This class has been very enlightening on how to handle the Do’s and Don’ts of online academia. It opened up my eyes to what I have to fix with my personal learning style and how to handle the pace and structure of an online class. With that said I will continue to implement the things I have learned from this class in my future online courses. I found it only fitting to share what I believe to be the most important take aways with the rest of the learning community, as I hope this also helps in your future endeavors as much as it has helped me throughout this semester.
- One take away I got from this class is that everyone has different learning styles: visual learners, auditory learners, reading/writing learners, and kinesthetic learners. In addition, some people need a combination of multiple learning styles to better digest the material. They best way to go about learning is to figure out which style works for you especially in an online learning environment where you have control of how you learn. Figuring out which style (or combination of styles) work better for you is the first step in being successful in a course. There are also numerous websites that break down the differences between the different learning styles (https://educationonline.ku.edu/community/4-different-learning-styles-to-know ) in order to get a better understanding of what fits you. The hope is that with the right learning style one will better be able to focus and retain material.
- Another take away I have gotten from this course is that in order to be more time efficient and concise when learning: especially online where the pace of a zoom lecture fluctuates, one must find a note-taking method that works best for them. There are numerous methods to chose from: Cornell notes, thought webs, outlining, and abbreviations. It is also important to file your notes on a software and have that backed up (even when you are hand writing notes). There are many softwares available for this: OneNote, Evernote, and MindMup. These different sites help one organize their notes online and cater to different note taking strategies. This note only helps you access your notes more efficiently, you can always easily reference them later on when you need them. Personally, a note taking method that worked the best for me has been the Cornell Method (as exampled below); although, there are many other note taking methods, and anyone can find one that best suites them. I have also chosen to write my notes on Notability, as I can set up the page to where I can format my Cornell Notes.
https://pdf.wondershare.com/mobile-app/cornell-note-taking-system.html
- Lastly, I found that another important take away from this class is the use of online discussion forums. It is important (especially in an online classroom) to keep in communication with your classmates and professors. This allows for you to not only keep on track with the material, but learn from the experiences of your fellow class mates. This course taught me that effective communication is key, and an online community is still a place where you can share ideas between students and professor. I was able to read through my classmates posts and learn a lot of useful tricks that have been helpful to me in my own academic journey.