 Good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today as we talk about effective Virtual learning student resources and strategies This is our first of three webinars that we're doing over the next couple of days And we're really happy that you are going to be joining us So what we're going to talk about today? time management strategies how in the world can you fit all this in and Keep your sanity and try to keep that balance of your coursework as well So let's move on as I mentioned we're going to talk about time management strategies And we have three presenters for this who I'll introduce in just a moment and We'll go through introductions We're going to talk about the big picture Keith Williams from the tutoring center in the Center for academic success is going to Give us a good lesson and how much time you actually have in a week And then talk about some time management strategies how you can access resources Remotely as well We're going to have lots of opportunity for questions and answers today from our viewers on YouTube And I also want to share with you the opportunity to earn a digital badge for participation It's a really great opportunity for you to show the learning that you have gained over these three webinar sessions Maybe adding that to your LinkedIn profile as you continue to grow in your academic career And as I mentioned, this is the first of three, so we'll remind everybody about the next two sessions that are coming up So who's with us today? We have an all-star panel. We're super excited to talk about virtual learning strategies today Keith Williams our tutor program or administrator in the tutoring center for the Center for academic success He works on peer-to-peer tutoring and academic success for all students at UVM Dr. Nicole Breslin is joining us out of the Department of Psychological Psychological Science She focuses on developmental and clinical psychology youth Externalizing problems and social functioning Nicole. We're so happy to have you with us today as well And we couldn't have a presentation about time management without hearing from a student who's figured this out So Megan is joining us as well She is majoring in human development and family studies and she's minoring in nutrition food science behavior change Health science studies and health and society and she works on study skills And she is a tutor in specific areas, so we're really excited to have this team sharing the information today So we're going to go through a lot of tips. I do want to share a few logistics We are recording this we will share as many of these tips out as possible And we will share the recording if you have any questions about the recording or any of the material that we presented today We'll make sure to put our email address up several times in the chat box If you have any follow-up questions that we didn't get to we will try to get to all your questions today If there's something we didn't get to please do follow up because we would be happy to hear from you And we will share the recording out with everybody who is joining us today So welcome everybody on YouTube Keith. I'm going to pass this over to you because I want you to give us the big picture There's 168 hours in the week, so let's figure out how we can break it down Thank you so much Nicole So this is an activity we do with a lot of students in study skills tutoring Before one can schedule themselves or manage their time in an effective way We have to acknowledge how much time we actually have and so there are in fact 168 hours in a given week And we're going to walk through what a typical college student schedule might look like so with that next slide please and So one of the adjacent tips we might offer is a good sleep hygiene So getting lots of sleep is really useful So if we're assuming this hypothetical student sleeping eight hours a night That's 56 hours per week right there in those blue blocks. You can see next slide a Typical student at UVM or any other university is taking about 15 hours worth of credit So that's lecture video lecture reviewing material things like that next slide So we might imagine this student is cooking some meals eating some meals. Hopefully three squares every day That's about 21 hours a week next slide Showering shaving clipping your toenails brushing your teeth hygiene seven hours a week go next The travels this is going to and from the grocery store to and from campus. Whatever it might be Seven hours is probably pretty conservative. We might say go next So chores is doing your laundry everything that is required as a human being Again might be a little on the conservative side depending on your perspective Actually look this tip up so between 18 and 30 year olds that the average American watches two hours of Netflix a day So if maybe you're not a Netflix user, you could imagine Hulu or scrolling through Instagram or whatever your hobby is We do a lot of procrastination time as humans go next and then most faculty are going to expect their students to put in At least two hours of independent time outside of each hour spent in lecture and some faculty will say three hours So we're giving you the lower end of that limit. That's about 30 hours a week for a typical student So one more slide and so that leaves only eight hours remaining in this person's schedule You might notice that this person is not going to the gym They're not calling mom or dad. There's literally no social time in this schedule built-in. They don't have a job And there's a lot of other small things that might add up And so we can see really easily that a person is going to be over scheduled if they're not managing themselves This is obviously a simplistic way to look at it. Sometimes you're Eating meals with friends. Sometimes you're studying and drinking coffee. Sometimes you're doing laundry and talking to mom Obviously, it's a little more complicated in that But I think the point here is clear that it's really important to schedule your time because it's easy to see these blocks get filled up Next slide, please. And so I will throw it up to the expert Professor Breslant Thank you Keith and thank you Nicole And I'd love to pass over to Nicole as well to share Why is that important for you to start thinking about your week and how you can approach it? Yeah, can ever can you hear me good? Good. Okay. So, um, you know, I would say it's always important, but I think it's especially important now With some of the courses being remote or hybrid courses or even completely online Scheduling your time is probably going to be even more important than it than it was Previously and so it's it's important to start thinking now I've already started emailing some of my students to give them my an idea of what my particular class is going to look like And I imagine that those emails are going to start coming out from other professors as well So be on the lookout for emails from your UVM email. That's one one big thing that I would say Um But I do think it's really important to start thinking about how am I going to fit all of this in and how am I going to? Strategize to make it, you know, the most effective way I know Keith is going to talk in a few moments about different activities You can do during different times and different during