 Good evening and thank you so much for joining UVM's continuing and distance education webinar tonight on effective virtual learning This is our second in a three-part series on Strategies and resources for students as you begin to navigate remote Fully remote hybrid online courses as you head into the fall semester My name is Nicola willy-a-fenton. I'm the content marketing manager in UVM's continuing and distance education I'm going to introduce our panelists here in a moment before we get to the content I also want to share with everyone who's joining us on YouTube welcome We're so happy that you're here. We are recording this session We will share the recording out with everyone who has RSVP'd if you're not sure if you RSVP'd and you're just joining us on YouTube Please send us a note at our email address at learn at UVM.edu to make sure that we can send you the recording as well We'll be keeping an eye on those questions in the chat box today We will bring the questions over to our panelists a little bit more towards the end of the presentation So please do include questions as you're hearing the information from our panelists today We will make sure to bring those over and get those answered if we miss something Please do follow up if there's something that we want to you are still curious about and we can follow up with that So as I mentioned, we're going to get started here in just a minute We're going to talk about how we learn how to create a learning or growth mindset We're also going to talk about accessing resources and the variety of different ways that you can access resources and How incredibly important it is for you to be your own advocate and reach out to your professors and get to know the resources That are available to you as a remote student as well Creating that learning environment and staying on track in a remote environment as well making connections the importance of Finding your community even in a remote setting at UVM and we'll certainly have time for questions and answers We also have a really cool opportunity for everyone joining us tonight It's a digital badge for participation And I'll share more about that at the end of the webinar and how you can claim your digital badge for the learning that you have gained today So joining us tonight is Carolyn Sikima. She joins us from our continuing and distance education department She's an instructional designer We also have Sarah Ringler Sarah's an instructor for academic success strategies So she'll be talking a lot about amazing strategies that you can employ at home tonight And she's also a health professions advisor for the masters of medical science at UVM Larner College of Medicine and Julia joins us as well. We're so happy that she is here She's a speech language pathologist at the Eleanor M. Loos Center for Communication supervisor for graduate speech language pathology students and a lecturer in the communication sciences and disorders department at UVM and One of the awesome reasons why she's here She teaches both face-to-face and online courses, so she'll have some really great perspective to share with us tonight So we're gonna have Sarah kick it off really talking about How do you make it stick? How do you get into the growth and learning mindset to retain more of what you're doing in a remote or in-person or hybrid? Situation that you might be in this fall So I'm gonna ask Sarah to take us through the presentation and then we'll collect questions on this topic a little bit more towards the end Sarah Yeah, thanks Nicole. Hi everyone. I'm Sarah So a lot of my experience of learning Stems from a course that I teach I teach foundations of learning and I've taught this course for a good Think seven years time has flown So the course really looks at how we learn efficiently and I always tell students learning is so complex But there is a science behind how we learn most importantly what I find that students find the most useful as understanding simple strategies that we can use to be productive and lead to success so this book here and Make it stick is actually one of my favorite books I use it in my course and it's also Implemented in the learner college of medicine for the medical curriculum So all of the medical students entering the learner college are required to use this book So it's definitely a great book to keep on your bookshelf Just goes through the ins and outs of learning So for the next couple of minutes, I'm going to talk about Learning in general. I know we're focusing a lot on online learning But I think all of the information that I'm going to review those hand-in-hand with any type of learning So just keeping that in mind So over here. I want to talk a little bit about how we learn so active retrieval If you think about how we learn oftentimes when I ask students how they study for an exam Two things come up one is I review my notes and two is I go through what I highlighted So in both of those scenarios, you have the facts in front of you But you're simply looking them over and so a more effective way to learn is to recall facts or concepts by memory And this is what we mean by active retrieval So we're taking that information and we're able to kind of pull it from our memory without having anything in front of us as a crutch and so a Couple of things that you can do for this active retrieval is to use flashcards I know a lot of students use quizlet and there's different apps and programs online for that Teach someone else of what you've learned that can be a huge tool Asking the question why so as you're reading, you know, ask yourself these questions You know, why does this happen or why is the author talking about this? Self-quizzing is huge as well So going into a couple of different Kind of more concrete examples. So spaced repetition So I think it's funny because we hear all the time right practice makes perfect right practice practice practice You're going to practice until something's ingrained in your mind And so a couple of things practicing is good We want to practice but when we kind of cram the information It's really putting that information into our short-term memory And so it's not allowing the information to really stick And so what science tells us is that if we space out our information and space out our learning We're really allowing that information to go more into our long-term memory And so if you think about why is it takes so much time for our thought process to consolidate So when our learning consolidates in our brain Basically, it goes through this in-depth process and that takes time And so giving yourself time to learn and make those connections to kind of expand upon prior learning is so beneficial So a couple of things I you know, I have a conversation a lot when my students I asked them straight up You know, how do you study for an exam and a lot of times I always