Student Learning Strategies & Resources for during the COVID Pandemic

Is your institution fully online, or are your courses hybrid this semester? Here are Nu Rho Psi faculty’s tips and tricks to make the best out of online learning!

Just as you needed to learn what worked for you to study and succeed as a freshman, online courses take different skills to learn and succeed. Here are our recommendations for a successful semester:

  • Keep Learning; from ColoradoState University: A Guide for Successful On-line Learning
  • How to reduce noise on zoom for students & educators in noisy environments: https://krisp.ai/blog/zoom-noise-reduction/ -Found from UCLA Labor Studies in a tweet (found here). Either I can reach out to them to see if we can use their graphics or I can reach out to the author of the website to see if we can do something similar and create something similar with the NRP colors?
  • Using a sheet like this to plan out weekly schedule
    • Fill in classes first
    • Fill in any other regular commitments (weekly meetings, lab/work schedules, etc.)
    • Designate homework/study time on calendar
    • Designate time for rest/breaks.
  • Using a sheet like this to plan out semester schedule
    • Go through all syllabi, highlight dates that homework assignments and big papers are due, quiz dates, and test dates.
    • Fill those out on the sheet.
    • Fill out any other important dates that you might know (including big events, regular meetings, etc.)
    • For major assignments/quizzes/tests, put a reminder 2 weeks before, then 1 week before.
  • Use a plug-in like Momento in Google Chrome. Has cool photos, features a “What is your main focus for today?” that can be used for prioritizing a big task (only 1 at a time), as well as a To-do list in bottom right corner that can be used to list out as many things as needed and can be checked off as they are completed; can create multiple lists and toggle between them – might be useful for multiple big projects, multiple classes, etc. has more features too!
  • Power Planner (available on pretty much every device/operating system) | Free – “limited to 1 semester, 5 grades per class, and 1 repeating bulk entry of a task/event”. Has a premium version for a one time cost of $1.99 and account can be accessed on all devices – I found this app EXTREMELY helpful as a student. Features:
    • Built-in monthly, weekly, and daily calendars
    • Agenda for all assignments, quizzes, and tests that have not been completed.
    • Each course can be assigned a different color and is organized in the calendars that way, and students can input their educator’s information (name, contact info, TAs/preceptors name and info, office hours, etc.)
    • Students can input the weight of each grading category from the syllabus, as well as the grades they received on those assignments and the program will automatically determine what the student’s grade is in that course and calculate GPA.
    • Can be integrated into Google calendar.