your different modes of work But really starting to think about what are the things that I need to do And how can I do that in a way that's going to make it so I can meet the requirements of my coursework and meet the requirements of Like he said being a human And so that really backwards planning is going to be really really important to think about, you know And for me, I I have the same issue, you know as as a faculty member I also am thinking I don't you know, how am I going to fit everything in for this semester that I need to And so I do the same thing. I block out my schedule. I have a google calendar That's how I do it and I block out here's when I'm going to work on this course Here's when I'm going to work on this course and I use that as kind of a moving document if I have to change something I need to move that time that I spend grading to another block of time. And so You know, I think that it's important to sort of start thinking now how you're going to start to fit it in Rather than getting a month into the semester and then having that panic feeling It's a really a good proactive way even though especially with this semester There's a lot that we don't know we don't know what the semester is going to end up looking like You know, nobody can tell us that so so having a plan that's then flexible I think is going to be most helpful for your mental health for your mental well-being but also for planning ahead Awesome. Thank you, Nicole so much for that good perspective on thinking ahead Even before classes start. I want to toss over to Megan Megan there is no comparison As to starting this fall to starting previous falls because things are very different But how are you approaching this as you're heading into your senior year? And in in some capacity, you'll be doing remote learning hybrid or full online learning as well for many students who are joining us on youtube How are you taking this approach to scheduling your schedule? Yeah, I think the first thing and the first like most important thing Would be figure out what works for you and what's works in the past this semester Those look really different. But if you know that mobile apps work really well for you Try to incorporate those into your schedule If you know that a paper planner has worked throughout high school and so on Keep using that and I think actually using it is the most important part because nobody's Telling you what you have to do. So if you're transitioning from high school, maybe you had a teacher telling you Okay, you have this paper do tomorrow Make sure you're doing it. You have this paper do next week get a head start It's more on you right now. So make sure you're looking at your syllabi ahead of time I like to make a big list at the beginning of the semester of all my assignments better do And then sometimes I like to break it down into a week. So put a little like Post it notes on my computer about what I have to do for the day or the week just to keep myself on track And I know that if I don't get it done today, I can get it done tomorrow So give yourself a little bit of grace with that where I'll adjust it Okay, but when look use what works for you if there's no one telling you that you have to use a planner Absolutely, that's that's the key is and trying a lot of these different things. I think is also the key that I want Um students to keep in mind. I want to just go back to this for a second the key pad Megan what's missing here? You know, what what do you think that you still needed to fit in? As a college student and also thinking of the students that are coming in in their first year What is missing here that you needed to fit in or you would you would fit into this schedule? Yeah, I think she's mentioned some things that are omitted here, but Especially thinking back to my first year. I had a work study job that I was doing six hours a week I was trying to make friends. I was going to the shining home I mean like meals are included here, but spending like elongated time at the dining hall making those connections Is a really a big part of my first year at least Even now I work every week Laundry is a big part of my week Just the little things that you don't necessarily Think about and also getting involved on campus. So if you want to go to a club meeting I'm part of the student advisory force for the college of education social services We have those meetings planning for that And just the things that happen along the way that can be really helpful and instrumenting your college career Awesome point. Thank you for sharing that we're going to get into And just a bit all the different opportunities that students have to get involved Remotely as well. So we'll get into that in just a minute. Keith. I'm going to toss back over to you because We all do it every single one of us does it we procrastinate over one thing or another. So Let's dig a little bit deeper into that. Why we procrastinate. Keith, can you pick us up here? Sure. Thank you, Nicole Yeah, I mean this is a reality that every human human faces is that We're often led astray by procrastination There are a lot of reasons why this happens and I think my co-presenters could each probably speak to this more effectively than I could But it often has to do with not really wanting to do the task at hand feeling required But not necessarily motivated to to do whatever that is And it's often easier our brains are hardwired for kind of that immediate gratification so Whether that is throw on the netflix or put on the instagram or go hang out with your friends They're all way more enjoyable than working on the large research paper And so it can feel good in that moment. And so without the proactive planning. We're talking about it's really easy to fall into this trap Do you want to reference what we're seeing? Yeah Trying to stay on focus, but also under Motivates you and Really be motivated to do things Yes, great. Thank you. Yeah, so we use this in our tutor training All the time So this is actually from a scholar in victor room who breaks down motivation to this equation So we have p sub s times i times v p sub s is the probability of success So this is the internalized perception of of completing a task at hand This often has to do with prior experience. So if we're thinking about taking a class It could be related to whether or not we've taken that class in the same discipline in the past And kind of how we did with it The i is instrumentality. So this is the the confidence that additional time energy and effort are going to lead to better results So again, if we're thinking about in an academic class, it's if I study more Will my final grade be better is essentially what we're thinking about and then v is the very subjective Value we place on a given thing. So especially for our first year students This is very typical in whether or not the class is required So some people have to take a class not because they want to but because their major or their college requires it And that can really decrease motivation And we really like to point out in this equation is that it is multiplication across the the board here So even if two of those three variables are really high If one of them is low or zero that means motivation is going to be low or zero And so a lot of this is