get you know on Sunday night I spend five hours studying for my exam In that moment in those five hours you got it right you have this information down you understand it You know it you wake up in the morning you go to class and then all of a sudden it's like I have no idea What I studied and so basically what happened is your that cramming really in that moment You think you know it, but it's giving you a false sense of knowing So when you space out your learning you have a better understanding of what you don't know essentially And so this active forgetting which we kind of talk about as desirable difficulty and the process when learning is tough That is when our brain is actually in the learning process So while spaced repetition can be harder It might feel like it takes more time Instead of giving up really remind yourself that we learn when we're challenged learning is not supposed to always be easy And it's similar to like when we lift weights, you know, our muscles we get stronger and we might have more stamina Our brain gets stronger when memory is retrieved and our learning is practiced So just really you know keep that in mind space out your learning and then the last one it goes hand-in-hand with spacing out our learning is Interleaved practice and it's another way of spacing out our learning, but it's really when we jump from subject to subject For example, let's say that you are studying math Before you finish your math maybe move on to psychology and then you go back to your history So that is an example. You can also do it within that specific subject So let's say that you're I mean in that class you want to mix up the problem Do you want to mix up your examples by changing your thinking from this blocked practice to kind of expanding upon different? Scenarios you're allowing your brain to kind of draw from all those different experiences So and I know tomorrow we're going to talk a little bit the webinar will focus on health and well-being But I always like to mention that sleep is a great way to space out your learning So make sure that you are getting plenty of sleep and it's amazing There's there are studies that show that we in fact do learn and we're able to kind of make those connections while we sleep So take advantage of that So I want to now quickly go over into some just quick techniques that you can use when you are When you're kind of learning and studying so the first one is Elaborating so when we elaborate we build upon something. I think about it a little bit like peeling an onion and Some people might use metaphors and visuals to elaborate So for example, if I was studying heat and I wanted to kind of really focus on Conduction I might visualize myself holding a hot cup of tea and then you know really thinking about okay My hands are hot right now. It's getting transferred from the mug to my hand So that's kind of a way of elaborating on something You can also create summary sheets with my class what I have them do I actually have them when they're reading make it stick I have them pretend that they are creating a workshop their facilitator And their task is to create a PowerPoint or a pamphlet to really kind of teach that material So again, you're elaborating. You're expanding upon your knowledge and you're sharing your own connection Explaining information to someone in your own words is another form of elaborating The next one is to generate and I like to think of this as playing detective So when we try to answer a question or solve a problem before we actually have the answer That is what we mean by generate and so this is a really great strategy to use when you're reading An example for instance is in make it stick if I open up and the subtitle says easier isn't better I'm going to think about that. I'm going to think about what that means before I continue reading So you're trying to kind of work it out in your mind You're putting the pieces together the third one is To reflect I think you know If I'm being honest, I think reflection is probably one of the biggest pieces to success You need to go deeper. So reviewing what you learned is great, but then asking those questions, you know What kind of done differently on what what well what didn't go well? Self-assessing it's critical for success and I think about it a little bit. I love to sail We live in this beautiful place with Lake Champlain and so I love sailing but in order to Know the direction in order to adjust our sales We have to know the direction of the wind and so it's a continuous check in with yourself and use those internal cues So if you are feeling stressed, maybe that's a cue that you need to kind of manage your time better Or if you're really really tired, maybe that's an internal cue that you need to space out You're studying instead of cramming for five hours. So really be in tune with yourself and then Calibrate so this is really kind of your reality check So sometimes it's easy to think that we know something and it's kind of a sense of false illusion And so when we calibrate we are essentially using objective measures to test our knowledge So in you know in a college setting a lot of times this might look like maybe it's a reflective essay Maybe it's a quiz. Maybe it's a pre-quiz. Maybe it's a test You know any kind of way to really kind of have a marker to know Okay, how am I doing? What do I need to improve on? And then lastly is mnemonics and this you know, you're probably familiar with this mnemonics is a Tool for kind of helping us remember something though We're mnemonic it means memory in Greek and a mnemonic device is almost like if you are storing something In a file cabinet and you want to retrieve it again So it's not necessarily helping you really understand the material But it's a way of actively retrieving the material So an example probably that's really familiar to everyone is Roy G. Biv Right. So the colors of the rainbow. I also What is it? Please excuse my dear Sally, which is Penda's which is kind of the way that we do Operations in math. So we kind of all have these little kind of ways of remembering One thing that I think is really fascinating and you can do some more look some more information up on this is a memory palace and so a Memory palace is another tool that we use where we actually visualize. So let's say that I want to remember a shopping list I would envision a room in my house and if I want to remember carrots potato chips and bread I'll walk myself through that memory palace. So it might look like I come to my front door And there's a giant carrot dancing on the front door I open the door and I step on a bag of potato chips I go to the left and I take my shoes off and instead of putting them on the shoe rack I place them on a loaf of bread. So it's a way of really kind of recalling some of the information that might seem TDS or information that we really