Coronavirus and Hints for Online Learners
Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the fact that Universities all around the world are migrating on-campus students to online classes (such as Harvard and universities from California), I thought I could make a special post about online learning to all LLM students.
First, let me say that there is no reason to panic, dear colleague!
Although I understand that you probably chose an on-campus course because you wanted to interact with people, physical contact is the one thing you do not wish to have right now, right? However, there is no reason to believe that your study will be compromised. Your online student experience can positively surprise you. Therefore, what are the essential tips to succeed in your online LLM, in my opinion?
First, choose a comfortable and quiet place to study, away from distractions. Choose a good chair (your back will appreciate it) and set the brightness settings of your computer screen to a level that makes your eyes feel comfortable.
Second, make time for it. Make plans and execute them. Create your routine. Reserve your study hours in advance and keep your mind concentrated during that period.
Third, establish priorities. What is the most important assignment you have with the closest deadline? This is the one you should be focusing on.
Fourth, make good use of the online resources offered by your school. Explore tutorials.
I believe that, once those four steps are guaranteed, you will see that you can get more out of your online study time than what you get in person. After all, you will not have to travel to and from college or arrive in class before it begins. Plus, you will not be distracted by conversations with your colleagues (your pet may distract you, though...).
Furthermore, since we are all stuck to our homes, I recommend that you take your time to read books and papers and write your essays in advance, whenever possible.
My Conference in Greece (the UNU-EGOV 13th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance), about which I posted before, was postponed to September, and I will not be able to attend it. I am really disappointed with this since I spent time and effort to prepare the paper that was selected. Therefore, I will have to withdraw it to keep it unpublished and try to use it another time. I have lost money, though.
Being someone who already has an on-campus Master of Laws degree, I may say that, on the one hand, you lose something when you stop interacting in person with colleagues. However, on the other hand, you also gain something when you are forced to study all by yourself: you increase your self-discipline and improve your writing abilities.
The online learning environment from the University of Edinburgh is very well developed since they have been offering distance learning LLMs for a while now. But I can't know how new online universities will perform.
In the end, I believe that with this crisis, online courses will grow even more in importance.