really emotional and subjective It could be hard for an individual to increase these factors at will but We think that's really important to be aware Acknowledge these and do our best to kind of promote increasing these whether it's connecting it to future courses Kind of a future vocation things like that And so any any conversation about scheduling time We think it's really important to practice some self awareness and self reflection because we are different People at different times during the day depending on our level of productivity energy and attention And so kind of playfully we call them the three modes Go mode slow mode and no mode go mode is where we are most energized most alert and least distractible Slow mode is somewhere in the middle. We have some energy some attention some focus But we are not a hundred percent and then no mode are those times where we are completely useless We are not productive. We are easily distracted Perhaps very tired And it is when we are not effective at whatever we're trying to do So considerations might be very personal. So I know I am not a night owl. I know I am not effective after 10 pm I do not schedule productive time because I know I'll be useless after that I know personally that I need coffee to be effective in the morning. That's just something I need and then I know I'm highly sensitive to temperature. I do not work well on a hot stuffy library I need to have a little cooler temperature. These are things that are highly personal for me But they're really important for maximizing my own productivity So we really see this layered as kind of an environmental factors as well So thinking about how we can motivate and fix these modes might be useful Next slide Yeah, and so we really layer these modes on to what we might be doing in that time So go mode again is where you are most alert. You're most energetic is really where you should be doing your most complicated things Starting the new paper Doing brand new things learning brand new things doing highly active things Slow mode might be slightly less complicated tasks. So it might be reviewing materials. You're already pretty comfortable with or Starting smaller projects like drafting a paper, but not actually writing it. It could be creating a study guide prioritizing your to-do lists and no mode Is when you want to be productive, but you're at that no mode doing the simplest things So maybe you are creating flashcards while you're watching tv It might be you're organizing your notes while you're listening to some music Color coding highlighting materials making it to-do list the most basic things that will help you productive in the long term But aren't wildly complicated in the moment Talks back over to dr. Breslin as well Because you see students in so many different modes How how can you help students and thinking also of Seeing you know, I'm kind of air quoting students remotely. How can we help students to Understand the modes that they may be in to be effective in their studies this fall Yeah, so, you know, I think like he said, I think it does require self-reflection You know, I think especially if you're coming from high school You may have kind of been in go go go mode all the time and maybe you already had a structure in place where you know a Family member we had dinner at this time. We had you know Homework time at this time that's very different in college. There's much more independence which means We may be doing Netflix time when it's actually a good time for us to be you know studying for myself You know, I'm also not a night person. He said he can't work past 10. I have small children I can't work past eight. So like I am done Um, and so I'm aware of that I know that if I have to do extra work for a day I have to get up early and so so making that plan knowing myself And that's come after many years of me trying really hard to work late at night and it being just complete You know, it's completely unusable stuff. So I think that that part is important to self-reflection and also kind of thinking about Am I although we all need relaxation We all need the times that you know to kind of decompress Am I using a time that would be the easiest for me to be studying doing something leisurely and can I do that leisure time? You know at a different time. Maybe if you're sleepy in the middle of the day Maybe that's the time that you watch, you know, a little bit of Netflix rather than first thing in the morning when you've got the most You know, brain power, you know, it really takes kind of troubleshooting a little bit of that the other thing that I want to bring up About this idea of motivation That I like to talk to students about and I know Keith mentioned, you know This idea of like if you have a required course That can be really hard to get that motivation up and I really challenge folks to think about You know why you're you're in college and why you're doing these courses I think sometimes that gets lost for us when we're Slogging through our requirements and you know all the things that we need to do and we lose track of like why this is actually important to us And so I think that's an important thing to remember and reflect upon like yes Maybe I don't like taking this statistics course. However, taking the statistics course is going to help me You know get the career I want to get Or maybe I can find something that is really motivating in this course for me You know, maybe I'm taking psych one and I'm not super interested in psychology I'm you know a nursing major But what part of this can I use to apply to my future work? And so I think that kind of thinking through and doing a lot of that self-reflection can be really really helpful for for motivation Such a good point. Thank you so much and we'll come back to you. I know throughout the presentation Megan I'm hoping you can turn on your microphone because How did you figure this out? Um, you know a little bit reflective for yourself. How and when did you determine Your different modes as a college student. Was it an easy transition in or did it take a bit? I think Back to like the fall of my first year I was like I did well academically, but I was focused on like being in college like Getting to know UVM campus getting to know like the clubs that were here getting to know the people that were on my floor So sometimes even if we all decided we were going to sit in the common room study That was really us talking about like our high school memories So kind of recognizing that it's going to happen and again, give yourself grace with that But something that I find really productive for me and some students that I've worked with have responded positively as well Just set a timer put everything away and set a timer for a half hour an hour Whatever energy you think you have just press start and just like that's your time to work when the timer goes off Shut your laptop turn off your computer or whatever and go get a snack go take a walk something like that Because that image is the first repression slide. I think that describes a lot of today When I'm trying to do an assignment. So if you can just realize, okay, I need to do something right now Just set a timer you can do something for a half hour Even if it's just 15 minutes just get yourself that