I remember things better when I write them down but that is different for everyone. Find what works for you.

As a student in this module the most useful thing I have learned is to how to use the google calendar and put together all the assignments that will be due in one place. This allows me to know when things are coming rather than having them sneak up on me. I have been bad at procrastinating mostly because I forget I have something due until I see that it is due soon rather than knowing it is coming up on my calendar a few weeks in advance.

One thing from this module I have already put into practice is that of removing my phone distraction. I have placed my phone on “do not disturb” and placed it across the room. This has allowed me to work faster and with less distractions. My phone has been one of my biggest time management challenges. It is difficult for us as students to distance ourselves from our phones so I am also going to use my phone as a reward. Once I finish my work or reach a break I will allow myself 15 minutes of phone time and then back to work.

The biggest piece of advice I would give students is to distance yourself from your phone when you are working on schoolwork. It will allow you to focus and get work done better and faster. Also, I highly recommend setting a calendar and schedule for yourself because it will feel much better when you are getting work done and crossing it off the list and not falling behind.

https://osu.instructure.com/courses/77526/pages/lesson-module-3?module_item_id=3861387

Communication and Collaboration is much different online than it is in person for students. As a student I found the most useful thing I learned is to write emails in a very academic manner. Professors will see this in a more positive fashion and be much more impressed if you use the techniques and include all the components of an academic email. An Academic email includes a subject line, greeting, context, and closing with your full name. It also is proofread and contains complete sentences. This is important as a student because it clearly communicates your message to the professor. A specific example that I use that is mentioned in this module is that of google docs. For students google docs is the best way for collaboration on projects it allows for you to work together at the same time and see live updates on what each other are doing. For students the advice I would give you regarding communicating online and collaborating online would be very simple but helpful. To communicate online I would advise you to use email and to use email the right way and academically to avoid confusion from who you are sending the email to. For collaborating online I highly recommend using google docs because for students it allows you to work on group projects without being in the same room together. Overall communicating and collaborating in online learning environments is different but it can be learned all the same.