APU Careers & Learning Editor's Pick Online Learning

Create Your Own “Success Kit” for Your Online Classes

There are many formulas for success, do you have one? Making your own this year may take a load off your shoulders. Think of it as your “back-up” or insurance on yourself for class.

Here are some great tools and sites to add to your kit:

  1. Time Tracker
    A to-do-list with a clock. This tool lets you know when you’re spending all of your time on one item, and alerts you to re-allocate time wasted to other efforts.
  2. Co-mapping
    Online mind mapping software to manage and share information. You can use it to take notes, plan and organize. It’s a way to have one set of notes, and one set of files.
  3. Spreeder
    An innovative online speed reading tool. It teaches you to silence your inner voice while reading. You can gradually increase the WPM counter to speed up your reading abilities.
  4. Notely
    For students looking to improve their grades with better organization, this is a great tool to utilize. Perfect for arranging your schedule, calendar, note-taking (if you need it), and homework planning.
  5. Dropbox
    This is a virtual file storage unit. Just like google docs, it’s free to use, but this tool is great because you can access it from anywhere; your mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, desk top, any computer away from your home. It makes your documents mobile because they’re stored in a private area on the internet.
  6. iCyte
    An amazing research tool. You can mark, make notes and organize your thoughts on a topic on a webpage, or a few keywords in an article online. This tool stores the information for you so when you visit the site again, it pulls up the information you keyed in.
  7. Spellchecker
    For those times when you’re not sure how a word is spelled, this is the tool for you.
  8. Zotero
    An add-on that helps a student keep track of all sources while writing a research paper. It will help prepare a bibliographyfor Open Office or MS Word. It’s a Firefox extension
  9. Wordweb
    One of the better tools you can use for writing papers. It’s an online, or offline, thesaurus and dictionary. After downloading it you simply press and hold down Ctrl+Alt+W and it puts the word you’re looking to replace in context and gives you helpful suggestions. Available for download for Windows and Mac users.
  10. Notemesh
    A great tool for collaborating with classmates. You can share notes with other students around the country and world.

Happy New Year, and cheers to the start of a great year for learning.

[Related Post: Start the New Year With a Bang, Not a Boom: Don’t Take on Too Much Too Soon]

J. Mason

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