Online, But Not on Your Own

With attempts to slow the spread of the COVID-19, or coronavirus, outbreak, many educational institutions, including nearly all law schools, have cancelled on-campus classes and moved to distance learning for some period of time.

Whether you’ve participated in online courses before, or whether you’re now being forced to do so for the first time, here are a few tips that you should consider as you make the transition to distance learning.

Know the learning platform for your courses.

Your professors may use a variety of teaching platforms, methods, and strategies that they have determined to work best for the delivery of their courses or specific content within the courses. These might be different from what were used earlier in the semester. Whether they’re now using Blackboard, TWEN, Zoom, or some other platform or software, make sure you know what is being used and how to use it before classes begin and assignments are due. Technical difficulties aren’t an excuse for late or missed assignments.

Know also whether your online classes will be synchronous (where you “attend” classes with other students during regular class time) or asynchronous (where you’re able to complete your work within a specified window of time), or a combination of both (e.g., hybrid).

Budget your time and set schedules.

While the transition to online classes may only be temporary, make sure to block off regular time to work on your courses and stick to that schedule. Setting a specific time period to work on your classes will keep you on track. If you had an effective study schedule when classes met in-person, then follow that same schedule even those classes are now online.

You shouldn’t view the unexpected move to online classes as another week of Spring Break or just a way to “get by” with the material before face-to-face class meetings resume. And you should not think that online classes are any less effective or rigorous than face-to-face classes. Many times, it’s quite the opposite. Personally, I have attempted to incorporate teaching and learning methods into my own online class sessions that weren’t possible in a face-to-face environment. Remember, for every hour of online instruction you have, you should anticipate another two hours of additional outside work—at a minimum. That’s true for face-to-face or remote classes, and synchronous and asynchronous meetings.

Create a dedicated study space.

Online courses are a convenient way to attend a course that you cannot otherwise attend on campus. That being said, don’t discount the importance of having a private and consistent place to concentrate and work on your course. Remove distractions around you. Prevent multitasking. Don’t open multiple apps or windows on your computer. And please put that mobile device away. There are some great apps out there to lock down your mobile device when you want to study. I use Forest. If you have a hard time resisting the urge to check out social media or news outlets when you’re studying, check out Forest or similar apps to avoid distractions.

Participate in online activities.

There’s often a misconception that online learning is merely passive learning. But online courses, even those that must be quickly developed in an uncertain time, often incorporate many active learning activities and assignments. Active participation is very important to a quality online experience for everyone. You may have to participate in discussion boards in some of your courses that you might not have needed to do in the past. These discussion boards and forums are just as much of the learning experience as any other part of the course. Of course, this should go without stating, but being polite and respectful isn’t only common sense, it’s necessary for a productive and supportive online environment. In a positive online environment, you’ll be able to express your thoughts and opinions openly and feel your contribution has been valued by both your classmates and your professor.

Put your goals in writing.

Although this current transition to online classes is only temporary, you should be deliberate in how you approach these next classes in each of your courses. I encourage you to write down what you hope to achieve at the end of each week’s online classes. For example, if you’re beginning a new unit on, say, Freedom of Speech, maybe your goal for the end of that week is to understand how to examine fact patterns dealing with time, place, and manner restrictions or maybe it’s to memorize all of the relevant tests for all the lesser-protected categories of speech.

Be flexible, patient, and understanding.

These are uncertain times that required quick decisions and significant changes to what we know as “business as usual.” Entire online courses can take up to a year to create. The coronavirus has forced the transition from face-to-face to online classes to take place within days. This is no easy task for professors to accomplish or for students to get accustomed to. With that said, everyone needs to be flexible, patient, and understanding. There will be a learning curve for many during this transition, but this curve is necessary to flatten the curve.

Take care of yourself.

Stay healthy by getting adequate rest, nutrition and exercise. Use positive self-talk to reduce anxiety. Schedule time to take care of yourself. Go for walk. Get some fresh air. And because you should still be practice appropriate social distancing, make an extra effort to call or FaceTime your friends and family.

Engage with your professors.

As you “attend” classes, review course materials, and synthesize what you’ve learned, reach out to your professors with your questions. Your professors can always be reached by email, but with classes taking place online, they may also be scheduling virtual office hours though Collaborate, Zoom, FaceTime, or Skype. Also, remember that this transition is a new experience for many of your professors. And many professors, like me, entered the world of academia because of the teaching and student interaction. So taking advantage of virtual office hours is a good way for students and professors to stay connected with one another.

In the end, remember—even though you might be "attending" classes online, you’re not on your own.