When I choose to attend DePauw three years ago, I never thought I would be starting my senior year doing online classes at home. It has been an adjustment, to say the least. But over the last few weeks, I have tried to develop a system to be as successful as possible! Hopefully, these tips can help you too.
- Put Your Assignments in Your Planner
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This is crucial. The first week of classes when I get my syllabi, I spend some time writing down every reading, assignment, and due date. I like this method because it keeps everything in one place. It not only saves you time but also should help you keep track of your work so you don’t forget anything. It’s much harder to keep up with due dates at home when you aren’t surrounded by your classmate or physically in the classroom every day. Whether you use Google Calendar or an old notebook, this trick is a life saver.
- Email Labels and Filters
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These two little tricks have been the most useful thing I’ve found for not getting overwhelmed when I look at my inbox. Before classes even started I was struggling to keep up with all the different emails from my professors. My first step was to create a label, or folder, for each of my classes and clubs. This is super helpful, but I still had to manually move each email into the folder. Then I discovered filters! This magical setting (found if you click on the three dots on any email) automatically sorts your mail by certain filters you set. So anytime a professor emails me their messages are immediately sent to its assigned folder.
- Folders
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Since you aren’t getting paper handouts in class anymore, a physical folder isn’t going to cut it. Keeping your files organized is going to make it way easier for you when you go to search for an important paper from the first week of school or need to turn in a essay that is buried in your downloads folder. You can either use Google Drive or the folders on your computer; I prefer Word so I just use my computer folders. I recommend making a “school” folder and then inside that making additional folders for each of your classes. This keeps everything neat and easy to find.
If you have an iPad and do a lot of your reading there, I also recommend Goodnotes. It’s great to be able to highlight and jot down notes as you read. There are also lots of options for organization. You can either add files straight into your notebook or keep them in a separate folder. This is a great alternative to either printing every single handout or having to read on your desktop.
p.s. If you want to spice up how your folders look (and you have a Mac) you can copy and paste a new photo over the icon in your “get info” tab. See pin for more info.
- Make a Friend in Every One of Your Classes
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I know what you are thinking, the last thing you want to do is have to socialize with someone new online, but trust me. This is something that I have been doing since like sophomore year, but it’s more now than ever. Even if you have to reach out to someone on Instagram or over email its nice to have a friend to ask “Can you find the reading?” or “Did the professor say this was due in class or at midnight?” The good thing about small schools like DePauw is you probably already know someone in your class, and if you don’t the class sizes are so small it won’t be hard to meet someone new.
- Email Your Professors ALOT
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Now that office hours are over Zoom and you feel detached from campus, it can be easy to forget that professor are still there for you. If I ever have a question about a class, even if its small, I still reach out to my professor. This shows them that you are engaged and trying, and also most of the time solves your problem. I even sent one of my professors some memes the other day that related to our reading. Just because you aren’t in the same place, doesn’t mean you can’t still develop a great relationship with your professor.
(See the aforementioned meme above.)
Online school sucks, especially when it’s not what you signed up for. But just becuase it’s not your ideal form of education doesn’t mean that you still can’t get great grade and learn a lot. Hope these tips help you continue to be sucessful from home.