like take start and know that there's an end time Start time Something how I do that works really well. Hopefully it works for others out there Awesome. Thank you for sharing that perspective. We really appreciate that And we have a lot of questions. I know there's a lot of activity on youtube So we're really excited to see the comments and the questions that are going back and forth We will get to those I promise as soon as possible We have a few more strategies that Keith and the team here is going to walk us through Keith Can I can I put you back on to walk us through some of these tips for students? Thank you, Nicole. Yeah, uh, so first, um Just acknowledging no one likes to hear this But this is a highly personal thing and nothing we're going to offer is going to work 100 for every person So we're gonna offer some strategies that are widely useful, but everyone needs to find their own path with us So number one creating routine around this is really useful We reflected on kind of modes and how we're productive during different times of the day So it might be every Tuesday morning. You're doing some homework. That might be a good time to fit in your schedule Creating routine is really useful predictable. It can be consistent We advocate for every student in some form to create a master calendar So I heard both professor Breslin and Megan mentioned this in different ways But creating a kind of a master record of everything that is important in your life is going to be really useful to kind of Keep track yourself in a single glance And beating very specific with goals kind of setting smart goals things that are measurable achievable For both short and long-term things is really important So tracking when that exam is even if it's a month away It's really important to kind of schedule backwards on how you're studying and when you're studying in advance and then Formally can perform in that ongoing reflection. So what have I done? Well, how can I do better and trying to Change your strategies going forward to best fit the challenges at hand So creating that master schedule It could include anything on it But the big things are things that are going to be submitted for a grade assignments homework labs, whatever it is Creating long-term assignment deadlines So you might have a research paper that is due the first day of finals in december Whatever it is so kind of keeping track of that making sure it's on your radar is really important All those mid-term exams you might only have two three or four in your course, but keeping track of those dates is really important Might be things like the add drop deadline or if a class is canceled We also strongly suggest things that are personal and social so it could be your brother's birthday It could be a trip home whatever it is these things you want to include as well So you're planning around any personal time you might take And so if this was 30 years ago, it probably would be a suggestion of keeping like a big paper calendar on your desk or on your wall I think most students are more comfortable in digital environments. So things like iCal and google calendar are really effective. You can color code You can kind of filter you can share events with people Every UVM has microsoft outlook as well. That's what i use But anything that allows you to add events reminders is an effective tool So a digital one is probably a way to go because it's always in your pocket Like I said, kind of that ongoing reflection. So making sure you're tracking each week This is not a thing you can do in the first day of the semester and be done time management is something that you're doing all the time And so I think megan mentioned this earlier really making sure you're breaking in explicit break times You can't just study for eight hours non-stop and be effective making sure you're building in breaks for snacks and to You know rest your mind get up and stretch things like that are really important A big thing is trying to acknowledge distractions head on So it might be putting your phone away. It might be turning it off Some students use apps that limit their screen time or will give them reminders if they've spent four hours on facebook on that day Things like that can really useful to help self-awareness Trying to zoom in and out in time So maybe you're prioritizing correctly if you have a midterm exam in three days How much of your time should be spent studying on that? And one of our mantras the things that we say most often is do not study alone So whether it's working with your professor during office hours your ta The the friends that you have in the class our tutors whoever it is that you're most comfortable with whoever you find most helpful Really study with other people And one of the the biggest challenges for students is kind of breaking down a big project an essay whatever it is It can be really daunting to think that 10 of your final grade is this single thing So it's really important to try to break it down into assignments. Some faculty will support this effort Some will not so some of this will be on the students exclusively Creating an internally Provided to do lists like i'm going to have this outline done by this day Or i'm going to have so many words written by this day. These are really important I'm trying to keep those steps Managed with your time management system is really important And mega mentioned this not all faculty members are going to give you reminders about deadlines It might only exist in your syllabus. So the student really needs to be responsible for tracking that deadline and any Subsequent deadlines. They might impose on themselves Uh, and I believe Professor Breslin mentioned this. This is the official uvm policy that your uvm email is the Way by which you'll be communicated with so um faculty are sending out important information financial services your Advisors whatever it is your important communication is going to come through your email And so it is vitally important that whatever your schedule your routine you're creating for yourself You're including checking your email and responding to those messages It doesn't need to be as soon as you get that email. I strongly support setting aside some time every day But you don't need to respond to every email in the middle of class. That's not necessarily the best course And then finally We talk about time management or talk about academic success But we really want to consider success at uvm holistically as best we can So we want you to consider getting a job or engaging in research volunteering in differing opportunities We want you to connect socially on campus. So whether it's the identity centers or clubs And try your best to engage in all the wonderful events that happen on campus Things like guest lectures and student clubs that are available Whatever sporting events are around Nicole you're currently muted About remote students and about students who might be doing hybrid First-year students who have chosen remote at home for their first experience with the University of Vermont What are what are you doing differently as a professor to help those students feel connected? Yeah, so, you know, it's a little bit different this idea of potentially not being in person with students However, you know personally