While some students have been doing university from home for the last year and a half, some are just about to start their first semester of it. Whether this is your first semester, or you are trying to find ways to make it easier for yourself here is a list of must-haves.

When you’re at university you are not staying in one classroom all day, you shuffle back and forth throughout the buildings for each class. Well, in Zoom university you are stuck in the confines of your home and with this comes restlessness. A highly recommended item to purchase is a laptop tray. This way if you are feeling tired of sitting at your desk and you need a change of scenery you can bring your laptop to bed or to the couch.

Learning from home can cause you to have more files on your computer than you may have had otherwise. Every PowerPoint, lecture and assignment will be given to you in a pdf or file format and that is a lot to download onto your computer. One thing that comes in handy for keeping space free on your computer is an external hard drive, this will help with the speed on your computer which is key for online learning!

When doing in-person classes you did not spend the whole time staring at your screen but with online classes, you must attend every class via a screen which can be very tiring for your eyes. The prolonged exposure to the blue light given off by your devices can cause headaches and eye strain. This is where a pair of blue light glasses come in handy.

With the amount of typing that goes into online learning, it can get draining and it is easy to miss simple mistakes you may have missed. An amazing way to avoid this from happening is to download the Grammarly extension on Chrome, it will tell you if you have any spelling or grammar errors in what you are writing. Whether that be an email to a professor or an assignment you are submitting.

Finally, something that is extremely important for success in online school is a day planner. Keeping track of all your assignments for your classes is terribly overwhelming and confusing. Help yourself out and buy a planner, you will never miss another assignment due date!

Don’t forget to get up, walk around and get some fresh air every so often! Your body and mind will thank you.

Published by HOLR Magazine.