Online Study Skills

Making a specific place to study is a good idea to get you in the right mindset. This can be anywhere. It can be a particular spot in your home, a library, a coffee shop, or wherever you're comfortable. Ideally it will be somewhere that you can work for uninterrupted stretches, distraction-free, with access to internet, food, a bathroom, and materials.

Study Space Tips 

Make a study kit where everything you will need when you sit down to do your work will be in one place. This will include your computer to access your coursework and any of the following:

• notepads or notebooks
• pens, pencils, highlighters 
• earbuds or headphones if you study better with background noise or need to block out the noise around you. 
• textbook(s), workbooks or any additional material your instructor may have assigned 

Can't Find a Good Study Spot?

Book a Study Room in COM Library!

One of the trickiest parts of being successful in an online course is time management, especially if you have multiple courses. Since you do not have a set time to be in a classroom it is easy to lose track of when assignments are due and to keep up with your coursework. 

Using a calendar is your best bet. It can be a paper calendar or planner if that works for you, but calendar apps have lots of advantages since you can set them up to send you reminders. You probably already have have on one your phone that you can use, or as a COM student you have access to MS Outlook that you can download. 

Schedule Tips

• Print out your syllabus and make note of all important deadlines
• Have a calendar or planner and mark down deadlines and dates you plan on starting these assignments 
• Create a weekly study plan, in essence, create your class time. You may also need to do daily to-do list for more demanding courses 
• Schedule breaks too! 

A popular time management method is the Pomodoro Technique. This method uses a timer to break down work into sections separated by short breaks. For example, you would study for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break, and then repeat the process. Scheduling breaks when studying or completing assignments is important to avoid burnout or becoming overwhelmed in your class. 

Being actively engaged in your online class will be key to your success. Get to know your instructor and classmates. Email and use the message boards to interact with them frequently. This will help you create a support system if you need to reach out for help during your semester. 

Examples of active engagement:

• Watch all videos and lectures your instructor posts
• Collaborate with your classmates on group assignments 
• Participate in discussion boards (more than the required postings)
• Complete all assigned readings 

Participation Tips

Always review your instructor's feedback, even when you received a good grade on your assignment. By reviewing their feedback you will know what you did well on and what could use improvement. Also, remember every instructor is different and may have different expectations on similar assignments, their feedback will help guide you to a better grade in their class. 

Joining study groups can be a great way to help you stay focuses on your class. Interacting with other students in your class can help provide motivation and different perspectives on your course work.

All COM students have access to MS Teams, so that's an way to have a study group online or you could meet up in person. Find out how to get MS Teams free for PC, MAC, Android or iOS. 

Want to meet up in person?

Book a Group Study Room in COM Library!

You can watch some great videos from COM on how to login and use D2L.