13 Essential eLearning Tips – Study From Home
Author: Manno Notermans- Published: September 21, 2023
This blog post will explore some of the most effective eLearning tips to help you finish online courses and degrees with flying marks.
Has your school recently shifted to online classes? Are you starting distance learning courses to improve your skills while you continue your day job?
Online learning allows you to improve your professional skills, save time and cost, make a flexible schedule, and learn at your own pace. However, eLearning requires self-discipline and time management.
So, whether you are a student or a professional, the following eLearning tips will guide you to ace your online course and achieve high grades.
Online Learning Tips to Improve Your Academic Performance
- Don’t Aim to Study Everything in a Single Day – Break Down the Course Material
- Join a Group or Community of Students Who are Part of the Same Course
- Assign Goals to Yourself to Make Sure You are Accountable by the End of the Day
- Take Notes While You Are Studying
- Always Take Breaks and Clear your Mind
- Dedicate a Study of Space
- Reduce Distractions to Increase Focus
- Keep Yourself Aware of the Goals You Want to Achieve
- Make a Weekly Study Schedule
- Treat Online Courses as Real Academic Courses
- Create a Positive Online Environment
- Don’t Neglect your Health
- Be Realistic
Distance learning has grown in popularity as a means of obtaining an education. However, it is not without its difficulties. We’ll now go through some of the best e-learning tips to help you improve your academic performance and progress in your career.
1. Don’t Aim to Study Everything in a Single Day – Break Down the Course Material
It’s unrealistic to complete a course in one sitting or one day if it is self-paced. Instead, you need to divide the course material over the entire week and dedicate a fixed amount of time daily to cover the topics.
Also, you can revise the concepts before proceeding by completing the online quizzes and assignments instead of simply skimming through the course material and scrolling through the lecture videos. But, again, the key is to be consistent in your learning journey instead of grasping all the concepts in one sitting.
2. Join a Group or Community of Students Who are Part of the Same Course
Joining online communities and actively participating in discussions and forums allow you to solve different subject-related problems collectively. You should connect with your online peers, introduce yourself, and engage in a healthy online discussion about the online course.
It’s one of the most effective strategies for online learning, as different students post their problems online while their peers try to solve them online. Sometimes you’ll have trouble understanding the concept, and you’ll be able to find the answer in the online forum before you post it.
3. Assign Goals to Yourself to Make Sure You are Accountable by the End of the Day
Self-accountability is integral to online learning as the teacher won’t always remind you of the upcoming assignments, tasks, and papers. However, if you have enrolled in an eLearning program, you can track your progress and adhere to the course timeline.
It can be easy to get bogged down in the details of an online course. There are deadlines to meet, assignments to complete, and lectures to watch. Before you know it, the course is over, and you feel like you’ve accomplished nothing.
To avoid this overwhelming feeling, setting goals for yourself is important. Having specific goals in mind ensures you’re getting the most out of your online courses.
4. Take Notes While You Are Studying
We live in a digital era where all the resources are available online on the laptop. However, old-school techniques such as taking notes with pen and paper improve active thinking, comprehension, and, most importantly, attention span.
That’s why you don’t just don’t need to listen to online lectures. Instead, have a notebook with you, actively note key points, and revise the next day before resuming the online classes. Alternatively, you can also use a digital notebook to take notes, but the focus here is to write even with a digital pen.
Alternatively, some online platforms like Udemy, Coursera and Skillshare also allow you to save screenshots of the course slides so you can add your comments.
5. Always Take Breaks and Clear your Mind
Breaks allow you to reset your mind. You often find yourself stuck while solving the challenges of an e-learning problem without significant progress. You should take a break, sip a cup of coffee, and start again to solve the problem. You can walk outside, meditate for five minutes, or talk to a friend.
Once you untangle your mind, you can get fresh ideas and a new perspective to solve the tricky assignment.
6. Dedicate a Study to Space
If you want to learn and improve your skill, you can’t do it from your bed. You feel tired or lazy while studying from your bed in your pajamas.
It’s essential to arrange for a dedicated study space to create a learning environment for yourself. Your bed allows you to sleep and relax but not study online.
It’s even best to shower and get dressed to get into work or learning mode. It’s an effective online learning tip and strategy that will rewire your mind and keep it focused. Also, keep your study desk clutter-free to minimize offline distractions.
