Only a few years ago people used to use the internet for entertainment. They watched YouTube videos, played PC games, and chatted on Facebook. But today, users can learn online. It’s cheaper and lets you study everywhere.
People approach online education with different motivations. Some plan to increase their income, others want to get a new profession or extra skills. But even the most motivated students have a tendency to drop out or put their studies on indefinite pause.
After all, the online learning format differs from classic school and university education models and imposes more personal responsibility on the student. After buying a course, many find that they don’t understand how much time and effort they can spend on learning, what scheduling modes are appropriate for them, and how switching to other activities affects their learning. As a result, some get scared and decide not to continue learning. But this can be avoided by approaching the issue systematically.
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Self-organization Is the New Black
Online education relies heavily on the student’s self-organization: no one will shake their credit card and write warning letters – after all, and the learner himself has no fear of expulsion. Without deadlines, tests and sessions, studying looks like an endless undifferentiated process. Self-organization is a central skill that needs to be practiced in order to learn successfully online.
Schedule Your Study Time
A study plan is necessary for two reasons. First, it helps to set the pace so you won’t feel like you’re studying endlessly. Second, it will create a habit: studying will become an integral part of your weekly routine, but it won’t be spread out over it.
Keep a To-do List
The educational process consists of many micro-tasks, and it’s important to plan them, too. Don’t think that small tasks don’t require emotional and intellectual resources. Try not to plan too much. It is better to make a list of three or four tasks that can be completed at a time. Use apps where you can check a box and see what you’ve done at the end of the day. It also helps not to devalue your accomplishments.
Arrange Your Workspace
You have to be physically comfortable. If you feel discomfort, you can not learn. Also, the work area should be separated from the rest area, despite the fact that there, and there you can be with a laptop. A study should become an integral part of life, but still separate.
Structure Your Knowledge
Information should also be organized: keep tables, dictionaries of terms – it helps to make a map of knowledge, which you can always refer to, not to panic if something is forgotten. It is also a way to see the progress of your learning, to assess the amount of work you have done.
Speak to Your Supervisors
Some people just need deadlines. You can set them by contacting a mentor: they act as an external authority to help organize the learning process. Mentors also point out outcomes and help track student progress.
Challenges of the Online Era
With psychological education, we come to believe that mental stability is the key to success in studies and work. Emotional burnout is already included in the WHO international classification of diseases. It is characterized as a syndrome of chronic stress at work and refers to the factors that affect human health.
And the transition of our life to online-only aggravates the situation. Researchers have recently been increasingly using the term “Zoom fatigue” to point to specific causes that lead to fatigue, anxiety or apathy from using online platforms. Primarily, such fatigue is due to an unbalanced reward system in online activities: for example, the lack of direct contact with interlocutors prevents the activation of dopaminergic pathways, which reduces alertness, motivation, and energy.
The emotional state during learning can fluctuate between three states: euphoria, energy-saving mode, and burnout. Once you start studying, energy and interest are off the charts and there is a desire to learn 24/7.
Then the brain gradually adapts and goes into energy-saving mode, which becomes the ideal state during work – it needs to be maintained for as long as possible. Over time, learning tasks can lead to stress, and if it is not suppressed, the desire to learn comes to naught.
These tips will help you not to quit studying:
- It’s okay to take a break. If you’re feeling burned out, it’s okay to take a legitimate break: two weeks, for example. You don’t have to think that this is a disaster and you’ll never go back to studying again. There are many ways to relax from such activities. For example, you can sign up for a free two-week subscription and don’t renew it after the end of this period. Or it’s possible to play funny slots at the Casino Nigeria for these 14 days, and when your rest ends, just contact customer support to block your account to avoid entering it during your productive period.
- Spell out the learning objectives. Determine why you need this training. Perhaps graduates of the program are working for good companies, and that’s what you want, too. It is also helpful to imagine the lifestyle you are striving for. In moments when you feel like dropping out, it is a good idea to reread this list to remind yourself why you are here.
- Don’t Blame Yourself for the Rest. Forgetting to study can also be a consequence of prolonged procrastination: it is a common phenomenon – “I do everything except what I have to do. An unwillingness to work arises when there are too many tasks or they are too difficult. In such a case, you need a proper rest, when you are completely distracted from the tasks of study and do not blame yourself for it.
- Take time for emotion. If you know that you consistently have some negative emotions or thoughts, it is possible to allocate time for them during the day. For example, schedule one hour during which you suffer, feel sorry for yourself, cry, and think you’re not doing well. This will legitimize the negative states and help you not fill your whole life with them.
- Start from scratch. Our life experiences and social expectations, which form certain patterns of behavior and perception of emerging circumstances, get in the way of learning something new. These are learned and seen as the only right and possible thing to do, but this is not always the case.
- Throw away perfectionism. Setting yourself up for a perfect result – either to do perfectly or not to do at all – becomes a serious obstacle to continuing to learn when tasks become more difficult. You have to learn to recognize that it’s the fact of doing that matters, not the end result.
- Remember the “spotlight effect.” This is a cognitive distortion that leads us to believe that those around us pay a lot of attention to how we look or how successful we are. In fact, this is completely wrong, and most people just don’t care. “The spotlight effect” comes with social anxiety and the projection of one’s self-esteem onto the minds of others. Try to care less about what everyone thinks of you. If you get a profession online because you can’t find a job for a long time or want to change careers, don’t think of yourself as a loser or a failure. It’s a bold and deliberate move that you definitely shouldn’t be ashamed of.
Also, think about your own interests. Social expectations are one of the common obstacles to pursuing education as it relates to adult education. We are influenced by various myths about what a person should be in their 30s, 35s, 40s, and so on.
For example, it is believed that a man by the age of 35 should have already decided on a profession and earn a lot of money, rather than study. There is a term “hegemonic masculinity”, an image of masculinity that is considered correct: to be rich, prone to risk, physically strong and hardy.
As we understand it, this image is idealized by a very small proportion of men. Men are cramped within such a framework, but their influence is still strong to this day. If you are interested in learning and feel you want to do something new, weigh what is more important to you: meeting society’s expectations or living life to the fullest.
