With your courses moving to an on-line format we encourage you to think about how you will manage them. Your faculty didn’t plan on teaching an on-line course and you didn’t plan on taking one. Give yourself, your faculty, and your classmates a little grace and make a plan for yourself.
Stay organized
- Note big changes in classes – live lectures, recorded lectures, no labs, cancelled assignments
- Find out if virtual office hours are offered
- Update your planners or build a whole new schedule
Avoid multi-tasking
- Multi-tasking is incredibly inefficient for most people. Switching between tasks or distractions (Instagram) requires you to refocus on the previous task which just slows you down.
- If you are taking your classes from your home or apartment try and limit distractions. Don’t try and Binge Netflix shows and watch a lecture. Explain to family and roommates you need 50, 90, 120 minutes left alone.
- Try the “pomodoro” method of studying. Twenty-five to 50 minutes of studying with 5 – 10 minute breaks in between, but no more.
If offered, make the most out of video lectures
- Take notes like you would have in class.
- Again, avoid distractions, close other tabs, put your phone away.
- Watch recorded lectures at normal speed. Don’t try and watch a lecture on complex material at 1.5x speed or 2x speed!
Create a schedule
- If faculty are holding on-line class at the same time make sure to attend!
- If content is pre-recorded, set aside the same time you had in person class to do the work.
- Schedule in breaks, lunch, studying, connecting with friends who are also at home. It is easy to get behind in on-line courses, treat this new way of taking class like a job, you’ve got to show up each day.
Create an environment for success
- Don’t study, attend virtual classes, etc where you sleep if you can avoid it. Keep the place you sleep just for that – and get plenty of sleep!
- If folks who aren’t normally around – little sisters, Mom, partners – are now suddenly around during your 2pm Finance 300 on-line class make sure they know to leave you be. They may love you are home, but you are still a student.
- If you usually studied in crowded coffee shops and now that options is gone, adapt by at least trying to find a table, desk, chair at home or in your apartment and not a couch or bed.
- Set goals for accomplishing work. Don’t put off assignments if faculty have extended deadlines.
Stay connected to others
- Keep in touch with friends. If you’ve left Madison and aren’t meeting with your social circle in person make sure to schedule phone calls, video chats, etc. Don’t just rely on texts.
- Attend any type of virtual office hours your faculty are offering.
- Take advantage of any on-line group assignments or optional discussions. Stay connected.
- Reach out to University Health Services if you need help! You are still a student and UHS is just a phone call away. 24-Hour Mental Health Crisis Line: 608-265-5600 (option 9).
This is a strange and difficult time. You are strong and will get through it. You are part of a caring Business Badger community and that will not change even while we are all apart. We will all find a way forward together.
For continuous campus updates please follow: https://covid19.wisc.edu/
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