7. Reduce Distractions to Increase Focus
Online and offline distractions make it difficult for you to focus on the online course. For example, your cell phones, email notifications, and other alerts don’t allow you to pay 100 percent attention to the online lecture.
Dedicating time and space allows you to improve your productivity and focus. Also, you should switch your phone during that period to prevent getting distracted by the continuous buzzing. Finally, you should also close all the tabs on the browser and email notifications to focus on the single computer screen showing the online lecture
8. Keep Yourself Aware of the Goals You Want to Achieve
Don’t forget about the bigger picture. If you feel lazy or unmotivated, you can remind yourself why you enrolled in the course. Always keep an eye on your primary focus, professional growth, or learning a new skill. This way, you don’t get frustrated and push yourself more to complete the online course.
eLearning is cost-effective. However, starting a course costs an enrollment fee. So keep your eye on the prize if you don’t want your energy, time, and money to go all in vain.
9. Make a Weekly Study Schedule
Here comes your time management skills into play when you need to plan your study hours for the weekdays and the weekends. Also, you need to mark all the assignments and quizzes on the calendar, so you don’t skip any.
If you can’t make a monthly schedule, begin with a weekly calendar and check for prior family and professional commitments. Next, you can assign different daily hours while giving yourself sufficient time to complete the assignment over the weekends. You can even break the hours during the day to freshen up your mind instead of studying for continuous long hours.
Finally, you can reward yourself by completing the assignments and quizzes on time to stay motivated and focused.
10. Treat Online Courses as Real Academic Courses
It’s one of the most significant mental barriers we need to cross. It’s a general perception that online classes aren’t equivalent to real courses, especially self-paced ones. However, the digital revolution has completely transformed today’s learning environment.
eLearning allows you to enroll in any university course and complete it from anywhere in the world. However, it doesn’t mean the course isn’t real or equivalent to a real offline course.
The content and outline of the online and in-person courses are the same. That’s why you must remind yourself about the benefits of taking the online course and the new skills you’ll learn to boost your career.
11. Create a Positive Online Environment
In addition to your surroundings, you must maintain a positive online environment by keeping your computer screen clutter-free. You can also use helpful and productive online tools to keep track of your progress.
For instance, you can use Slack to connect with your peers, maintain a schedule on Google Calendar and keep track of the deadlines on Wunderlist.
Also, it’s best to take online classes in the same place every time to associate the location with the learning. For example, always take online classes in your study room.
12. Don’t Neglect your Health
Students sit in one place while taking an online class resulting in minimal or no physical activity. As a result, you spend most of your time in front of a laptop and other electronic gadgets.
Taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional health is vital to keep your mind creative and focused. That’s why you must indulge in healthy eating habits, take seven to eight hours of sleep, and exercise for five to ten minutes daily.
13. Be Realistic
Online learning won’t make you an expert overnight. You must be realistic in your expectations. eLearning demands more focus and self-organization. You don’t need to set unrealistic goals.
Having a strict schedule is one of the primary reasons why people opt out of an online course before the classes begin. It’s best to create a flexible schedule and leave some margin, so you don’t feel overwhelmed.
Challenges of Learning Through Online Courses
On the one hand, online courses ensure flexibility and affordability; on the other hand, eLearning has its distinctive challenges. First, students require a stable internet connection with higher bandwidth to stream online and in real-time lectures. You need basic computer literacy to understand different learning tools, LMS, and other related technical issues.
Moving forward, time management is one of the most significant challenges faced by students worldwide. Other issues include self-organization, motivation, online and offline distractions, and adaptability to online learning styles. In addition, students usually feel isolated with limited or no interaction with fellows.
These challenges can be overcome easily by planning your day, sharing a group study link with your fellow students, and improving computer literacy by watching educational videos.
Wrapping up!
Online learning can help you develop your skill set while also providing the benefits of affordability, accessibility, and convenience. Online learning also allows students to finish coursework at their own speed. You must be organized, motivated, and dedicated to completing your online courses and degree.
At Internetoflearning, we selected the best courses from top e-learning platforms related to major categories, including music, business, design, digital marketing, and language, to help you start a new career in your selected field.
We hope our e-learning tips can help you start a new and exciting academic journey. If you follow the above-mentioned learning tips for completing the online coursework, you can plan your day more flexibly.
