Module 7: Maintaining Motivation

Hey guys!

Thank you for toning in this week’s blog post. Today I will discussing ways to maintain motivation. It’s almost finals week and we’re almost done with the semester! I understand that we’re all stressed and are losing motivation. I’ve been there before and I must admit, it took me a long time to find my motivation that I’m able to stick with. As mentioned in module 7 lecture, “motivation comes from intrinsic sources related to your own growth and interested, as well as extrinsic sources of external thing you hope to attain or avoid”. I love this sentence because it’s so true and relatable.

First, I want you to ask yourself, “what is my goal?” or “what am I trying to achieve?”. Once you discover your passion, you need to remind yourself that daily! There are times where I forget why I’m doing all of this and just want to quit.

Here are some tips and tricks that I use to maintain my motivation:

  1. Concentration
    • Without concentration, how will you focus? Find a quiet spot in your home, or at the library. Silence your phone and declutter! Try to eliminate as many distractions as you can. One thing I like is setting myself a timer. I give myself a 25-35 minutes of deep concentration. Within that concentration time, I’m not allow to check on my phone or emails
  2. Take breaks!
    • you may think, “oh I’m going to work really hard tonight and grind all night”. No! This is a huge mistake. Giving yourself break is crucial because your brain needs it! I find that long concentrations makes me feel lethargic, and I end up hating what I’m doing.
  3. Take care of yourself — emotional health
    • Mental health is extremely important, especially for college students. Stop stressing over your chemistry exam or project. Relax. Give yourself a break and treat yourself. Your emotions plays a huge factor in your ability to focus. Put away your negative feelings or emotions aside and think on the positive side.

Overall, what I want you to takeaway from this is to simply relax. Dont stress yourself. Motivation isn’t easy for everyone. Find your goal or passion, and start from there 🙂

Good luck

Jessica

 

Resource: Module 7 lecture

MODULE 6: SEARCHING AND RESREARCHING

Hey everyone! Welcome back to my blog!

Today, I will be talking about my tips on how to write a decent research paper by using reliable websites. As a pharmaceutical science major, my biggest paper I’ve ever wrote was a monograph paper. It requires intensive research and a lot of understand what content is saying. I must say, it is difficult to understand scientific papers since it contains heavy science vocabulary.

One of the most helpful tips I’ve learned from this week’s module is to do your research where it contains quality information, and not a random website where it answers one of your questions. One of my favorite resources to use is google scholar because it contains accurate, reliable, and trustworthy information. Googler scholar is one of my favorite because it contains many reliable research papers conducted by scientist. Not only does it contain trustworthy information, it contains a very well-written paper containing a purpose and a well-conducted experiment. In addition, you can filter what year you want the papers to be. That means, the more up-to-date, the better!

However, this doesn’t necessarily apply to students who are a science major. By making sure that the website and information is accurate and reliable, no one should have problem writing a paper.

Here are some criteria that make a website reliable:

  1. The credentials of the author should at least be PhD, or Dr, or MS.
  2. Does the website end with “edu” or “org”?
  3. Is the information peer reviewed?
  4. Who is the publisher or organization?

If you can answer at least 3 of these question without having trouble, chances are the website is a great resource!

Thank you for reading!

Jessica

 

Website resource: https://scholar.google.com

Module 5- Web-Enhanced Listening and Viewing Strategies

Hi everyone!

Welcome to this week’s blog post. Today I will be discussing ways of how we can enhance our learning online. Online classes are not made for everyone. Some may feel lost or bored during a lecture, or some may have trouble studying from their notes. Regardless what the problem is, I am here to help out!

First off, one the most useful tip I’ve learned from this week’s module is that you need to understand the demands of a college classroom. This isn’t high school anymore. College is different. You are allowed to skip your class and no one will say anything to you, however is that a smart move? I don’t think so. Especially during this time when most of our classes are online, professor won’t know if you watched the lecture videos or not. Whenever you decided to skip lecture, think about the important information that you’re losing. What if the professor was giving out a big hint for your upcoming exam? It would suck to miss out on that, right?

So, how do we listen to our lectures without zoning out, being bored, or lost? WE TAKE NOTES! But, how do we take note, you may ask?

Well, here are several tips I have for you today!

  • Write out your notes by hand! Use paper and pencil!
    • even though your classes are online, it does not mean you should type your notes on your laptop. Majority of the times, we are just mindless typing whatever the professor says. However, studies shows that when we write our notes by hand the information sticks with us longer.
  • Be an active listener.
    • For online classes, all we do is click the play button and we just listen right? No, you need to make sure that your mind is actively learning. Put your phone away, grab a paper and pencil, and begin writing your notes.

I love online classes, don’t get me wrong, however I never typed my notes on my laptop through my college years. I’m always a paper and pen type of girl. I’ve tried typing my notes one time because I left my notebook at home, however I found myself mindless typing. I typed out whatever the professor said and in fact, I didn’t even know what I was learning. When I got home, I literally had to relearn all the material and took notes on it. It was not fun spending another hour on lecture.

Thank you for reading this week’s post. If you’re a typer, I hope you will try out writing your notes and let me know if it’s helpful!

-Jessica

Module 4- Web-Enhanced Reading and Study Strategies

Hi everyone!Welcome back to this weeks blog post!

