Finally the moment has arrived that you were waiting such a long time for. You accessed Wordiix, selected with the filters the most suitable teacher adequate for your needs and now you are about to enjoy your first free trial lesson. Congrats! We want you to make the most of them so we have a series of practical tips for you.
Preparation
Do you have everything ready for your lesson? Go through all these points in advance, you don’t want a last-minute shock to cloud your lesson:
- First of all, check that your connection is working correctly, the audio and visual component: you don’t want first-time nerves to be exacerbated by technical problems. As for our part, remember that we always use the best technology, without outages.
- It is important that you choose a comfortable place, without distractions, that is favorable to concentrating….actually, the bed is not a good option. According to the University of Nebrija, the ideal space is a work one and always the same one. It must have good lighting and silence. In this way, your performance will be improved.
- For her part, the psychologist of the American University Melba Bermudez adds that you must be comfortable and it is advisable that you wear suitable clothing.
- It is also advisable to have material on which to take notes during the lesson, so that no interesting point escapes you!
As you can see, everything has to be in focus to avoid distractions, creating an environment conducive to learning so you focus on the class itself and nothing spoils it.
Concentration
There are various enemies that can undermine your concentration and cause your performance to suffer, let’s get to know them to be able to combat them:
- The mobile: it is the main adversary to beat. According to one study from the cybersecurity firm McAffe, 45% of students look online at social media whilst a lesson is being given. So,if you have it on and next to you, you will probably be tempted to have a peek…Has someone whattsapped you? Why has that Instagram notification popped up? Too long without looking at Facebook? The most straightforward thing to do is to turn it off or silence it or put it away from you as far as possible, otherwise it is easy to fall for it’s dirty game and divert your attention from what is really important. Also avoid opening up tabs in your webpage that have nothing to do with studying, they will only serve to undermine your goal.
- The same applies to other sources of distraction,they could be the televisión and the radio: turn them off, or even better, remove them from the room. Your favourite tv series can wait.
- Family and friends: they have to understand the fact that you may be there physically does not mean they can interrupt your lesson. Make them know that during class time you are not available.
- Rest well: it seems obvious, but we don’t alway take it into account. If you don’t sleep sufficiently, it is likely that it will be difficult for you to pay attention. Not only the amount of hours is important, but also when you go to bed: an experiment carried out by teachers at MITconcluded that going to bed before two in the morning was favorable to academic performance, independent of the number of hours slept. Similarly, from this report it appeared that students who rested an average of six and a half hours saw their grades fall by 50% compared to those who relied on an hour more of sleep.
Communicate
There is nothing more beneficial for a student than to voice their doubts that can come to them. Don’t be afraid to ask, your teacher is there to help you, they are the navigator of your formative experience, they want you to learn and need to know what your worries are. Also, partipation contibutes to making the class more enjoyable and improves your concentration.
If this is a group class, make use of the chat feature to interact with your classmates. With respect to this, the University Rey Juan Carlos highlights that these “moments of communication” are opportunities to feel close to the teachers and classmates and reduces the virtual distance. For its part, the university corporation UNITEC highlights that these types of virtual communications must always be done from this respect and recommends avoiding “to write as one speaks” so as not to generate any type of conflict through misunderstanding of the message.
Take into account, also, that your opinions can contribute to improving future lessons with your teacher, not only for other students, but also for you. This feedback, therefore, is beneficial for both parties: the student see their doubts resolved and the teacher, by detecting that which is most difficult for the student, will mould and can personalise even more their learning.
Establish objectives
From “I’m going to learn English in two weeks” to “I will need years to understand a word” there is a gulf and both are equally unrealistic. Neither is a magic wand going to touch you and automatically you will gain all knowledge, nor is thinking that you will need an eternity to understand the most basic elements of a subject. One of the more interesting peculiarities of online learning is that you and you alone are your driving force: you choose the rhythm, the level, the place and the when, so greater the commitment to that which you are studying, greater will be the rate at which you learn, therefore it is very useful to note down objectives that you can fulfill without getting into frustration territory. The University of Nebrija recommends you follow certain guidellines so that your learning journey is a success. Some of them are:
- Make a plan: if you set out in advance your objectives, establish a timetable and take breaks, it will be easier to complete the goal you have set yourself.
- Establish a timetable: include classes with your teacher and a time to study and to consolidate knowledge gained. It will be much more effective than if you try to absorb everything in only one day, thereby, if there are exams, you will have more possibility of passing them.
- Take advantage of the first hours of the day to study.
- Use methods of relaxation to improve concentration.
Now that you can rely on more links to get the most from your virtual classes, we hope that you enjoy to the maximum the teachers at Wordiix. Our cohort of teachers are our great pride and we are sure that with them, your future can only get better.