I've taught online courses I taught two online courses this summer and I think you know for for myself as a professor I try to make myself as as available as possible and I think that is true for a lot of professors at uvm You know, I hold remote office hours and I really encourage my students to attend those You know and of course the ends of being folks attend closer to deadlines of things being do And so I really do encourage to get that feeling of getting to know your professor To feeling like you're supported Taking advantage of all those resources if there's an open office hour Like he said you should be studying each week anyway because that's going to be the best way that you kind of solidify the information in your mind And so if you review your notes and you say, oh You know professor Breslin said the thing and one of her videos or you know in our remote lecture that I didn't quite understand Pop into one of those office hours and not only get that one-on-one contact Get that support and so then you know myself as a professor. I know who you are. I have a face to a name You know, I may be emailing you in a couple days to check in make sure you know everything went okay with with You know, whatever was coming up that you were questioning. So, you know, I think that A big part of the the being able to feel connected with your professor is Reaching out, you know, because it's much harder for as a professor to be able to see a student who maybe Is struggling in a class or something like that So being able to do that and feeling free if someone says office hours by appointment Making an appointment with with that professor or with those ta's some class of bigger classes have ta's And being able to really Connected that That way I think can can really increase that feeling of support and connection Great. Thank you so much for sharing that from the Professor side as well for our students Megan. I want to go back over to you as well because I know we have questions Everybody's really wondering. Well, how do I study together if I'm remote? You know Keith was saying find someone to study with do this in a community I'd love to hear your recommendations Megan as to how students can do that We're going to get into a lot more details as how people can make connections But from your experience with switching to remote learning In the spring last year. How did you maintain those connections? And what advice could you give to students that might be coming in? For them to be able to connect with other students to study or to make those connections Yeah, I have a few things in mind one I'm thinking in the remote setting Like professor Breedlin said presents that Professors want to help you so maybe reach out to them and say are there other students We're reaching out and wanting some people to study with and maybe they can connect you and you can have on Microsoft's teams meetings together I don't know if all professors would necessarily want to get that effort in but I think a lot would for sure and See is through the tutoring center. We have a lot of like supplemental instruction sessions and things like that So maybe connect with students that are there ask the tutoring center Do you have tutors for this class? So it's peer-to-peer tutoring So you'd be working with someone who might be a little less intimidating than a professor for the first shot Get to know them and get that conversation going and then maybe next week or next month You'd be comfortable talking to the professor during their office hours and kind of building your EPSA I know when I was touring every school all the like tour guides and everyone they were saying meet with your professors And all the professors are like meet with us But it's hard to actually make that first step and initiate that But especially at UVM the professors need it and they really really want you to get to know them I know a lot of my professors have said like no one comes to my office hours Someone just come like talk to me like it doesn't have to be about course or just come chat So just doing that I'm sure especially in the time of remote everything They appreciate that so just I don't know making time for that as well putting in your calendar Maybe that's part of the additional time that we had in that looking at the entire week We're going to get into more resources here in just a moment. We're going to play a short video Because one of the best places that you can access resources is the library And we want to remind everybody who has chosen remote or you're doing hybrid A combination of both There is a lot that you can do remotely to access all of the wonderful resources at the library Welcome to the UVM libraries Navigating a world of research information can be challenging and our knowledgeable and friendly librarians are here to help you Find answers to all of your research questions. Here are two quick tips about using our libraries Tip number one ask a librarian Need help we can help you to develop a research topic find sources assess the accuracy of information and more It's easy to ask us a question using our ask a librarian services by a chat email and more Go to the library website at library dot uvm dot edu and click on the question mark icon at the top Tip number two use research guides Want to get started on some research on your own but don't know where to begin Use one of our many research guides to help you identify the best starting points on any topic You can access research guides by clicking on the green button marked research guides below the main search box on our website The guides are organized by broad subjects and they're often guides for individual groups or classes You can learn more about the library its services and collections by visiting our website at library dot uvm dot edu And don't forget ask a librarian Thank you so much daisy from the how library for sharing how you can access some of the resources at the library remotely So as our presenters come back on here on camera, we're going to go through a lot more of those resources that are available for you but They shared with us is the ask a librarian Please do reach out when you are remote if you have a question if this is your first year coming into into uvm They are an incredible resource to help you navigate The library and all of the different opportunities for you to succeed A few other things that daisy has shared with me subject and resource guides that she just mentioned Email and chat reference and then individual consultation. They will meet with you So you know what um megan was saying and professor boson was saying you need to reach out and and say something Please if you are asking for a question or looking to Learn a little bit as to how you can be connected. So I want to toss back over To keith. Let's continue on that path of discussion about all of the resources available for students And if you could weave in keith How is this happening for remote students to some of these different services? Thanks nicole So obviously my perspective is a little biased. I'm a big fan of our services in the tutoring center We employ students to do Subjectary tutoring which is for specific courses things like math chemistry economics, etc And then we have study skills tutors. So folks like