Studying is tough enough by itself. Studying over the loud conversation of others or amidst the screams of your children can often be next to impossible. Obviously, the best advice for dealing with distractions while studying is to find a way to be alone in a quiet place. Because this ideal situation is sometime impossible to achieve, you need some tools to help you tune out noise and tune into your studies.

The best way to deal with distractions while studying is to embrace the distraction. Have you ever walked into a room and smelled an offensive odor, only to forget about that odor a few minutes later? Somehow, our senses can get used to many different environments if we let them. As soon as you become annoyed with the music that’s playing in the coffee shop, you won’t be able to concentrate on anything else. If you tell yourself that the music is perfectly lovely, you may be able to forget about it entirely. The same goes with your kids playing in the other room. If you take their squeals in stride, thus embracing the din as the environment you’re stuck with, it’s entirely possible that you’ll forget about the noise after studying for a few minutes.

(source: WorldWideLearn.com)

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While you are not participating in a traditional lecture, effective note taking is still important to your online learning success. Writing helps you retain knowledge – don’t rely on memory alone. Note taking gives your mind a chance to absorb the material it needs to learn. Not only can this help you to do better on tests, it’s also a great confidence booster when you’re studying and find yourself easily retaining the information.

There are many ways to take good notes – what works for one person may not work for another. Experiment with a few methods to find what’s best for you. Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Organize your notes along the order of chapter objectives.
2. Your notes should contain:
   - definitions of new vocabulary words
   -new concepts discussed in a chapter
   - questions you have about the material
3. Review your notes within 24 hours of first studying the material. If you don’t review for 10-15 minutes within 24 hours, you will only retain 20% of what you initially learn.
4. Keeping good notes for each unit or topic will give you a tool you can use to prepare for exams without feeling like you’re “cramming” everything in at the last minute.
5. Don’t forget to review, review, and review some more. A semester’s worth of notes does you no good if you never look at the information again.

 - Online Learning Tips Staff