Posts

Takeaways from ESLTECH 2011

To reflect on the biggest takeaways from this class, it’s important to note both what the course sets out to accomplish teaching its students and also the expectations had before taking the course.

This course is quite literally about the Keys to Academic Success for Online Learners. This course sets out to teach students about how to succeed in their academics, utilizing online resources. In order to determine how to succeed academically, students would have to do a great deal of self-reflection on their current learning styles, areas of improvement, and goals.

I did not have very high expectations for this course. I knew it’d be a decent amount of work, but I didn’t really expect to find many useful things throughout this course. I definitely didn’t think I’d learn so much about my studying styles and habits.


After understanding what this course is supposed to teach its students and my personal expectations for this course, I’ll dive into three of my biggest takeaways from this course.

1. You Need To Know What You’ve Got Going On

I think every student thinks or knows they have a ton of things going on academically. Most students take more than 12 credits hours which is usually four classes a semester in itself. Four different sets of assignments, tests, and projects. Add in the fact that it’s also different styles of teaching, different availability for help, different topics, different levels of tolerance, different peers, and many other differing factors between the classes. With all these courses and their differing factors, students rarely have a full grasp of everything going on in their lives. From taking this course, I realized how important it is to truly understand everything that you’ve got going on to understand the importance of organization which I will touch on later. Without knowing all the academic commitments you’ve got going on, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage of not fully understanding the scope of work you have to complete to wholly succeed. While it may seem so simple, I learned firsthand that most students don’t really know how many commitments they have every single day. Every long-term project or upcoming test paired with the weekly assignments alongside the club meeting and the impending interview all need to be fully factored into really understanding what’s on your plate. Resources such as Trello truly help in visually mapping out all your commitments, but it really comes down to your dedication to figuring out, realizing, and knowing your responsibilities. By understanding everything you’ve got going on you set yourself up for greater academic success.

2. You Need To Organize Your Commitments

An alternate header for this takeaway could’ve been “There are Only 24 Hours In A Day!”. Once you understand just how much you really have on your plate, you’ve got to be able to organize it and actually approach the mountain of tasks you have in an efficient manner. Without organization, you could know all the responsibilities you have and still never really work your way towards completing them all. It does no good to just know everything going on, Takeaway #1, you have to be organized to truly achieve academic success. So what does organization look like? The biggest realization I had was both how much and how little time we have. Let me explain, when you actually start planning out your day by the hour and align your tasks to a certain time, you open up the time in your day in a way many students never have. Effectively scheduling your day out makes you realize how much you can really get done in a day. However, in the long run, the comparison of how much you can realistically get done in a day compared to what you need to get done made me realize just how valuable time is in college. If we as humans could just work, work, work on schoolwork for 24 hours a day, time would never be an issue. The reality is that we all work a little differently when it comes to what we are able to get done in a day. Some of us burn out quicker than others while some of us enjoy certain aspects of studying more than others. The organization of your day, understanding how much time you have in a day, and comparing that to how much work you have to complete, is an essential element of academically succeeding. Applying online resources, such as Trello or StudyManager can then help you keep your organized and the timeline of your work clear. Without organization, Takeaway #1 doesn’t matter and vice versa. Both takeaways are what I’ve realized are the necessary mutual functions for academic success.

3. Know Your Personal Workings

As eluded to in the second takeaway, the optimal way for you to reach academic success can only come when you understand what kind of learner you are. Some students have no problem studying for hours on end while others need multiple breaks to stay engaged with their work. Some students study better at night while others can only focus during the day. Some students like writing out their notes while others like saying everything out loud. The first important thing to note is that every student is going to be different in terms of their studying styles and habits. Then, the important thing to understand is what your personal preferences and effective styles/habits are. Finally, applying your personal preferences to organize your day and tasks is what fully encompasses the need to know your personal workings. This course truly set out to make sure that students reflected on themselves with multiple surveys and discussions dedicated to the inner individual contemplation about what works for each student. Additionally, this course offers numerous online resources/technologies to better aid your efforts to reach academic success. The first two takeaways work hand-in-hand to develop effective methods of completing all the necessary tasks to reach academic success. This last personal takeaway is what I believe to be the most important, actually realizing the most efficient method of organizing (Takeaway 2) all of your commitments and responsibilities (Takeaway 1) in the way that works best for you (my final Takeaway). Since everybody is different, knowing what makes your learning style unique allows you to achieve academic success in the most optimal manner.


These were profound takeaways that I had from this course. ESLTECH 2011 was incredibly successful in teaching students how to achieve academic success with the application of online resources. This course also completely overcame my expectations by teaching me the most about myself than most other courses ever do. This course elicited so much necessary self-reflection that we can sometimes overlook the importance of and I think the future application of what I’ve learned from this course will last beyond my college years.

I hope my takeaways from this course inspired a greater inclination to improve your current learning styles and I hope you find greater academic success with the understanding and application of these takeaways to your own life.