The Covid-19 crisis and
the necessary circuit-breaker measures have resulted in all students being
required to switch to online classes and learning. As a student myself, I have
found the sudden switch to be quite abrupt as there wasn’t much time provided
for us to adapt to the new circumstances. Conversations with other friends who
are also fellow students or in the teaching profession have largely been about
concerns over the compromise in quality of education and learning, and uncertainty
over assessments, assignments, and grades.
The need to adapt
quickly in an unfamiliar scenario, together with the uncertainties experienced
in this current crisis, may raise the levels of anxiety and stress, which may
then lead to further polarization in the self-efficacy of students.
As we have learned
repeatedly from our core foundation units and basically any unit that is
related to social and behavioural psychology, we humans are inherently and
innately social creatures (Tomasello, 2014). Even introverts will form social
bonds with others that display similarity and familiarity. This is largely due
to the essential social cognitive need for feedback and regulation of our
self-identity and self-concept, which we receive from interactions with our
environment and the people around us (Young, 2008). Such interactions are most
robust in a real-life setting, such as face-to-face, where both salient and
non-salient cues through verbal and non-verbal communication provide us with
the necessary feedback. Therefore, your concerns regarding the compromise and
uncertainty in online learning are not unfounded.
The SGPsychStuff team
would like to suggest some tips that may help improve your online learning
experience for you to stay safe and stay awake (during class!).
‘Ouch…’
1. Stick to your routine: Research has shown that
routines are important to our subjective wellbeing. Routines subconsciously
help us to establish a perception of time and provides us with structure and
meaning in our daily lives (Avni-Babad & Ritov, 2004; Heintzelman &
King, 2018). As a student, there will be a couple of routines that we have
grown accustomed too, and while the situation has changed, such that we no
longer need to leave the house and travel to school, we should still try to
stick to our routines as closely as possible. This can be as simple as choosing
your outfit of the day and dressing up for school (there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to look good at home!),
preparing or ordering a drink such as bubble tea to sip on during class (ok lah most bubble tea shops are closed q_q but…
actually old school teh-peng also not bad mah).
If part of your routine involves
meeting classmates prior to class to travel to school together, you can even explore
setting a time to meet your classmates online before entering the online class
session together! Ok, the last one sounded a bit lame; I’ll admit, but case in
point, studying is not an easy task, do what you have to do to feel comfortable
and prepared enough for your online lesson so that studying is a little less
painful.
“Homer learning at...
home”
2. Make use of the
technology:
Maybe information just doesn’t get as easily absorbed by your brain during
online lessons as efficiently as attending a physical class. Or maybe the
device you are using has pretty bad static in the audio and tends to lag and
freeze up. Are there any work-arounds? Yes! (pardon my enthusiasm) There are programs and apps that allow you to
audio or video record your online class so that you are able to review the
topics covered during class, in the event that you require more time to absorb
the information. Of course, do seek permission from your tutor before doing so,
and also do remember to actually revise the content and not let the files
slowly disappear into the thousands of files in the thousands of folders you
have on your commmpuuutttteeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrr…………...
“umm… cher, my computer disappear”
3. Practice active recall
and spaced repetition:
As the circuit-breaker prevents us from studying in conducive environments such
as school or the library, it may be a good time to pick up effective study
techniques such as active recall and spaced repetition. Active recall and
spaced repetition were found to have the highest utility and effectiveness as
compared to other study techniques (Kang, 2016; Karpicke, 2016). I myself
personally started to practice these two techniques about a year ago, and it
has helped improved my ability to encode, store, and retrieve information. I use
a digital flashcard system, such as Anki
(http://apps.ankiweb.net), and I am able to revise through my phone during
awkward pockets of time, such as while: waiting for your turn to use the
bathroom, waiting for food, waiting for the super long intro on a Netflix show
that your household member wants to watch for the 1000th time to be
over. This has allowed me to cover more ground in my revision.
Sounds great, right? There are many
similar apps/programs that you can download and use on to your smartphones or
computers, and a number of YouTube tutorials and guides on how to practice
these two study techniques. Feel free to check it out!
4. Don’t be paiseh: ‘Don’t be paiseh? Huh? Wah lao what
kind of advice is that?’ That might be the first few words you have after
reading the title of point #4, but hear me out. Remember I mentioned earlier
about the risk of further polarization occurring due to the new online class
arrangement? Well, you got to admit, attending an online class actually feels a
little weird, right? Some thoughts naturally pop up in our heads, for example:
‘do I look weird on the screen?’, ‘what if my voice sounds funny?’, or ‘how do
I know when my turn is to speak or ask a question?’. These new insecurities are
completely reasonable and natural, but they may also inhibit us from being
vocal enough to ask questions and clarify information, which will then
compromise on our learning.
We students also have to remember
that our tutors and lecturers are also human, and they might not actually be as
comfortable with technology as we younger folks are; therefore, they might be
facing some obstacles of their own when trying to teach the class through a
camera and computer screen. For example, one of my professors shared with us
that during a normal physical class, he always felt slightly awkward when none
of us replied his question. However, that awkwardness was amplified tenfold when
he asked a question through his computer screen, and none of us replied. He
also didn’t know if any students were lagging behind, as compared to a normal
class where he would have been able to observe the class closely. Thus, be bold;
take advantage of the ‘raise-hand’ and chat functions in the app; or even
better, speak out and ask questions as if it was a normal physical class to
ensure that the class, albeit an online one, is still interactive and engaging
for our learning.
“so… does anyone wants
to do extra practice questions on statistics?”
We hope that these few points covered will help you with
your online learning experience. Do drop a comment if any of it works for you,
or if you have any feedback or suggestions. Please take care, stay safe, and
stay strong!
References
Avni-Babad,
D., & Ritov, I. (2004). Routine and the perception of time. Journal of Experimental Psychology General,
132(4), 543-550.
Heintzelman,
S. J., & King, L. A. (2018). Routines and meaning in life. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
45(5), 688-699.
Kang, S. H.
K. (2016). Spaced repetition promotes efficient and effective learning: Policy
implications for instruction. Policy
Insights from the Behavioural and Brain Sciences, (3).
Karpicke, J.
D. (2016). A powerful way to improve learning and memory. Psychological Science Agenda. Retrieved from:
http://apa.org/science/about/psa/2016/06/learning-memory.
Tomasello,
M. (2014). The ultra-social animal. European
Journal of Social Psychology, 44(3), 187-194.
Young, S. N.
(2008). The neurobiology of human social behaviour: An important but neglected
topic. Journal of Psychiatry and
Neuroscience, 33(5), 391-392.
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