{"id":322,"date":"2020-10-29T15:47:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T15:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/?p=322"},"modified":"2021-02-04T15:46:48","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T15:46:48","slug":"one-step-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/2020\/10\/29\/one-step-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"One Step at A Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It\u2019s certainly been\u00a0an\u00a0usual start to the 2020\/21 academic year. There\u2019s been a whole summer of wondering what\u2019s going to happen and how it\u2019s all going to work, and\u00a0then, having had plenty of time to settle in over the induction period, teaching\u2019s started\u00a0in earnest.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s natural to want to hit the ground running. Whether you\u2019re just beginning your degree with us and wanting to make a good start on your new course, or a returning student who\u2019s got a bit of experience under their belt of studying remotely and wanting to keep up and get ahead of yourself, it\u2019s tempting to throw yourself into your studies. After all, none of us have lived and studied like this before, we\u2019re not following in any established footsteps, and one of the best ways to beat fear of the unknown is to dive in.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re finding though that you\u2019re feeling overwhelmed, anxious or under pressure, or just not sure where you\u2019re going with it all and maybe getting nowhere,\u00a0it might help to stop for a moment and take stock.\u00a0One step at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re starting your degree, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, do remember that induction was only the beginning, and the process of transition continues…. well, certainly for your first term, and in many ways, your academic skills will continue to evolve throughout your degree. You\u2019ll have had some light touch academic skills provision in the University\u2019s online induction, but there will be more throughout the whole year, as and when you need it. Certainly no one is expecting you to be fully fledged already, with all the knowledge and skills you need. If you\u2019re feeling behind because you don\u2019t yet feel you know what you\u2019re doing, that\u2019s natural! It\u2019ll come with time and experience. Just because an assignment or task has been set now, doesn\u2019t mean that you already need to know how to do it \u2013 learning is scaffolded so you learn the right thing at the right time, rather than being deluged at the start. And if you\u2019re not sure what you\u2019re supposed to be doing yet, ask! It might not be as much as you think, or a bit of a steer might make you feel more focussed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online asynchronous learning is playing a far bigger role for all of us this year than it ever has. This has shifted the way that we organise our work and manage our time, but think about whether it\u2019s controlling you, or you\u2019re in charge of it.\u00a0Our VLE, Canvas, is structured around weeks and modules of information, packaged up into\u00a0carefully designed\u00a0linear\u00a0chunks, but you can still decide how and when\u00a0best\u00a0to engage with it\u00a0during your week.\u00a0If several weeks\u2019 worth of content\u00a0have\u00a0been released at once, you don\u2019t need to\u00a0work through it all at once \u2013 pace yourself around any synchronous teaching or assessments\u00a0as your landmarks\u00a0in which you will need to draw on those synchronous materials, week by week. And just because structured learning materials\u00a0have been organised into a module on canvas doesn\u2019t mean you have to keep clicking that \u2018next\u2019 button and work through it all in one go. Keep your learning active rather than passively clicking through: get an overview of the\u00a0module, and\u00a0decide how you\u2019re going to break it up in a way that works with your concentration span, giving yourself time and space to take it in properly\u00a0and have breaks in between or mix it up with other learning activities.\u00a0If you\u2019ve been given recommended timings to spend on each thing, remember they\u2019re estimates and don\u2019t feel intimidated by them. They\u2019re just there to help you quantify how much work there\u00a0is\u00a0so you know roughly what\u2019s expected and how to factor it into your schedule\u00a0(as well as helping us estimate how much we\u2019re reasonably asking of you!)\u00a0\u2013 if it\u2019s taking a bit longer or\u00a0shorter, don\u2019t worry too much.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time passes quickly in this first term even at the best of times, but time seems to be moving quite differently this year \u2013 speeding by and standing still all at once. Yes, deadlines approach faster than you think they will- that’s a universal truth! But a measured approach is the best, and a targetted one, once the task has become clear in good time. On a bigger scale, try and pace yourself, both to avoid burnout and to make sure that your learning is as efficient as it can be. Doing too much and too randomly at the start before you\u2019ve got a sense of what\u2019s needed and how to prioritise it doesn\u2019t do much good, any more than cramming at the last minute. On a day to day level, to really sink in, learning needs to be broken down and spread out over time. It also helps to mix things up – interweave different activities or topics so you\u2019re fresh and so you feel you\u2019re making progress on several fronts at once. It also really helps you learn!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And do take breaks and build in time to look after yourself. It\u2019s\u00a0really difficult\u00a0at the moment, we know, and it can be tempting to throw yourself into work to feel more in control and more productive, but we all need to vary between work and play. The\u00a0NCLInlcude\u00a0app<\/a>\u00a0is a great starting point, and remember your Five Ways To Wellbeing<\/a>.\u00a0Days can feel very\u00a0samey\u00a0now we\u2019re spending more time socially distanced\u00a0indoors, but\u00a0building in structured time for study and fun or self-care can be helpful \u2013 you need times when you know you\u2019re NOT\u00a0and SHOULDN\u2019T\u00a0be working, as well as times set aside for study.\u00a0We\u2019ve all got a lot of time on our hands\u00a0at the moment, and work expands to fill the time available if you let it. A good balance of study and fun will help you\u00a0negotiate between the extremes of burnout and lack of motivation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be challenges this year \u2013 some of them we can anticipate, and others will be more unexpected, but everything in its own time. If you\u2019re not sure now how to do something, then try not to panic just yet \u2013 there will be more advice from your lecturers at the appropriate time, or the task might simply become clearer the more experience you get. And you can always contact us at the WDC for study advice!  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s certainly been\u00a0an\u00a0usual start to the 2020\/21 academic year. There\u2019s been a whole summer of wondering what\u2019s going to happen and how it\u2019s all going to work, and\u00a0then, having had plenty of time to settle in over the induction period, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5874,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}