Your Learning Guide

I am a retired lecturer. With limited mobility due to old age my contact with culture depends on my computer where I regularly sit for two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon. Then I do some housework. In the afternoon I take a siesta, it sharpens the mind. I enjoy discovering new things for myself and for other people and urge others similar to me to do the same!

Experiment revising in a few different places to decide what you prefer, usually a quiet area in your home is best but some people prefer to head to the library to avoid distractions at home. I prefer to be alone but others prefer working next to others revising to make you feel bad if you stop, its all about your choice! 

Then even if its in house, set an alarm for a reasonable time (I’d say 9/9.30) and make sure you get up and dressed, revising in pjs sounds a lovely idea but I find getting up, dressed and washing my face makes me feel awake and prepared and therefore the day is much more productive.   

Set yourself targets and be organised but don’t spend too much time doing this! If you have 5 exams in 3 weeks write a schedule of what you’ll do each day taking into account the hardness of each subject and which order the exams are in. 

I always find rewriting notes onto other pages and/or highlighting much better than simply reading which often doesn’t go in, especially if there’s any diagrams involved. Writing the most important bits on flashcards also helps and googleing things  or reading a different book to see another way of it is written which can help information sink in and understand it better. 

My tips are to find short spells to study; 30 minutes to 1 hour is quite enough for me, usually after I have checked my emails first thing in the morning when my mind has not been cluttered by other things.

Secondly, not to take on too much. I have found myself trying to do four FutureLearn courses overlapping, and this just isn’t possible for me so then none of them get studied effectively. Pick and choose cleverly and make sure you have the time. 

I got through all my M.A essays and final dissertation by timetabling small chunks of work in my computer calendar. I worked out how much I needed to do within x period of time, to reach my end goal and wrote in each step, e.g. I would enter ‘500 words today’, three times a week over a period of months to finish my thesis. Invariably I completed far more, but knowing that I didn’t have to if time was short helped me scale the mountain in lots of easily attainable steps!

Schedule a chunk of time every week to learn and focus wholly on that. A lunchtime, an early morning session, or curled up in the evenings. Make it regular, make it consistent, make it count.

It isn’t always easy juggling keeping a home up to scratch, looking after chidren and /or holding down a job whether full-time or part-time. FutureLearn provides the ability to learn during those few quiet moments you have.

Each course provides you with an estimate of how many hours each week you will need. Fair enough! Friends and advisors would say it is all down to how you manage your time. Again, fair comment.

I don’t think that time management or the estimate of hours needed takes into consideration the requirements of a modern life where you need to have some sort of social life. Nor does it take into account that many people worldwide have poor internet speeds (that includes the British Isles).

My tip and advice would be to take the estimate given by FutureLearn on time needed to complete the course and at least double it, preferably triple it (so a course that says you will need to spend some 4 hours per week, I would say you really need to set allow 8 hour per week) and you should be ok.

Firstly study something that sparks your interest, you will learn far more if you are enjoying what you are studying.

Watch the video more than once but also download the the dialogue  that comes with the video.

Study in short bursts this way you will take in the information you are trying to assimilate

Make notes as your going along of the seminal points.

When studying from a book, make comments in the margins and underline the relevant issues.

When revising for an exam on a sheet of A4 make headings along the top of the sheet. Then underneath each heading make abbreviated notes of the relevant points, this allows you to revise faster without having to re read your books

Because my daily life is full of things I can’t predict, I’ve found that my attempts to hold myself to a daily schedule merely set me up for failure and disappointment. What works for me is to commit myself to a set amount of time that I will devote to study. Say two hours a day. But it doesn’t have to always be the same two hours. And it need not be completed all it once.  Maybe I can do an hour in the morning and an hour later in the afternoon.  Or twenty minutes as soon as I get up, and an hour and a half after I’ve had breakfast which leaves a block of time for me to fit in later in the day.  It’s not perfect, and I do wish I could be one of those folks who have established a schedule to follow each day. But alas, life keeps getting in the way making it absolutely necessary for me to be flexible – but within limits.

1. Find that one day in your week when you can focus on your course. Don’t plan anything else on that day and don’t skip it. Think of this way - this is a time in the week for yourself and for you to become a better person.
   
2. If it’s possible then find a place where nobody will distract you.
   
3. Use the comment section on the course. If you have some good tips or information that would add to that course, then share it! Others will share also - and that’s a good resource.
   
4. If you have a question - ask it! That’s why you are taking this course to find out more. This is the right place and time to get answers to your questions.
   
5. All weeks might not be interesting, but that’s not a reason to give up on course. Give it a chance.
   

Try different times and places to find out where and when you learn best. When you have found out, try and set aside some short time at the same time each day in your ‘learning place’ to study. Try and keep your books and computer there so they are always available to you. You may find that you need to get up an hour earlier so that you can spend that precious hour when no one else is around studying in the quiet. You will gain an extra hour each day that is not taken from your other, family, activities.

Keep a diary of how many hours you spend studying each day. Check weekly if you are doing about as many hours as it advises on the course notes. If you are spending too long, it may be that the course is too difficult for you and you may have to go back one step - the reverse is also true.