just want to commit to memory. So I think of date I think of a lot of you know science maybe social studies where you're actually having to remember long chunks of information So again, these are all tools to help with the retrieval process and lastly these all kind of go hand in hand with Having a learning mindset and I know Nicole talked about that at the beginning But with any learning I think mindset is one of the most important things to kind of keep in mind And you know, it can be really helpful to understand the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset Carol Dwight, she is a psychologist and she spent a lot of time looking at the importance of mindset And so just briefly a fixed mindset is we actually believe that intelligence is fixed at birth, you know, we We all do it. So I'm never going to be a great. I'm never going to be good in math. I'm not good in science I I'm not a good test taker. And so having a fixed mindset Is in the opposite when you have a growth mindset is you really believe that your intellectual ability Is in your own hands you have control and you have capacity for improvement And so I like to point out that our mindset is fluid, you know, we can be at all ends of the spectrum There might be times when we have more of a fixed mindset and times when we have more of a growth mindset But check yourself, you know, if you're finding that you're in a fixed mindset really question Why I think sometimes when things become challenging or tough we sometimes tend to narrow our focus and kind of narrow our mindset But remember learning is is done when things get difficult. So it's okay to kind of have challenges and to work through those And by adapting a learning mindset, you know, you forgive yourself. So making mistakes is it's fine. That's how we learn Optimism is huge Experimenting, you know, we learn through trial and error And then I think, you know, persisting is definitely key, especially during these times where our world is so unknown right now And our learning might look a little differently being resilient and adaptable are two strengths that I think we can all lean in on So with all of this, I think the Importance and what to take away is that while we might not be in control of our environment or our learning environment We can be in control of our learning and so really starting to kind of recognize how we learn In ways that we can go about making learning more impactful for us It also makes me think too about some of the information that our tutoring center and our academic success center shared yesterday about the different modes And really recognizing you're in kind of that no mode or go mode Or, you know, also assessing where you are and how you can be reflective on if you are ready to engage with that learning So so many great tips yesterday and today. Thank you so much We're gonna hear from Carolyn and we're gonna hear from Julia in just a moment But we wanted to share a short video this is from a student honey missile Lee's and She was a student this summer a pre-college student So she's still in high school and she was taking a course online this summer and she wanted to share how she has gotten herself Into a learning mindset and how she organizes Her environment as we begin to start talking with Carolyn and Julia also about how you can make The most of your space and the most of the resources around you. Hi My name is Elise and I'm here to give you today's workspace tour to help you maximize your productivity in your college course So first off, I'm in the family office and it has a lot of natural light Which I found super helpful because I like to study in the morning because it just helps me get started with the day In terms of materials, I always have the family computer and earbuds just in case I have to watch any videos for all the virtual learning Also, I have any of my assigned reading homework as well And I found it really helpful to organize all of my notes Through sticky notes by using page number quote and then the analysis of that quote to help keep things organized and consistent and then I also have a notebook which I also take notes in with a pen and pencil and Behind that I have our nice family calendar Which I use to help organize my time in the course and also just outside of the course so that I can have Time in the course and also have fun. So that was the tour. Hope you enjoyed Such a great perspective of the way one student does it and what And continue the discussion that we have had on this webinar series is there is no one strategy that fits It's finding out what works for you in an in-person remote hybrid online all of the above is figuring out some of the strategies That Sarah has talked about and how you can use your environment to retain that information and continue on your education Journey. So now we're going to turn over to Carolyn who is one of our instructional designers and UVM continuing a distance education To dig a little bit deeper in what it means to be a remote and online student And Julie is going to help from the perspective also of the professor and teaching both of those perspectives. So Carolyn Yeah, sure. Thanks Nicole So I just want to start out by shifting gears here a little bit of looking at both the challenges and the benefits of being a Remote and and or online student So one of the biggest things that we hear from students, especially with fully online courses is managing their time and especially if they're trying to manage multiple courses at once and The video that we just saw from Elise was wonderful like she obviously has a way to manage her her time and her space and her notes and everything and our calendar and I think one of if this doesn't have to be a challenge, but I think the Why it is a challenge is because especially for a fully online course. We don't have to Be in a class or anywhere at any certain time. So what students tell us is they actually take their personal calendar, whether it's paper or electronic and they will actually put in Every due date for that semester and every assignment in that semester and even Even putting in this blocking off hours of time, you know Maybe an hour every morning to check into this course or a half hour to check in, you know, you don't need huge Lengths of time all at once But if you check in on a regular basis and to keep up with the with the course like Sarah was saying the spaced spaced out learning And then distractions they are literally all around us like right now. There's a thunderstorm going on You know, it's a little distracting. So it's it's how do you deal with those distractions and how can you? Manage them and sometimes we can't control them. Sometimes we can as Ali said, you know She's got a headset to help her when she watches videos to stay just and distract other people, but she kind of stays focused on that and It's hard, you