megan who supports students On anything that doesn't fit neatly into a single course It's very often things like time management or preparing for big exams using technology things like that But of course your professor is going to be the most important resource So it's connecting directly with them either by appointment or during their virtual office hours Meeting with those ta's many introductory level classes will have ta's and then as you mentioned like Forming a study group with peers So I can say for our services They will all be remote. So anyone anywhere in the world can access our tutors We'll be using microsoft teams And a few other browser based resources to connect and work effectively I know Just from hearing from them that many faculty will be hosting those virtual Office hours and microsoft teams I would imagine that most of the ta's will be operating in the same capacity And then if you are connecting with students across campus or or around the world You can use any platform you want. So I know a lot of our tutors are connecting via zoom or skype or facetime Things like that you have a lot more options if it's one-on-one or small group based based for people to make On the academic side and also on the community building and social Side which is such an important part of your college experience We've got some questions starting to come in. We're going to get to those questions in just a moment I want to play one more video. This is from Jerome who is our assistant director of a student life And there don't get too overwhelmed as megan shared with me as she was coming into the freshman All of the different organizations you can join might be a little overwhelming Megan will walk us through some of the tips that she can share as to how she navigated that her first year at uvm But let's hear from Jerome about some of the ways that you can get involved Remotely as you start the fall here at uvm Hello, my name is Jerome Burdomo and I am the associate director for student life As you navigate your time management We highly encourage you to fit in time into your schedule to become involved with the various involvement opportunities uvm has to offer For you undergraduate students, we cannot stress enough the importance of taking advantage of the numerous co-curricular Experience so you can begin to develop your leadership soft skills that will be transferable to your future career We have over 200 plus recognized student organizations or as we call them rso's ranging from academic arts and leisure club sports diversity Media outdoor political and service We also have 15 recognized fraternities and sororities constituting nine fraternities and six sororities Even though you may have chosen to study remotely this semester does not mean you cannot get involved You can join one of our 200 plus rso's by logging on to uvm clubs Which is our online student organization management system at clubs dot uvm dot edu As we've said, there's so many different ways for you to get involved and Jerome shared A couple of the different ways that you can find out about the different clubs Really tapping into uvm board to make sure I on what's happening and everything will have a virtual component They're really working with our clubs to make sure that there's a hybrid Component to each of the different ways that you can get involved and some of the Important reasons why you should get involved is finding your community at uvm And i'm going to toss this question back before we get into the questions from the audience back to you professor reslin Why is this so important To find your community and to make those connections and and maybe is it even more important that people can do this remotely As they start the fall Yeah, you know, I think that the the bottom line is that mental health is the most important thing I know that you're going to get into that a lot more in the next webinar series or part of the series Rather, but you know We can't we're not robots, right like we all need To have leisure activities. We all need to be have a sense of involvement And you know, that's actually going to help you feel More energized and motivated to be able to do the other things that you need to do You know, we've seen with this pandemic You know the the the incidents of of kind of mental health You know issues around depression and anxiety have risen in in a large quantity of our population and so Making sure that you are feeling connected and feeling involved even if you are Doing your courses remotely is going to be really important for you to actually be able to succeed in all other areas And so it's not something that should be put aside. That's you know, if I have time I will do this. It should really be a core component that you work into your schedule And you can do it. You can successfully do it If you're able to kind of do some of this time management and think through What activities are important to me? Now, of course, you can't do everything, right? So there are some people who want to do 10 different activities. That's probably not going to be Reasonable but picking the things that are most important to you and finding ways to do that You know, it's going to be really good for your mental health And be able to you know, help you feel more motivated to be involved in uvm and succeeding in uvm and always Great perspective. Thank you so much. Megan. I know you have advice on this Because you shared with me the 200 clubs and 200 organizations Overwhelming in your first year at uvm. How did you manage that? And what would you offer for advice for students that are starting maybe their first year at uvm? Yeah, so when I came in I remember that orientation I got this like pamphlet and it listed all of the clubs on campus and get to check off all the ones that we were interested in And then we would get emails from them and I was like, no, I can't do this So even after that when I started at uvm, I still felt so overwhelmed like Too much too much to do so I didn't do any of it until like my second semester and even my second year So I if I feel back in time I would maybe just try one thing to do that very first fall Or if you're starting next spring start one thing in that first semester If you see maybe rally bond sounds really cool to you Just try that you don't need to do everything. You don't need to have your schedule jam packed with club meeting Rack activities all that sort of stuff. Just try one thing Maybe if you look on uvm board and you see oh the outing club is doing a cool thing Just try that like you do not need to do everything by any means and then maybe you'll make friends and build your face of peers to connect with and maybe they're doing something cool You can kind of just go off from there. You don't need to sign up for every single thing to feel successful It's a good point too and and going back to some of those time management strategies that Keith has shared with us today We have a lot of questions from our viewers on youtube. So we're going to get to those Nicole I might ask you this first because I think you can relate to the question from Chrissy Chrissy is asking I would like to know more about time management for those of us who also work full time and have to And have young children at home I'm also in the