As much as the COVID pandemic gave most people a much needed break, it also made it hard to keep in touch with regular routine especially for students at all levels. When staying home for so long, one can easily forget to keep in touch with schoolwork during the quarantine season. This is especially true for college students who are mostly independent and thus lack parents or guardians to help them keep their academic discipline. Here is a list of a few ways college students can use technology to keep in touch with their schoolwork during the lockdown period.
Keep in touch with your school
While most schools are not physically open, they still try to operate online. Colleges have set up online classes for their students to try to keep up with their course work while at home. Some are simply posting useful materials for their students to access and use whenever they can. While it may not be possible to attend all online classes or keep a constant online presence in your school’s online portal, you can still try to check in occasionally in order to not miss any crucial happenings.
Use online resources
Most college students use the school library as their main source of information. However, during lockdown, this may not be possible. That does not mean that you should not keep studying. Thanks to technology, you can access a great amount of information online at all times. With a steady internet connection, all you have to do is find relevant and useful resources. In fact, you can find more data on the internet than you would in a library especially when it comes to recent publications.
Conduct online focused group discussions
Focused group discussions and peer studying methods are arguably some of the most effective ways of studying and grasping concepts especially in college. This is because you get to hear perceptions and opinions other than your own thus getting the push to think further. Focused group discussions can also help you understand something in an easier and better way compared to how you would if a lecturer explained it in class. Group discussions give learning a personal and more relaxed feel, which makes understanding things simpler. With the quarantine restrictions, you can try to carry out a focused group discussion through online forums such as Zoom calls, Skype, and WhatsApp video calls. All these platforms allow for group calls, which gives you the same experience as physical discussions would.
Do your research paper/project
For college students nearing their final year, this might be the time to do your research project. Granted that you may not be able to access all your data collection points, you can still do a lot of significant work during this unplanned vacation. Take full advantage of the internet. You can even conduct online interviews and surveys and keep records of the interactions for your paper. Try to do as much as you can to keep the ball rolling so that when you resume to normal classes, it won’t be so hard to pick up from where you stopped.