know One thing that some students use is the Pomodoro timer, which is a if you go online and just do a search for Pomodoro timer It's a you can start it. It's 25 minutes. And so if you start the timer, you could just Tell yourself I'm going to stay focused on whatever this task is for 25 minutes at a time And I know faculty that use it students that use it and it's really wonderful If you just if you just need to focus for a very specific amount of time And when you're done the timer goes or the timer goes off and then you could, you know Go back to what you were doing or it's just something else And the last piece is self-motivation and students do say, you know, sometimes with online courses I feel like I'm you know, I'm teaching myself and you know, yes, there are faculty there to engage you and interact with you and other colleagues But sometimes you do need to motivate yourself to read that or work or do that assignment or whatever it might be So there's certainly challenges, but they're not anything that Stop our students from being successful online, but just recognizing that they're there and finding what works best for you and in terms of benefits of especially online courses where They're very flexible and convenient they at UVM These are not watered down versions of our existing courses Which is just essential to know that these and I'm going to send this over to Julia in a second here is Oftentimes when you take an online course at UVM most of the time or a lot of the time that I've seen is it's the same faculty member Teaching that online course that you would have had when you are taking it on campus and Julia is a great example of that with her communication and science disorder courses and You know, the rigor is the same is like I said They're not watered down courses and I'll turn it over to Julia this just to share a little bit about how she maintains academic rigor in her courses Okay, thank you Carolyn So yeah, I teach in the communications sciences and disorders department And I taught online for the first time last year and I was a little nervous for that reason Caroline keeping up that rigor because I wasn't sure what a class or an online environment would be like But it has far surpassed all my expectations in the sense that I really feel Connection building the community is so important in the classroom But you can also do it online and that's really the heart of our assignment So we do stick with the same learning objectives that we have face-to-face carried over to online If I could give an example of one of the activities that we do So we talk about the anatomy and physiology of the speech mechanism So that's all about the respiratory system the laryngeal system the articulatory system And it's easy to do when you're in a classroom environment taking turns getting up talking about it But online what I found was really fun is giving the students an opportunity To create a visual of one of those as one of the systems So somebody made a pair of fake lungs with a straw and some balloons and showed how the respiratory system works And then the best part was they created a screencast Of themselves explaining this and then shared it with their classmates And then they posed a question to their classmates that their classmates then had to respond to them So they're building communities They're also having and this goes back to what Sarah was saying when you learn how do you make this information stick? Well, they had to explain in plain English using their own words the concepts of these different systems And so they were able to do this in their own way showing their creativity Building a model explaining it in a screencast So it was just a great example of how it all kind of it works online and it's a lot of fun I have another example if you want me to go on or I can wait for another example So another thing we do Again keeping those connections going because it's really a lot of fun One unit we talk about swallowing disorders. So I have the students You know, if you've never had a swallowing disorder You really can't appreciate what it might be like not to be able to to have a meal with your family or your friends We do so much around Going out to dinner with people and connecting so they would watch a documentary that follows three a young child middle-aged adults and then an elderly adult and So you kind of get the idea of what it's like to have a disorder But then to push it a little bit further to get that personal connection I have the students think about a connection They have with food whether it's do they enjoy going grocery shopping or making their grandma's spaghetti sauce or Making pizza with their dad when they're home over vacation or what do they like to do? And then they would take a picture of that One student took a picture of this beautiful cookbook that was for grandmothers that was passed down from generations and and So explaining Why you took that picture and how you would actually feel having a swallowing disorder Because it's you know, it's so easy to read about it in a textbook But until you actually are on the other side and put yourself in someone's shoes to see what it's like Um, it doesn't connect as well. So Building community making it stick by explaining using plain English using your own words and then connecting with our classmates online How's that? Wonderful. Thank you Julia for those examples And I think it just shows the difference where she might not be able to do that in the classroom For various reasons and she might have different assessments in the classroom But online she was able to be creative and try all sorts of different Techniques and again students are still meeting those ultimate course objectives that are approved by her department and her university and the university But she just kind of gets in that a different way through active learning and all those Great stories. She just told so. Thank you so much So these are just some tips and i'm not going to go through each of these individually I'll pick it pick and choose some but I want to just look at this slide from two different perspectives So one tips from the student perspective on for those of you students that want some tips to stay on track Like how how can you just kind of keep on track in your online or remote course? and I I think especially for online courses is Don't just come in one day of the week and try to you know, get everything done Especially if there's a discussion board for instance and that tends to Unfold over the course of the week and lots of good interaction and discussion takes place. So Again, if you're making that calendar of your tasks, I would say just set aside little times On your calendar five to seven days a week to check in look at announcement students are posting and check into the discussion And just keep on top of that because I have