same boat. So it is not easy What advice would you offer also thinking of how keep has laid out different schedules and ways to think about your time? You know, I think the first thing that I would say is give yourself grace as I think Megan eloquently put before You know, this is a very tough time. Um, especially, you know, if you're working full time and if you have kids and if you're taking classes Um, that's a lot to fit in and it's a very stressful time. And so being easy on yourself. I have to take that advice as well Um, and I think that uh Finding ways that you can get support regularly is going to be particularly important So even if you know, you think you're okay on a certain topic, but you're not 100 sure Schedule it in to meet for 15 minutes in an office hour with your instructor That actually may help do a ton and just clarifying some concepts that you may be struggling with and that you may have to spend a lot of extra time on Where, you know, quick 15 minute conversation can really open that up for you. So that's one thing that I would say Um, and as a parent, you know finding those those times that work for me as I said after I put my kids to bed I can't work. So Um, just my brain does not doesn't doesn't work that way. So I when I need to work extra I get up early Um, you know, I get up at five six a.m. And I work for, you know, a couple hours before my kids get up So, you know finding those times where that might work. It's not going to be easy You know, and I give you so many kudos Chrissy for for, you know, fitting in classes to your busy schedule and Finding ways that you're not overwhelming yourself, but you're you're finding ways to feel successful. I think we'll we'll hopefully be helpful Great. Thank you so much for that advice. Um, Keith, I'm going to come over to you with court news question Because I suspect you get this question a lot when you're talking with students about how they can manage their time What do you recommend for a student athlete who will be training up to four hours a day? How can you fit that in as well? Yeah, that's an undeniably difficult task First I would just say that the the staff that supports our student athletes is amazing and that you will you will as an athlete Have structured time built in your schedule. They help athletes with that, especially in your first couple of years And then two I would just stress you you have less time than many of your peers who are not athletes And so using that as effectively as possible And so all the things that we have said hold true but hold even more weight So spend less time trying to figure something out on your own And like uh, professor Breslin has said like schedule that 15 minute talk with your ta or with your professor to clarify that term You're going to waste less time and you're going to need to be more productive ultimately And I mean I've both employed and supported some student athletes and I hear things like uh while training I can Um listen to a lecture on audio or I can I can skim an article I can take notes while I'm on the stationary bike or things like that. So creative multitasking might be an effective strategy Um, I'm not sure what the effort schedule is going to look like this fall But if you do have time on a bus like use that time effectively with studying things like that Being hyper efficient with your time is really important in that situation Keith I'm going to stick with you here for a second I'm also interested in what you would say about Daniel's question. Um, he has a learning disability And I for one have to increase how much time I need to learn How would you approach giving some advice to Daniel about how to structure that day? Yes, so this is a critical question. So very similarly I would acknowledge my wonderful colleagues and student accessibility services They're the office on campus that supports students with disabilities And so the first thing I would say is make sure you're connecting with sas So they work with students with disabilities and they gain access to various accommodations I am not part of that program and I can't tell you specifically what your narrative would Would accommodate for but um, often students in your situation might be given Extended time flexible deadlines extended time for exams different services like that that allow a student with disabilities succeed in that environment And it sounds like you've already accomplished the first step, which is the self-awareness knowing how much time you need The the exercise we went through with the blocks in 168 hours is wildly hypothetical and is not going to fit reality And so you might need 40 hours to cover time independently and that's totally fine But having that awareness means you're going to allow yourself to manage that time effectively It could be you work with wonderful one of our wonderful tutors like megan to build a time management system that works for you And it could be again that you're leading on your faculty members working with them To figure out how best to succeed in that particular class Um, I I think your self-awareness is really valuable in this moment So I wish you the best of luck and you can always come and reach out to me or one of my colleagues if you need a little more help Thank you Keith and thanks Um, I'm thinking maybe we go back to megan for this question from kate Do you have a tool that allows an individual to build out their time management schedule their own schedule? What do you do megan? Maybe walk us through how you build out your own time management schedule Yeah, so like nicole mentioned, I think she's a google calendar. I live by my google calendar I love it so much in color code. You can make the times really specific and I love it You can make things as specific as you want to so if you want to put in Meal times if you want to put in study times It's there for you and if you want to put it I make mine like super detailed I really love doing that but you have like your specific class time I like to put in like when I'm going to do this assignment when I'm going to Study when I'm going to babysit when I'm going to do other work things like that Just have everything in one place whether it's my personal life and my academics It's all there so that I know and when I'm thinking about maybe going to a club meeting I know do I have time for that? Is that they going to be too busy if I do that? Do I need some time for self-care? And it's all there for me in one place. I know there are a lot of other tools as well I think Keith mentioned like the Outlook calendar. I like the calendar app But honestly sometimes it's just helpful to have like a piece of paper with your week laid out and write it There's so many and even like just apps if you search like time management in the app store There's so much there's one that like grows a tree to make sure you don't touch your phone Stay productive anything that you would imagine it's out there Isn't that the truth? And you know, I've seen students that also Keith mentioned, you know, maybe 30 years ago you'd be doing the big calendar on your desk But I've still seen people use that and it's I think it's a nice compliment to the digital calendar as well It almost reinforces it and dr. President I want to say is there's something to that