Staff Picks – Tools to Support Online Learning

There are many tools to support your students’ success as they adapt to remote or online learning. Here are some recommendations from ASC Staff. Click on the visual to see the full-size version of each tool.

Anatomy of an Email

Chris Gasser

Anatomy of an Email

My favorite resource from the remote and online learning page is the Anatomy of an Email visual. Honestly, as a student I probably racked up tens of hours sitting in front of a blank screen wondering how in the world to write an email to an instructor. The anatomy of an email resource makes it so easy to see how to style an email to be professional, effective, and concise!

Weekly Calendar

Clare Creighton

Weekly Calendar

I’m a big fan of the Weekly Calendar. It’s a tool that works in many contexts. Creating a schedule for the week can help students find or make time for what’s important to them. Now that we’re all working from home it seems even more important to have a way to delineate work vs. play, make time for relaxation, and stay productive with more distractions. The Weekly Calendar is one of the best antidotes to procrastination. If I sketch out what I’m going to work on and when, I’m more likely to follow through with that plan.

Elements of a Productive Study Space

Anika Lautenbach

Productive Study Space

My favorite resource is the Productive Study Space worksheet. As someone who’s working full time and doing an online graduate program, I definitely understand how challenging it can be to make your space work. This tool helps students consider how to get in the mindset for remote working or studying, how to set up and stick to a schedule, and what to do if they’re not able to dedicate a single space to work or study. These considerations have been crucial to helping me continue to do my work this term, and this tool can definitely help other students think about what will work for them.

10 Questions to Ask about Your Course

Sarah Norek

10 Questions

I wish I’d asked these sorts of questions when I was in college. Asking and answering these questions equips students with a kind of a blueprint. They figure out how to engage in the course, who they can go to for help, and how assignments will impact to their grade. Knowing these details early on sets a student up with an understanding of the course’s trajectory and expectations. If they run into any challenges later, already knowing how to reach out—and who to start with—can be a huge stress reliever.

Note-Taking 101

Marjorie Coffey

Note-Taking 101

In synchronous lectures, information might be lost if notes aren’t taken. In contrast, online content often remains available, making note-taking feel less urgent. Even when learning remotely, note-taking is an important starting point for recording information to later transfer to long-term memory. I like the Note-Taking 101 packet because it provides strategies for taking notes and making effective use of those notes throughout the study cycle. When I staff the ASC table for events (for graduate or undergraduate students), the note-taking packet always goes fast! Also, this packet has unicorns in it. And unicorns are cool.

Interested in more tools and strategies to share with students? Check out our Remote & Online Learning webpage.

Welcome to The Success Kitchen

We generated the name and concept for our new publication long before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we approach spring term. In many ways, I think it applies now more than ever. From snacking to stress-baking, am I the only one spending more time in the kitchen?

Cooking and baking are, for me, an act in experimentation, sometimes planned and sometimes reactive and improvised. I’m not alone here either. The media group America’s Test Kitchen is known for the work they do testing recipes, cooking equipment, ingredients, and highlighting not just their results, but the process and learning along the way.

The title of this publication, The Success Kitchen, draws inspiration from that design. We at the Academic Success Center want to share with you some of the things we’ve explored, learned , read about, developed, and implemented. We want to share successes and pass along the learning when things didn’t work out as planned. And we want to spark conversations, highlight the work of others, and share collaborations that took us somewhere exciting—all around the theme of student success at OSU.

So, this is our inaugural issue of The Success Kitchen. We hope you’ll enjoy what’s to come, and we invite you to be a part of the process. If an article sparks an interest, please reach out and join the conversation. Consider partnering with us on a feature. Not to belabor the metaphor, but we’re eager to share what we’ve been up to in our “kitchen” and we want to know what you’re cooking up too.

~Clare Creighton

Director, Academic Success Center