to say it's very easy to fall behind And it's not easy to catch up It goes quickly The other piece is I know for some students Again, I have a high school student who I send her an email and she doesn't get it I send her a text and she responds. So Our personal life we might be interested, you know texting a lot but with academia and interaction with instructors A lot of it is via email. So it's very important that you know How to access your uvm email address and you check it on a regular basis And the other piece that I just want to Note here is the complete assignments on time and of course we all have best intentions to do that but also given the times Things come up unexpected illness of ourselves or our family or roommates, whatever it might be And it's really to just communicate with your faculty member and your instructor If something comes up don't wait and think that it's just gonna resolve itself is just reach out They love to teach they love to hear from students. So even though it is online and you're not in person They love to hear from you and if there's issues going on and you can't complete an assignment on time Reach out and more than likely they will be able to work with you to identify A plan, you know, maybe give you an extension or you know, something that's that seems realistic and For for everybody involved. So that's kind of from the student side. And so Julia is just a wonderful online instructor and does So many things kind of behind the scenes in her teaching, you know, to make sure that her students Stay on track. So I'm going to send this over to you Julia to just kind of share some things that you do to kind of Help your students move through the course in the in the way that they should Okay, thank you. So it is nice how you see at the beginning of the semester No one really knows each other very well, but then by mid semester the end of the semester I remember doing my final video welcome I was sad and one of my students said I cry when I watched you with your last video because you really do bond So some of the ways some of the things I've learned to do online Just being very organized all of my All of my chapters are arranged by different modules So the students know what to expect every module is designed the same way every module I had a little welcoming video Maybe two minutes long like welcome to this week's module. We'll be talking about such and such. This is what to expect um, and then also My modules run from monday to sunday, but I know some students want to get a head start Maybe work on the weekend So I have a soft start on friday And that gives me a great opportunity to send an email to everyone and say, hey, it's friday I just opened it up in case you want to get going just remind you, you know sunday You have your your reading quiz your discussion boards do Um, and then come monday. It's another opportunity for me to jump back in and say, hey, it's just started by a new week Um, this is what to expect So a few times during the week. I had that opportunity to Email and touch base with the students at large Um, another thing I like to do is I have a semester long project Um an interview project students have to interview a person with a communication disorder And that can be kind of overwhelming to have this big project at the end of the semester So I use the journal function in blackboard, which is great And we have seven throughout the semester Where they write just to me So I get to read their personal thoughts and apprehensions and nervousness about asking somebody to be an interviewee And so we can have this dialogue back and forth and then you'll buy The third module or the third journal fourth journal I really get to see their personalities come shining through and I get to build this connection Something new too is uh yellow dig and that is I've been using discussion board But now I'm switching to yellow dig and it gives the students an opportunity to really have their own discussions Their own connections. Um, I can hop in there. It's like, hey, did you see this movie or did you read this article? Give the conversation going again and um get to see what they say And I try to make a variety of assignments as well A lot of times I have them interacting with the community or watching a documentary Um, just anyways kind of mix it up so it doesn't get stale and um Anytime I can jump in there. I I tend to give a lot of feedback and maybe I'm rambling now I like to talk and so um, so I like to give a lot of feedback and really encourage the students and um I think that's about it. Uh It's just great as caroline introduced me to screencast and I love it because you can do You can do a one minute little video like hey guys, welcome Or you can make a longer one for a lecture. So that's also a great tool I try to use Thank you so much, julia And I think you could actually see julia's passion like cutting through the screen like that is what you will see in her online course I'm not kidding. So talking about Like as a student in her course, you want to stay on track Like you want to see what our next video is going to say and you want to know You know what her feedback is on your work like so because she's giving regular feedback, you know, she's engaging you and what we What we've seen is that these courses that build community Have a high level of interaction and there's actually research lots of research out there to document this is that there's increased student satisfaction in with courses increased student retention like they don't want to drop so it's You know, it's constantly engaging students with the content and the material and with the instructor and with the peers with each other so it's Good things are happening. Thank you so much, julia Thank you Where we are. Okay another slide here is um, we've already talked about the time some time management and learning how to learn and then there's one more Slide that our team has pulled together in terms of looking at your study environment And alisa's video, you know, she showed us outside where she likes to learn in the morning and she has her garden out there and and um beautiful lawn and things but We looked out there at some of the literature here and You know, looking at your study environment and where you might feel most productive is something that is certainly worth looking at Um background noise some of us love to be in a cafe where it's lots of bustling and you know noise around us and others need it Just quiet as quiet can be and so, you know, what do you prefer and figuring that out and maybe you never thought about that But it might be worth the time to to think about that Lighting alisa mentioned that in her video as well You know natural light versus artificial light can also have an impact temperature Um, it's too hot. We might fall asleep, you know, so keeping it cool Of course