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Hello,

Welcome to my final blog post. We are ending on a good note with motivation! One of the things that really inspired me this week was setting up a productive environment helps to increase motivation and staying focused on your goals. Usually when I am studying in my room (distanced learning because of Covid), I have Lofi beats playing from youtube, my humidifier or a candle set in the corner. The ambiance is so important to me and shows how environment can really be a motivator for goals! I would suggest Lofi beats to college students because it does not have any words and you can use soundtracks from shows (I personally use Avatar the Last Airbender) and it helps me stay calm especially during exam season. While this is playing, I have Do Not Disturb on my phone and laptop to take away distractions. I will also suggest using apps to avoid using your iPhone such as Forest which you can plant trees while studying and you end up killing the tree if you leave that app. It allows you to collect coins and eventually you can even have enough coins to plant an actual tree in developing countries. I hope these tips helps.

Thanks for reading.

Christie Okoye

Welcome! I chose this image because this reminded me of Search vs Research which is the topic of conversation today. I think that is important to know the difference between researching and searching. Researching and searching are two distinct processes. Research involves the type of information while searching is just looking for a particular answer or factual information. Slides 10 and 12 dive into the different aspects of the two and show how each is different. One of the main reasons that I noticed was that research involves multiple processes of making sure that the resources you use are reliable, has utility and also quality aspects to make it an actual research paper. Students should definitely make sure that they are using sites that are reputable. I have fallen into the world of Wikipedia and making sure that a site is reliable will be key in academic writing. I now make sure that the author of the article is distinguished in their field with either a Dr, PhD or even has other credentials that show that they have respected knowledge in that topic.

I highly suggest college students to use bibliographic search engines to make sure that their citations are in accordance with the expectations of that class (MLA, APA are a couple of examples). On Slide 26 of this week’s lecture, it lists a few such as CiteUlike, EasyBib, Mendeley and RedWorks which a source available for OSU students through the library. I hope this helps students with future research papers and academic writing in general.

Thanks for reading.

Christie

Hello,

This blog post focuses on handwritten notes. I typically use handwritten notes for courses that use a lot of visual information such as graphs, tables and other images. Handwriting allows me to put marginal points and to really digest the material in an efficient manner. During the lesson (Slide 8), I learned about how typing notes can lead to mindless transcription. I have fallen into that trap of just typing without truly digesting the information. There is no difference between “filler information” and important facts. This causes my notes to be more dense and less concise for studying.

I have started implementing writing down lecture material handwritten first and then I transition into typing out a more organized notes on Google docs which I ultimately use to study and prep for exams. When I write my notes by hand, it tends to be in a sentence/ bullet point which is not as organized and tends to write most of the facts of the lecture. I usually star a bullet point or sentence that the professor stresses or indicates it is important. Next, I use the Cornell method to organize my notes where most of the important facts are down the middle and the margins include the topics. When I use google docs, I use the comment feature to add any additional info that I may have found in the textbook or through a search engine that is helpful for understanding the material but may not be explicitly stated during the lecture. Ultimately, I suggest college students to go through the various note taking strategies and explore which method helps them to retain information the best.

Thanks for reading.

All the best,

Christie Okoye

Hello and welcome to Module 4!

This week I will like to talk about navigating through readings. This can be in the form of lecture notes, journals or even recalling information from your own notebook. This week was focused on utilizing the various forms of notes that can be a bit daunting for students to navigate when studying. One of the most useful things that I learned in this module is utilizing memory for studying in an effective manner. The most useful aspect is completing one task at a time. On slide 19, it states that one should plan their study time with dictating the amount of time to dedicate each assignment on. It showed that when you switch between coursework, your comprehension and even productivity will decrease! A resource that I started integrating this week was using mnemonics (resource found in this week’s lecture). I used letter and word mnemonics to help categorize some amino acids together and it totally helped in remembering the functions (https://www.verywellhealth.com/memory-tip-1-keyword-mnemonics-98466)

This will work congruently with last week’s lesson and focal point on making sure that I keep my devices on do not disturb while I am studying or working on assignments. I would advice students who are struggling with memorizing or retaining information, to use quizlet (https://quizlet.com/). Quizlet is an app (web browser too!) that has various decks of different topics. You can view other students decks of the same subject or you can even create your own. It is very useful for testing your knowledge!

Thanks for reading.

Christie

Hello!

Welcome to my second blog post! Today, I will be discussing ways to not allow procrastination to strip us from our responsibilities as students. One of the most useful things that I learned in this module is that procrastination can effect each and every one of us but we do not have to let it get in the way of achieving our goals. There are various online tools that can keep procrastination at bay and will surely be helpful for college students. On Slide 18 of the module presentation, I learned a lot about tools and tips that I currently use with Google. Through google calendar, I can sync a lot of my tasks, deadlines and assignments so that I can view it on my laptop and on my phone. This helps with keeping me on track with classwork wherever I am. On Slide 22, there is a tip that I use which is putting my phone and laptop on Do Not Disturb so that I am not distracted by notifications through social media or a text message. It also states to check your emails at designated times. This helps with continuity and making sure that I am consistent with completing tasks before I switch to an off task that can hinder me completing a school assignment. All these tips ultimately helps with reducing distractions and I encourage students who are struggling with completing tasks on time or are easily distracted to give it a try.

Thanks!

Best

Christie Okoye

Hello!

My name is Christie Okoye and welcome to my first blog post for this class! I will be giving a reflection for Module 2: Communication and Collaboration. There were many aspects I found useful in this week’s class. One aspect I found extremely useful was learning more about using the cloud to upload files and documents from various locations that are easily accessible with phones, Ipads and laptops and can be accessed at different locations (as long as there is an internet connection). I found Google docs to be very useful for collaboration (Slide 23). As distance learning students, we are sometimes put into group projects and it could be hard to communicate and collaborate with people who may not be as responsive through email or hesitant to share other modes of communication such as cell phone or they may not even have social media! With google docs, I am able to be collaborative, productive and professional. Using google docs allowed me to collaborate on study guides, work on group assignments without the hassle of reaching out to someone who may be working under a different time zone! I could see their own part and even send messages or insert comments. It was a very useful tool. A piece of advice I would give to college students and my fellow peers is to explore Trello (Slide 22). This is not only used for group projects. It can be personalized for your own tasks! One can customize the layout of your boards to be as creative as you want and it helps to keep you motivated. You can task assignments, create timelines and you can create various academic, career or other personal goals. It truly helps to subdivide tasks and to ultimately stay on track!

Thanks for reading.

Best,

Christie Okoye

The 3 takeaways that I learned from class this week are:

1. With Dr.David Stein’s video lecture on Setting group expectations, I have learned that the best way to avoid and resolve group conflicts is by setting up norms, committing to connect, and having a discussion upfront about the potential difficulties. This will ensure that everyone in the group is on the same page about expectations.
2. Through this pandemic, online school has been a vital part of receiving an education but it also comes with issues of finding ways to collaborate. This week I learned that to collaborate with other students in an online course knowing your group members, understanding the assignment, defining the roles and responsibilities of each group member and assessing your peers’ strengths are beneficial strategies of having a successful collaboration.
3. The last takeaway is that students may be faces with many documents, lecture notes and files that will take alot of space in a device such as a laptop. This week I learned of various tools that will enable peers to store such files with icloud. These tools include Dropbox, Buckeye Box and Google Docs.

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