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One thing in this module that I find very useful is on slide 7 of the powerpoint. I feel that finding a quiet place to do your work and study is a very helpful way in staying focused. I find that when I am doing work in a quiet environment, I tend to get my work done faster and get distracted less often. My motivation to do work increases because there isn’t anything distracting me from doing my work. Something from this module that I have already put into practice is the app Focus Keeper. I would say it is kind of helpful but also not at the same time. It helps keep my off my phone but it was a little hard to understand how to use it. Once I got the hang of it though, I was able to keep myself motivated and do my work. A piece of advice I have for students like me who have a hard time doing work in one sitting is to take breaks. Slide 17 talks about taking breaks and how it can be helpful. I am a student who can work for a good amount of time, but I need to take breaks once in a while. So what I do to keep my motivation is reward myself with a phone break or snack break once I finish a certain amount of work. I recommend this for students like me who have a hard time staying motivated.

The most useful thing I learned in this module is on slide 6 of the powerpoint. On this slide, a youtube video is attached called “Tips for Writing a College Research Paper”. (video attached below) In this 10 minute video, Nancy talks about tips of writing a paper. Nancy mentions in the video how we are so used to a 5 paragraph paper because that was how we were taught to write in high school. This is something I agree with because I never really wrote a paper that was in that form. One example I have already put into practice is creating an outline before starting a paper. This is very helpful because it guides me and keeps me organized about what each paragraph is about. One thing I would like to work on is my citations. I am not always great at citing my sources correctly so hopefully after this module I will become better at that. Slide 26 in the powerpoint is a helpful resource for me to use when I have to cite sources. Knowing that I have this resource makes me feel more comfortable about my upcoming assignments. If I have to give one piece of advice, it would be to always outline your ideas before going right into the paper. Although it might be more time consuming, doing this helps keep your ideas organized.

One thing in this module that I agree with is Slide 8 in the powerpoint. It is titled, “To Type or Not to Type?” I am a student who prefers handwriting my notes. Slide 8 mentions how typing your notes lacks deep processing. I find this to be true because I believe that when students type their notes, they type too fast to process what they are actually typing. I find that the more I handwrite my notes, the more I remember them. In addition to not being able to fully process what you are typing, I find that taking notes on a computer has a lot of distractions. For example, having other tabs open, getting a text message, ect. But, when you are handwriting notes you are limiting all those distracting factors. If I had to give advice for which kind of note taking to use, I think my answer is obvious. Although handwriting notes may take up to double the time of typing notes, it is worth it in the end because you are actually learning. In my psychology class, I like to take notes on the guided notes powerpoint during class (because I am a slow writer and don’t have enough time to write everything on paper) and then after class I write them all out on paper. In my nutrition class I handwrite my notes and a few days before the exam, I would type them all up on one document. Doing this gives me a refresher of everything on the test.

One thing I learned in this module that I found useful was on slide 10. Slide 1o is titled, “Best Practices for Online Reading and Annotation”. I am a student who struggles with online reading and annotating. Sometimes I find myself getting carried away highlighting every other sentence. By doing this, I feel like I am annotating the reading, but in reality, I’m not. On that same slide, one of the links brought me to a PDF all about annotating (https://learningcenter.unc.edu/files/2017/07/Annotating-Texts-S17.pdf ). After looking at this PDF, I would like to practice and better my annotation skills. I am going to focus less on highlighting random things and more on the bigger picture. So, instead of highlighting things, I am going to circle key concepts, summarize key points, and use symbols and abbreviations. I believe that by doing this, I will get a much better understanding of the reading. If I had to give any advice it would be not to annotate like me! In all seriousness, this really helped me figure out a better and more efficient way to annotate readings. One thing I do when I’m reading that wasn’t really mentioned in this module but helps a lot is putting my phone down and turning off all notifications and sounds. Because reading can get boring, I always get tempted to stop reading and look at my phone. When I do this, I find that it takes me 40 minutes to read a 15 minute reading. By lessening your distractions, you will be able to read and annotate much faster.

The most useful thing that I learned in this module is that learning how to manage my time properly is an extremely important aspect when it comes to being successful in college. I personally found that the idea of making a weekly calendar or schedule will be very useful and decrease my procrastination greatly. Today, I made a calendar outlining my assignments and assessments for the upcoming week. I included times throughout the day that would be designated to certain courses and assignments, but would also leave time for me to socialize and be with friends. I think one idea from this module that I could try putting into practice in the future is breaking down larger tasks. For instance, if I have a three page paper due on Friday, instead of writing it all in one day, I should try to write one page each day, starting Tuesday and leaving an extra day to revise and edit my paper (Break down large tasks, slide 14). One piece of advice that I would give to students or working professionals based on what I’ve learned throughout this module is to learn what challenges they face when it comes to managing their time. Once one realizes what they’re doing wrong, they kind find things that will help them to manage their time better and become more successful.

In this module, there were many things that I learned that seemed helpful. For example, I watched the “Tips for Emailing Professors” ( https://youtu.be/d3zCLMWR38E ) video. In addition to watching the video, I also found that in the lesson materials powerpoint, slide 8 was very helpful and useful. I never really knew the proper way to write an email. I find it extremely important to know how to do this because now that I am in college, I am writing emails to professors or teaching assistants consistently to find out more information about a course or to ask a question. One thing I will begin to do is utilize the subject line more when writing an email so that it’s clear what the purpose of the email is. I will also greet my professors and make sure that I am making them feel comfortable and not like I am just bombarding them with questions. Additionally, I’m going to continue proofreading and using spell check once I finish my email, and I would definitely give this as advice to other students. I believe that the way an email is worded impacts the way it is interpreted. Proofreading is very important because incorrect spelling or grammar gives off an impression of laziness.