limiting distractions and then a work versus a personal space I find that especially with remote students where some students are kind of checking in from their bedroom and in their bed um and One it's awkward if you're meeting with an instructor It definitely feels awkward from their perspective to be working with you when you're sitting in your bed I have had a few faculty say that was interesting So just you know kind of separate, you know, that's your bed is for sleeping You know your desk or your you know another place in your home or apartment is definitely for school work And uh, it's probably important to keep those and a tidy space. I know that I'm looking around my desk and it's a mess and it just kind of I should clean it and I would probably be more focused but keeping it tidy definitely helps me. I know that Got to work on that but It's definitely something that helps me. I know that So that will um bring us back to nicole to help us on Thank you so much such a great perspective julia Thank you so much for sharing what has worked well for you from a instruction perspective and Carolyn walking us through Some of the challenges and solutions As an online student. I know we do have a few questions coming in on youtube So we'll get to those in just a moment and if you have additional questions You know questions about your workspace or your style or how you fit some of these things in And referring back to some of the information that share that sarah shared with us also In terms of those intervals. So I want to dig a little bit deeper into that After we get through some of these other pieces of the presentation So carolyn mentioned the importance and I think also We have talked a lot about in our Webinar last night about the connections and the community and julia mentioned the the Wealth of the community that she was seeing that was happening being built in her classes and sarah knows to how important that is for success So one of the things that students can get involved in is through student life And so we have to roam who's our associate director of student life who's who made a video for us Because he really wants to share the opportunities for you to get involved even as a remote student Most of the clubs and I believe there's about 200 different opportunities, which probably can be a little overwhelming But they have hybrid and so there's some in person and there's online options. So Remote hybrid whatever you have chosen this year on campus You will have an opportunity to build that community and how important that is for your academic success Hello, my name is gerome budomo and i'm the associate director for student life As a remote student you can easily feel disconnected and think that you do not go to uvm However, as you create your learning mindset in a remote environment My one advice to you is for you to remember that you are still an integral member of the catamount community Communities at the center of our common ground here at uvm So we strive to ensure that we are creating opportunities to build that community Yet, how can you do that when you are in an undergraduate student who is studying remote? It is as simple as virtually attending our uvm welcome As we open up another academic school year even during these uncertain times We have been working hard to still provide students with an opening weekend Which this year is an opening week along with a week of welcome To ensure that we provide a safe but engaging experience In addition to being intentional about reaching out to our remote students Many of our programs will be accessible virtually To find out more about what you can do to participate during uvm welcome We encourage you to check out uvm board Which is our student-run calendar of events that will keep you up to date with the latest and greatest events Promotions and fun stuff to do Even virtually While you are there make sure to download uvm compass, which will allow you to see what is going on specifically with uvm welcome Don't forget as I talked about in the last webinar Take advantage of one of the 200 plus recognized student organizations as another opportunity for you to find your community As you can see though, you may be studying remotely Remember you are still a member of the catamount community So we can't wait you to welcome you and we hope you join the festivities And i'd love to task back over to sarah just to talk about some of these things because I know that you weave this type of information into your foundations of learning and academic success Course especially for first year students the importance Of making those connections and finding your community sarah Can you just touch on a little bit of what what Jerome was talking about and some of the information that we're seeing here on the slides Yeah, so, you know, I think I work a lot with first year students and Even I work with incoming graduate students. And so I think hand in hand It is about making those connections and you know, I think Studies do show that when you can connect to your community you end up doing better I know around 80 of students from uvm participate in some sort of extracurricular activity And what that looks like this year It's great to see from Jerome that there are options virtually and so definitely tap into those and take advantage I also Julia had mentioned before And I know caroline says the same thing is really the importance of connecting with your faculty and so I always Encourage students to make those connections early on because sometimes if you wait until midway through this semester Especially if you're anxious to do so it becomes even harder But know that we are all here to support you and so Reaching out make those connections. You are in your your driver's seat You know, you are in charge of your education and it can be your best advocate. So Staying connected is is definitely something that I think is helpful I see that mazy had wrote a connect a question that goes hand in hand with How would you recommend feeling connected in the class where lectures are being pre-recorded? And that's such a good question And I think, you know, everyone has a different way of going about it. I've been encouraging students And even in my class to kind of maybe develop some study groups or some teams where you can check in with each other You know attend many lectures will have virtual office hours. So attend those and take advantage of it ask questions So while you might not be able to kind of see the live lecture and ask questions in that moment There's so many ways outside of that time that you can kind of try to stay connected Absolutely, and there was a lot of those points made in the webinar yesterday on time management strategies And one of the big tips that Keith Williams from the tutoring center and the center for academic success kept saying is Connect with your