Our third quarter of remote learning is officially here! Although not the most ideal of situations, I feel like most of us are starting to get used to Zoom calls and breakout rooms. Lately, my TikTok feed has been overtaken by people sharing their tips for succeeding in online school—which includes creating lengthy schedules on apps like Google Calendar, Notion, or Excel. They seem super helpful, but at the same time, extremely time-consuming. To save you some time, here are a few quick ways that you can improve your online learning experience:
- Cloud sync your lecture notes
-
I take lecture notes on my iPad, so when I sync them to my iCloud account, they are accessible from my phone. Since online school lends to a more flexible schedule, I’ve been picking up more hours working and volunteering. While this means less time for studying, I’ve been able to fill in the gaps by reviewing notes off my phone while on breaks, waiting in line, or while stuck in traffic! I used this hack during the in-person school year as well, but it has become extra helpful while learning remotely. If you take notes on paper, you can alternatively take photos of them and view them in your camera roll while you’re on the go.
- Change your Canvas time zone
-
If you’re an out-of-state student like me, you’ll understand the struggle of converting due dates on Canvas to the time in your respective time zone. Changing the time zone under “settings” in Canvas only takes a few seconds but has seriously saved me from unnecessary confusion.
- Turn on your computer’s night shift settings
-
In an era of remote-everything, blue light glasses have become increasingly popular. However, I’ve never been a fan of them due to their subtle yellow tinge. So, I instead turn on “night shift” on my laptop’s “displays” settings. You can choose how warm you want your display to be and for how long you want it on. Your screen may seem a little yellow at first, but I promise your eyes will adjust to it in no time! It’s my favorite hack for getting better sleep after staring at screens all day.