by Dulce Lopez

We are all in this together. The unknown may be terrifying, but there are a handful of strategies we can use to maintain control of our education.

My name is Dulce Lopez and I am a senior majoring in human services leadership with a minor in Spanish. Transitioning from in-person to online classes has been a challenge, and in the past two weeks of online classes I’ve learned three important things that have really made an impact in my success!

Go easy on yourself!

Through my whole college experience I have never taken an online course. Going to class, having a face to face interaction with professors and students, has always given me the motivation to attend my lectures. Although I consider myself to be attentive and organized, physically being present helps to be in the moment. Staying home and doing everything through a computer screen has been a huge challenge for me. I consider myself to be an extrovert and not having the capability to see everyone’s smiling faces, making conversation with my fellow classmates and physically sitting in a classroom makes me feel like there’s something missing in my life. I know it’s important to understand that this is a major shift, and it’s OK to feel like it’s hard!

Think about what’s impacting your internet connection.

When attending virtual meetings for my courses, I have come to realize that internet connection is crucial! I am very fortunate to have a strong network connection at my house. However, all of our devices are connected to the network and it’s evident that it slows down when my sisters and I are trying to access our google meets, ZOOM conferences and Microsoft team meetings. A helpful tip for students in the same boat is to schedule a time to disconnect some of our devices from our home network. For example, we make sure that all of our phones are disconnected from wifi when classes take place. It makes a big difference in our connection speed!

Stay on your normal sleep schedule.

Another tip that I have for students is to get enough sleep at night. My sleeping schedule was very thrown off during spring break. I was not prepared for my first week back to classes. Some of my professors shaped their classes to be discussions and alternative assignments instead of virtual meetings. The other half of my professors continued to have classes at our regular times. I was not prepared to wake up at eight in the morning. It was very difficult knowing that classes were now a click away instead of a walk away. We must be well-rested in order to succeed, because our minds are running at all times – especially now with everything that is going on. Having a rested mind gives us the opportunity to think clearly and stay focused on what we have control over.

These past weeks have gone by so fast, I can just imagine how the rest of the semester will feel like. Overall, classes have been a bit challenging for me because this is all new to me. I know a lot of other students are going through the same difficulties. With time and experience, our classes and studying habits will become easier and we’ll begin to see light at the end of the tunnel. We are intelligent, we are strong, we are TITANS!