that Because you're writing things down and you're retaining it as you're writing things down in addition to a digital calendar Do you advise people maybe to do both? So I do both, um, I have you know, I have my I have Wait too many too less But I have my calendar and I have my calendar on on google My paper calendar is more of like kind of a to-do list and my google calendar is more my My housing list, but yeah, so back to your point about the idea of writing things down We do know in in some psychology research that we have That note taking so if you're in a class actually physically writing out the notes if you're able Leads to higher retention of that that information that you've you've just kind of taken in Rather than typing it out. So there's something about writing. We're not quite sure what it is But there's something about writing that can actually lead to longer, you know retention of things like Writing notes in class. So, you know, if you generalize that a little bit, you know It there might really be something to that act of writing things down Certainly for assignments. So that act of sure is what my assignment is for the for the class Um, you know, probably printing out the syllabus having that color coded and writing things out I'm a big proponent of the importance of repetition Not necessarily having like a thousand different platforms that you need to remember and things like that, but but Having a process when you kind of have new information come in or a new thing come in and Oh, this is activity. This goes to my google calendar. This is an assignment I'm going to write it down on my specific assignment pad that I have that I keep with me at all times Again, some of it is figuring out which works for you Um, but you know, there is something to be said about that act of actually physically writing things down That that might lead to kind of longer term remembering Thank you. And Nicole, I'm going to stay with you for just a moment because I know as being a parent there is non-stop distractions And so I wanted to maybe address Jenny's question. Can you Address managing distractions in one's environment any and I've been I'd love to hear from Keith and Megan as well But I'll start with you. Nicole any advice on how to manage distractions that are going to happen Especially in a remote environment if you're home Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I thought I was really good at working from home because I do it a lot And then when we were in lockdown, I had three months of my very small children at home So I really learned what it meant to manage my distractions. Um, you know, I think Sometimes you just have to do your best and say, you know, things are going to distract me Things are going to be around Things that I have found that have been really helpful is that I redid my office So I created my office in a way that felt a little bit better for me Because I was going to be spending so much time in it now. I know a lot of people don't have the Ability to have an extra room where they have an office. I'm in my guest room. I stuck my office in here You know, if you're doing work, you know in your living room or if you're in your your bedroom or wherever it is Finding a way to make it feel appealing to you And kind of a nice place to be I wouldn't recommend just like plopping yourself on your your Bed and and doing it there because I think then you're going to be distracted If you're sitting in your bed, you're going to want to do all the things you do in your bed like fall asleep Um, you know or read a book for pleasure or whatever it is And so finding ways that you're going to be a little bit less distracted I also am a big proponent of noise machines You know the type that you have in like baby's bedrooms. I've got them in every bedroom in the house I turn that on, you know, sometimes I put headphones on they make good noise canceling headphones um anything that I can do to try to kind of minimize if my children are home and You know, I'm trying to work and someone else is watching them. Um Another thing if you're just kind of thinking like you're working from home, you know, I get distracted if you're at home There's laundry to be done. There's something you can clean up. I just took my dog for a while You know, there's all sorts of things that you can do um, and so Going back to that idea of i'm in a schedule. Here's what i'm going to do for the next hour And then I have 15 minutes to do whatever I want I can you know go do the laundry. I can sit on the couch. I can do whatever But i'm in a schedule my time for this is i'm going to work on this project for this And then I can do what I want and that for me has helped manage my distraction a little bit where it's I think sometimes the melding of home and office can be really difficult with remote learning And so finding a way to make it feel like a you know as if you were going to the library you're studying And then you're going to leave um and doing the same sort of thing Great advice and i'm going to just jump out. Thank you so much Nicole for sharing that information as to how you've made it work I want to jump over because we are just about out of time I want to jump over just to share the opportunity To show people what you've learned today to our viewers and our Participants or participants today. So we have a digital badge for participation This is through uvm's continuing and distance education department And so it's really a fun way to showcase some of the different skills that you've been gaining as you continue your education We'll be offering a badge for each one of the webinar series in the effective virtual learning series that we're doing And so there's some information on the screen and kelly will paste the link into The chat box as well and we'll follow up with a link to claim your badge In the follow-up email with a recording. I also just want to share with everybody that we're not done This is just the first of three to help you be effective in your virtual learning this fall and beyond Tomorrow tuesday at 7 p.m. We're going to be talking about creating a learning mindset in a remote environment Understanding how you can get into a growth mindset What is your actual physical environment look like to help you get into a learning and growth mindset? And then on wednesday at one o'clock We're going to talk about what what nicole has talked about and keith has talked about As well as how to take care of yourself a little bit more and to really have some perspective on your own mental help Among amongst uncertainty and in a remote environment to make sure that you're checking in and keeping yourself well Also, so we'll have some holistic approaches to learning Amidst uncertainty and so we're really hopeful that folks will continue this conversation with us Thank you so much to everyone who joined us. Thank you so much nicole megan and p for your valuable insight today I really appreciate all of the advice that you've given and if anyone has any additional questions Please do email. I know we didn't get to all the questions today Please do follow up with our email at learn dot uvm dot edu and we hope you have a wonderful afternoon Hopefully we see you tuesday night at seven and wednesday at one o'clock. Have a great day