As an online or remote student, you may not have more unstructured time than you are used to. These tips will help you to stay on track and make the most of your online experience.

Tip 1: Rest and Stay Healthy

You can’t learn if you aren’t well. So you shouldn’t think: “Now that I am not going to class in person I have more time to study for my exam, I can and should just work around the clock.” Rest, stay healthy, focus on being well first. Remember to stand up and walk around between classes and study sessions.

Tip 2: Use study strategies that make the most effective use of open time.

You may find yourself with unstructured time and be unsure of what to do to learn online. It’s a good time to inventory your study strategies to make sure you’re using the most effective ones, especially if you are getting less direction about what to do from instructors. See Improving Students' Learning with Effective Learning Techniques for more information.

Tip 3: Keep your Schedule

Your professor may choose to provide “asynchronous” lectures and readings, meaning you can watch them and read them at any time. Even if they do, try to keep your same class schedule and use the blocks of time when you would have gone to class to spend time online on that class. Study when you would have studied, and rest when you would have rested if you were on campus in person.

Tip 4: Take Notes

Just because you can rewatch a video or look at slides online doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take notes. Otherwise, you’ll just be re-reading or rewatching a lot, which isn’t a very effective learning technique.

Tip 5: Check email and notifications regularly

Checking your email is important even under normal circumstances, but it’s doubly important if your professor moves online. Check Canvas (Account > Notifications) or other learning management system to make sure announcements in the course will reach your email inbox.

Tip 6: Increase communication with your professors

Speak up! And communicate even more than you ordinarily would.

Your professor will have fewer “clues” about whether you understand if you aren’t meeting in person. It’s vital for you to contact your professor if something doesn’t make sense, or even if something does make sense and you want to make sure you understand. Contacting your professor to discuss course material can even do double duty as “self-explanation.”

If you aren’t sure how best to participate or communicate with your professor, contact for clarification on that too! Especially if your class is switching modes midway through the semester, it would be understandable to be confused. Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Take advantage of any online or in-person office hours offered.

Tip 7: Stay connected with other students

Find ways to keep in touch with other students in the class, either within the remote classroom environment or outside of it. Your peers can help you learn material and by forming small accountability or study groups, you can work with each other to implement the advice here.

Tip 8: Be Flexible and Considerate

Be considerate of your fellow learners and your teachers as they deal with an evolving situation, and be prepared to be flexible.

Keep in mind your professors and peers may be getting LOTS of emails, so identify yourself, use email etiquette, etc. They may also have challenging personal circumstances due to the disruption, so remember that kindness can go a long way.

Adapted from Dr. Caleb McDaniel and Dr. Jenifer Bratter's presentation.