Welcome to the age of online learning! It’s a time when going to college means opening up the Zoom app and tuning out your professor more than usual. Many have even gone as far as to dispose of their alma mater and declare themselves Zoom University students. It has a nice ring to it! At times, it also means you’re paying to teach yourself rather than getting taught by your professors.
The real issue here is not that we have to sit through hours of awkward silence while our professors are fishing for answers the same way Dora the Explorer used to encourage kids to answer her question. No, that’s not it. It’s the fact that you now, more often than not, have to teach yourself these courses!
In the vast world of the internet, coming across useful resources for that one class you’re probably thinking about can be extremely frustrating and exhausting.
So, throughout this period where we’ve all been grappling with the pandemic, I’ve compiled a small, but handy, selection of channels that can help you understand that stubborn topic or reinforce a concept you already know! (I am not affiliated with any of these channels or applications, so these opinions are my own!)
Here are some online (academic) saviors:
The Organic Tutor: Some may know him because of organic chemistry or math, but regardless of the topic, this content creator is saving the grades of college students one video at a time! Whether you need more practice before an exam or want to better grasp a concept, this is the perfect channel! It provides examples and allows you either to pause and work on them or just let the video proceed and explain the solutions! 10/10 recommend!
The Amoeba Sisters: Ever had a hard time understanding that science-y lingo your professors use in biology? Well, struggle no more! The Amoeba Sisters is an animation-based YouTube channel that explains biology concepts in layman’s terms and also gives you simpler examples of how they are applied.
Crash Course: The good old crash courses are perfect for last-minute studying — queue the sighs of remembrance. If you’ve never delved into the depths of Crash Course, they cover a variety of subjects with a plethora of videos. Whether it’s biology, history, or philosophy, this team has it all. These videos may not include everything you go over in a lecture, but they are useful in order to understand the overarching themes of the topic!
TED-Ed: TED-Ed isn’t exactly a tutor channel, but it does have videos that cover a variety of topics, and the information in these videos may also be a good refresher! If you ever just need a more brief explanation of something or are just curious about other topics, then this channel is definitely perfect for you!
Khan Academy: If you don’t already know about them, let me introduce you to a very good friend of mine. Khan Academy caters to so many different subjects and branching concepts that you could practically teach yourself something new every day. For STEM-related topics, this could be a lifesaver, since their Youtube channel provides a variety of videos about math, anatomy, and physiology. Not to mention, they also have an entire website where you can access these videos. The site includes typed explanations that take you through each step and practice problems for you to exercise that beautiful brain muscle!
Extras: If you are looking for apps to study, look into OH for extra peer to peer tutoring in courses found at your university. Math Tutor helps with providing videos that explain certain concepts you might be having trouble with. Quizlet is amazing if you love to learn with flashcards or quizzes. The app incudes an additional “Learn” option (highly recommend) that allows you to go through the deck by matching the terms to their definitions, typing them in, or doing the original “flip the flashcard” method. Desmos is a math graphing app that also helps with visualizing a graph orientation if you don’t remember it off the top of your head!
**Most of these apps should be available in the App Store and Play Store.
I hope this article provided you with either new resources to survive your online education or reminded you of useful YouTube channels that you already knew about (and hopefully love)! I wish you the best of luck on your journey to succeeding this semester and finding even more useful sources to aid you in your studies!