This week, I will be discussing my tips and tricks for online reading and study strategies. As mentioned in my previous posts, most of us are facing a hard time trying to accommodate this whole online situation. Some may hate it, some love it! Reading online may be difficult for us, especially if we don’t like to stare at the computer screen for long hours. I am the type of student where I like everything on paper because staring at the computer screen for more than 2 hours strain my eyes. To be honest, whenever my professor assign readings, I find myself skimming through it. I don’t actually read it. However, after learning from this week’s module, I’ve found some helpful tips and tricks that helped me!

Here are 2 ways I found helpful:

  1. adapt what already works!
    • this is the most useful tip for me. Since I like paper copies, I simply print out my reading and read from there! As mentioned in this week’s powerpoint, “just because the paper is being replaced with an electronic screen does not mean that you have to start from scratch in developing good study habits”. Find a way around it and find what works best for you!
  2. don’t settle for mindless highlight
    • I’m admit, I do this quite often. However, one way to avoid this is to pull up the objectives your professor gives you. Read the objective and highlight the answers in the reading to the objective. That way, you are studying efficiently and am not mindless highlighting useless information.

One thing that I’ve already put into practice is printing out my lectures/ readings. I even handwrite my lectures if I don’t feel like printing them out. I find this extremely helpful by helping my remember the information better. As mentioned in the module, “adapt what already works”.  Just because your classes are online doesn’t mean that you can’t have it on paper. Dont be afraid to change things up. College is made differently for everyone.

Source: Module 4 powerpoint lecture

Module 3: Efficiency in the Digital Age

In this week’s module, we focused on techniques to beat and overcome procrastination, tips on time management, and how to limit digital distractions. Limiting digital distraction was one of the most useful thing I’ve learned in this week’s module because it is still one of the hardest barrier that I’m trying to overcome. Today, I will be discussing my ways of how I successfully overcome digital distractions as a college student!

As mention in the presentation, we are all surrounded by technology, however it can also limit our productiveness and time management. It is important that we use technology with caution without being carried away, such as replying to a text message or go on Instagram for a “quick second”.  Not only does this distract us, it throws our schedule off leading to poor time management. One effective example that I’ve used from this week’s module is creating a supportive environment. I’ve done this by clearing out my desk with only my laptop, notebook, planner, and pen. I also make sure I have properly lighting because it helps me focus better. I also signed off iMessage on my laptop to ensure I don’t receive any text messages that will distract me. I’ve done this for 3 days now, and my productiveness has gone up. I finished my lectures without any interruptions or pauses, and I was also able to finish more assignments than before.

In the future, in addition to signing out of iMessage, I will also sign out of my personal email because whenever I get an email about a sale or new product from Sephora, I find myself clicking on it right away leading to online shopping, which is never a good thing because I can spend hours on it.

Advice for students:

  • don’t have iMessage on your laptop or iPad because it can lead to distractions. Although it is handy to have text messages or phone calls sent to your phone/ iPad, it can limit your ability to focus. If you don’t want to turn off your iMessage, put it on “do not disturb” mode instead. Once you’re finished with your assignments you can go ahead and turn it back off.
  • set a timer to focus and to take a break. Try to start with 30 minutes of focus and a 5 minute break.
  • find a good environment to do your work/ study. Clear out your desk. Less distraction = the better!

resource: https://osu.instructure.com/courses/91565/pages/lesson-module-3?module_item_id=4996980 (Lesson: module 3 powerpoint)

Module 2- Communicating Online

One of the most useful tools I’ve learned from this module is group communication. During this time, most of us have classes online. This can be difficult to some of us, since we are more use to having face-to-face interactions however, we shouldn’t let this affect us. Group communication is important regardless if it’s in-person or virtually. Group communication isn’t just a group discussion post where we say something just so that we can get full marks on that assignment. It’s more than that. It is an important trait to have because we need this skill to perform well in our jobs in the future as a professional. As mentioned in the presentation on slide 13, “group work does not end after graduation”, and that we will constantly use our communication skills to collaborate with our colleagues to perform projects leading to success. One thing that I’ve already done from this module is to ensure that everyone is on the same page. This semester I have a group project with four other people, so one way that I ensure that I have proper group communication with my groupmates is to find a way to connect with each other. I do this by creating a group chat, and I like to use GroupMe. It’s easy to connect with others to make sure that we are all on the same page and that no one is left behind.

Here are some tips of how to engage communication virtually:

  1. Get to know each other and know their schedules.
  2. Plan and assign tasks and responsibilities.
  3. Communication is key. Use online options to contact each other
  4. Talk with your instructor whenever there a problem occurs. Receive feedback or ask for guidance.
  5. Prepare for slackers because this is a group project and everyone should contribute accordingly.
  6. Make it meaningful. Although not everyone is interested in the project topic, one thing that everyone wants is a good grade, so divide tasks evenly and take account in each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

An advice that I would give to students is to don’t be afraid to speak up if someone’s not doing their job. It is not your responsibility to do the entire group work. This is all about team effort. If your group mate still doesn’t do anything after you’ve said something to do, please don’t be afraid to bring this up to your professor. It is important to be comfortable with who you’re working with so say something when something is not right.

Article link: https://online.illinois.edu/articles/online-learning/item/2020/04/16/navigating-group-projects-in-an-online-course