Because COVID-19 has limited in-person university activities, you may be required to direct your own learning by establishing healthy learning habits and practices. The tips below can help you to maximize your learning time everyday.

• Schedule study blocks for each class. Creating regular, dedicated time provides you with the ability to make consistent progress toward completing your course goals.
• Create a checklist. Regularly charting your assignments allows you to prioritize them from the most urgent to the least, which allows you to make smart progress toward your academic goals.
• Complete assignments as soon as possible. Beating deadlines takes responsibilities off of your plate, feels less stressful, and will likely result in higher quality work. Compare this to procrastination, which requires you to cram and complete all of your assignments, and will likely result in lower quality work.
• Disconnect from your devices (when possible). Research shows that we reach for our smartphones over 50 times per day. Separating your phone can be a great way to remove distractions during dedicated work time.

Success in learning is measured by your personal mastery of a subject, so it is important to practice study habits that will guide you toward proficiency with the skills and knowledge that you will be learning. Integrating the following practices into your everyday learning routine can help you to achieve that success without last-minute cramming sessions.

• Take notes to engage with the content. Because you actively engage with the content while taking notes, you will retain more information than if you hadn’t. Add in visuals and even reorganize them to increase your knowledge retention.
• Use graphic organizers to organize your knowledge. Creating visual representations of your knowledge can help you to enhance your comprehension of concepts in the largely text-based environment of online learning.
• Find new strategies. If you usually study in a coffee shop or library, ask yourself what kind of environment helps you study. See if you can recreate that at home. Maybe it’s studying in a chair, rather than on your bed or couch, or moving to a new spot when you change tasks. If you feel you need background noise, consider a white noise app.
• Establish a study group. Interacting with people about content that you’re learning is key practice in a self-directed learning process. You can replicate the on-campus experience using Zoom’s capabilities to establish a live online study group. Don’t be shy about email your peers!
• Leverage the web. If you find that you are still struggling with a piece of content, utilize sites like Youtube and Kahn Academy which provide content in modes that are more digestible for non-academic users such as infotainment and demonstration videos.

In traditional face-to-face courses, communication can depend much more reliably on verbal inflections, physical cues, and regular meeting times. When online courses remove this from the context of learning, you must replace them with an increased commitment to clear, kind communication that benefits your instructors, your colleagues, and yourself. Below are a few tips for communicating for the common good in your online classroom.

• Use professional, clear language to describe any problems that you may be experiencing. This will help the professor to more accurately assist you.
• Describe exactly what you need when emailing to ensure you get quick and helpful answers. Don’t assume the person you’re communicating with knows what you’re talking about or where you’re looking for something.
• Check your email regularly for announcements from instructors, messages from your colleagues, and notifications about assignments.. To avoid feeling overwhelmed with your inbox, delete emails that you don’t need to keep.
• Answer punctually (within 24 hours) so that your professor and colleagues know that you are engaged. Neglecting to respond to a might force your professors to make decisions about grading without your input.
• Advocate for yourself to avoid misunderstandings or conflicts. If you feel as if your professor has given you the wrong grade, or that your colleagues are not engaging appropriately, send them a message in a timely manner to assure that any confusion is cleared up. If you have a testing accommodation and want to use it, please make sure your professor knows that.

In your f2f course, taking a quiz or test is as simple as showing up and completing the assessment. By contrast, taking tests online requires intentional effort and engagement. To assure that you walk away confident that you’ve aced each online test, follow the advice below:

• Establish a distraction-free environment in a bedroom or home office. Give yourself space to concentrate so that your focus is only on the test when you’re taking it.
• Block off periods of time to start and complete your test. For tests that have time limits, this is especially important - once you start the test, you won’t be able to stop it, so make sure you can complete it before you begin.
• Use a hard-wired network connection whenever possible. Wifi connections can be unreliable, and may inadvertently disconnect you when testing. Using a hard-wired connection guarantees that you’ll be able to start and finish your test in one session.
• Resist all temptations to cheat. Remember, you’re only cheating yourself and it’s fun to test ourselves.

• Open the test in only one tab or window.
• Watch the on-screen timer to assure (if taking a timed test)
• Save your test periodically to avoid lost data.
• Compose essay responses in Word or Notepad before transferring them to Isidore. Then, save the response to your computer to avoid the loss of data.
• Embed a picture from your camera by following the steps in this instructional video.
• Email your instructor and the Office of eLearning (elearning@udayton.edu) immediately if you encounter access problems.

Maintaining motivation is a considerable challenge for those learning in online environments. To keep yourself engaged, consider reflecting on your personality, defining the aspects of university life that give you energy, and working to assure that you continue engaging with those. The suggestions below can also help you to maintain energy and momentum until you return to campus.

• Practice good self-care. Eating well, getting plenty of sleep, and exercising all can assist you to stay focused on academics.
• Take regular breaks for 10-15 minutes to stretch the arms and legs. This can help you keep focus and avoids eye strain from computer monitors.
• Establish a Virtual Learning Community. Utilize the capabilities of social technologies to create virtual spaces where you can interact with colleagues from class and stay connected to the University.
• Plan for the future. Continually remind yourself that the crisis will pass by identifying the campus activities and groups that you would like to participate in when you return to campus.

Taking online classes can invoke stress that may tempt you to compromise your academic integrity by using your colleagues’ work, or by seeking it out from other sources.

• Review the University of Dayton’s Academic guidelines for academic integrity.
• Prioritize urgent and important assignments. Putting off assignments until the last minute can increase the temptation to cheat. By completing assignments as soon as you possibly can, you can reduce the stress that may incentivize you to cheat.

If you need writing support, the Write Place continues to offer their services remotely. Below are two ways to get in touch with a writing consultant for help.

• Submit your paper to Digital Drop-Off in Isidore to have a writing consultant spend 30 minutes reviewing your paper electronically. You will receive feedback in Isidore and there is an option to notify your instructor that you used the service. Click on "Write Place" in the left-hand menu of your Home site in Isidore to access the DDO tool.
• Schedule a virtual appointment with a writing consultant. Alternatively, you can reach out to the Write Place via email writeplace@udayton.edu to set up a virtual consultation.

Please reach out to the IT Service Center for help with any technical issues you’re facing. They can be reached by phone at (937) 229-3888 or email at itservicecenter@udayton.edu.

There will likely be some hiccups along the way as classes transition to blended or online formats. Please do your best to remain patient and be kind when reaching out for help or dealing with a technical challenge. This is a hard time for everyone and it’s healthy to start from a mindset that everyone is doing their best.