professors reach out connect with the ta's And a question of course came up. Well, if I'm remote, how am I finding those study groups? And so helping Professors can help you do that as well. I would imagine Julia that I'd love to hear your perspective on what macy is asking and how you help students build that community with each other from a remote setting as well Um, I think when the first things that we do is right off the bat we Um, we introduce ourselves to each other I know everybody does this in every class face to face or remote But I connect that to the course content right away. So for communication disorders I ask students to find a video or an article or something that They're interested in that connects them to the topic of communication disorders just to kind of get the conversation started And sometimes that's all it takes students like oh, I saw the king's speech I have a friend who stutters and you just start making these connections right away So I would really encourage students to take advantage of discussion board I know a lot of times students get in get out But it's really a wonderful place to start making connections and getting to know people You start seeing oh, I have this class as well. You start making these natural connections and start having study groups and such Um, I often think like journaling is a great way to really connect with your professor I think about students that had my fresh their freshman year rather and then by their senior year They're ready to go off to grad school and they come asking for a letter of recommendation So it's really important to know to start making those connections right away So professors know who you are. You know who they are. So when it comes time To ask for a letter of recommendation You have somebody to ask and you have someone who knows your your your personal skills But also your academic skills and can write about your skill set Absolutely and and that was emphasized as well yesterday. And so thank you for reinforcing that We were going to play a video here, but I might just skip over that just for sake of time I want to have plenty of time for questions And but I did want to share That the library has amazing resources And we have a wonderful video that we can share in the follow-up email From the recording of the presentation That Daisy one of the librarians walks students through One of the most important resources on the how library website is the ask the librarian And I can't emphasize that enough and it kind of goes to what Julia was saying as well is reaching out making those connections Finding resources that you have a connection with and can and feel comfortable going back and asking And all of these services are available to remote students And they highly recommend that you find the ask the librarian on the website reach out And also the references And the research guides also available on the website and I really recommend Especially first-year students that are coming in and that you've chosen remote to schedule a consultation with the librarian Get to know that resource because you're going to need it so much and it's going to really help you Feel connected to uvm as well So I want to dive into a few more of the questions and before I get to looks like we have a question from sara And we have another question as well, but I wanted to circle back With with our sara for just a minute You talked about you know that interval and how your brain kind of needs to come in and out of things How do you how do you recommend? Somebody schedule that and is that a crazy question that i'm trying to schedule that interval learning? But i'm just thinking about How what people have in in a remote environment and the distractions and maybe they're also have family and they're also maybe doing part-time job Or this is their first year and they're trying to acclimate. How would you recommend they try to Weave in interval learning in that way? That's a great question I think you know again learning is complex and we have to think about these things right like how we how we go about doing this and so I think what caroline was mentioning with the palmadero effect that is a great kind of app that Will really allow you to just focus on something for a short period of time So when you think about kind of this interval learning you really want to um, you know take breaks and I think that's so important with online learning to is Do not sit in front of your computer for five hours right take those breaks Kind of get moving get up. You have to also balance your well-being and your mental health with your academic So find ways to also take care of yourself um, I I tell students because I think sometimes I do a lot on uh procrastination and why we procrastinate and I think a lot of times what Students talk about and I and myself I procrastinate sometimes is that The the thought of sitting down and completing a task can be so overwhelming And so reminding yourself that you don't need to sit down and complete that task and that kind of fits itself too and with that interval learning is that You are um, you're setting aside time to focus on something and maybe it's just 25 minutes Give yourself 25 minutes or even 15 minutes to write that first paragraph and then tell yourself you're going to actually walk away Whether it's doing a different subject or just walking away completely from work for a little bit But really finding ways to incorporate those breaks into your routine. I think is is helpful and can be um Can help kind of motivate you to really space things out. Does that answer your question? Nicole? Absolutely. Yes. I think that's so important to reemphasize That you can block out those breaks as well. Um, and that actually Will benefit you and retain that information. I think more effectively is what i'm hearing Oh, and I think julia has a perspective too. We'd love to hear from you too. Go for it. Julia Uh, what I like to do I like to provide the students with a checklist that goes with their assignment So they can break it up into little pieces and they can do give me one chunk on a monday night and then move on to another Chunk another time. So it's manageable. They have all these little pieces and it feels good I don't know if you ever do a checklist. It feels good. Sometimes I just write it down just so I can check it off But that that seems to help a lot too Absolutely, we had a student join us on the webinar yesterday megan and she was really talking about Her master schedule that she builds at the beginning of the semester and then breaking it down into those smaller chunks too So I think the emphasis on multiple ways to do it Can help and I think sarah probably will reinforce that and has another point go for it there Just kind of piggybacking off of that, you know, I think with technology now I know a lot of students tend to