Online vs. On Campus Learning

A few tips and tricks to help you become a successful online student: 

• Check your student/D2L email daily (student email: abcd@student.highlands.edu; D2L email is in D2L located at the top of the page under the envelope icon).
• Check into D2L daily.
• Use a planner to help you keep up with your assignments and when they are due (you can also use your phone's calendar to keep up with due dates).
• Time management is a big deal with online learning (more below on how to successfully accomplish this).
• Stay on task with assignments; if you get behind it's really hard to catch up.
• Don't procrastinate! You may think an assignment or exam can wait until last minute. But, you can run into technical difficulties and miss your dead line. Most professors will not tolerate lateness and by you waiting last minute will not give a second chance. 

Time Management Tips:

• Make your school work a priority.
• Setup a study space/virtual office just for your school work.
• Each day set aside a certain amount of time to study and complete your school work (for every course you take you should set aside 6-9 hours per week to study and do homework).
• Don't multitask! You may think you're getting more done, however it can actually decrease your productivity. 
• Get rid of any distracters such as your phone, TV, and anything else that might take your focus from your work.
• Set goals and incentives - Goals will help you stay on track and save time; incentives will help you want to complete your goals. 
•  Don't cram! If you know you have exams coming up give yourself enough time to study and prepare. Most people think they can stay up the night before and go over everything quickly. Your brain will not retain all the information and you will more than likely fail. Over a week or two time frame study a little each day and your brain will remember it better.
•  And last but not least, make sure you stay well rested! Your brain stores it's long term memories while you sleep. Want to pass that exam you've been studying for? Then get at least 8-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night!