use their phone or a scheduling app, which is great But I also I think there's something to be said for kind of, you know Planner like a visual planner in front of you Because you can easily kind of just flip through the pages and see what to do Like three weeks down the road or you can block out those times and cross it off physically like with your actual hands So I encourage students to always get an academic planner when I taught I teach my course online now But when I taught it in person that was the one thing that they all had to do is Come in with some sort of plan or whether it was pieces of paper stapled together or something To really kind of write down those tasks And you retain it more the the act we learned about that yesterday too the act of writing it down Helps you to retain that information. So take these tips and run with it our students who are joining us tonight So let's get to some of the questions We have a question from Sarah who's saying I'm a TA for 250 plus student course How to think about who might want to answer this one first? How do I maximize academic integrity among students when they can just look up the answers online besides offering reflective based assignments? I'd love to maybe toss that to first Julia and then maybe Carolyn if you want to offer some perspective next after Julia Well, I've never taught a class that large. I think the largest class I've had is 35 So we do talk about academic integrity at the beginning of the semester. There's a prezi that the university has on file That I show I have students sign an academic integrity agreement So I think just by thinking about that looking at a video signing your name It puts it in the forefront of a student's mind So how do I maximize integrity among students? Yeah, I I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question I know um, I think like she said more reflective based answers, but also ones that are more You know having to describe something in your own words or give a personal example of how this pertains to you Like when I talk about the components of language like linguists. I'm sorry pragmatics or semantics Show me an example of how you use semantics in your own life. Um, that's something you can't look up an answer to Really good point carolin. Do you have some perspective on that as well because I suspect you get that question on occasion Yeah assessments and a 250 person course is It's challenging because uh, you know grading any type of written work is very challenging and doing that in a timely way um, because it's certainly possible if you have enough ta's but from I think the one thing that I see a lot with large courses is Some like objective type of exams or tests um, and they could be lower stakes or higher stakes depending on how you do that, but there's ways to maybe have a Pool of questions. So they um, you know, you can time it So I know some faculty that are worried about students looking up the answers But they make the exam really short in time So if they tried to look up every single answer it wouldn't be possible So they really do need to know the information going in and the faculty member tells them that that if they Spent all their time looking up every single answer. They will not be able to finish the assessment. So Um, there's different ways to to look at that, but um, those are the few I had off the top of my head Really great perspective. Thank you for sharing that as well. I'm going to get to that other question in just a minute here I know we're almost out of time. I do want to share the opportunity for our viewers and our participants today to earn a digital badge for participation to show on your LinkedIn or your social media channels that you have Learned these skills and and really started to adapt and adopt Um, a learning mindset and a growth mindset as you kick off the fall semester So there here's some information on the slide We can also put this information and a link to the page where You can claim that digital badge in the chat box as well and we'll include this information in the follow-up also So I do want to make sure that that everybody knows there's one more So tomorrow we have a presentation with our center for well-being in University of Vermont We have two of our amazing folks that work in the center for well-being that are going to walk us through Some holistic approaches to learning and and this is really you know Almost the maybe it should be the first topic that we do, you know, how do you take care of yourself? How do you balance your mental health? With everything that we have going on in the world and the fact that you're about to start classes again How do you take care of you? And that's so important for your own success This fall and going forward So please join us tomorrow at one o'clock as we continue this awesome discussion And so my last question, I know we have about a minute But so the last question is what advice do you have for students when the pace of the course is Is fast relative to their learning pace? Sarah, I might go over to you since you do so much work Um on learning mindset and making it stick and and figuring out how to manage your time What would be some quick advice here to the students that's asking that question? Yeah, so that's a great question. Um, you know, everyone learns differently everyone learns at a different pace and so The first thing I would suggest is definitely making sure to reach out to your faculty to the instructor and See if there's any additional tools or support that they can provide One thing as a student that you may be able to do is when I talked about kind of generation like being that detective Is if you're able to maybe read through um, if you know, you're going to talk about such and such in one class Maybe read through that ahead of time to have a little bit of a preview. It might help that information click and connect Some students are able to get the power point presentation or notes prior to class Which is another way to kind of just look through it and kind of get that preliminary Information that can make it easier when you're actually going through class in that moment So just a couple of strategies But again, as caroline said when you get far behind it can be hard to catch up So reaching out, um, you know asking for support and seeing if others have ways that you can You can feel a lot to speak with everything Great. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone who joined us tonight and asked such wonderful questions We hope that you'll take some of these tips as you kick off the fall semester and you're learning going forward Thank you so much caroline and sarah and julia for jumping in and sharing this wonderful advice on this stormy Tuesday evening Thank you all and we hope to see everybody tomorrow in our last webinar at one o'clock. Have a wonderful evening You