Perfect Tips for Online Students for their Academic Success

The field of education has evolved over time. Online learning has become a new medium of learning for the students students across the globe. In the present day, there are a lot of students studying online and more students are interested to study online. It has allowed people who are working to maintain their education further. Online learning has definitely helped to put in a bit more equilibrium into the life of the working and parenting student. Convenience is the main factor that guides a lot of people to online education. However, online learning is indeed a challenge to online students because they are learning in a completely new medium.

Some of the studies have pointed out that online studies are actually a little harder than the traditional classroom studies. The main reason is that online students will have to plan their study time and other things alone. In online education, student will be their teacher as well because they will have to plan their studies alone and in an effective manner. Online students should not have a careless attitude when taking an online course for the reason that some may attest to be harder than traditional classes.  For students who are thinking of online courses over traditional classroom instruction, here are some perfect tips for academic success.

·         Make Busy Schedules

One of the very important steps that online students must take is creating a busy schedule. To learn successfully through online, the student require to devote a substantial amount of his time constantly to attend the program and should be very much intense while studying especially by totally committing to his  learning procedure. Observably, online students used to start out with full energy and enthusiasm, but it seems to lose the grip as the time progresses. The main reason is that they may get ample free time since they don’t want to follow a time table like in a school or college. Getting ample free time can guide the online students to become lazy in studies. Therefore, make busy schedules and keep engaged in order to acquire academic success.   

         

·         Connect With Instructors

Online students should concentrate on connecting with instructors always because it aids them to clarify heir confusions and doubts. Don’t try to connect with instructors only when you require asking doubts. You have to connect with them every time so that they can aid you to follow and access the exact study materials.

·         Find Answers Independently

It is spot on that instructors are available to help online students throughout the courses. However, students should try to find answers to class questions independently as well. It can aid the students to be creative and thrive in their academic life. You have to be eager to go out and find things on your own which will guide you to be a successful student.

·         Have a Fine Study Space

It is obvious that the space that you choose to study have a lot of say in your academic success. Online students can choose living room, office room, garden, balcony of their home etc as their study space. But make sure that the place is quiet, distraction-free, and obtainable for use whenever you like to study. The students’ environment is very important when it comes to online learning. Therefore, confirm that the study space you choose enables you to follow your study routine effectively.

·         Have Regular, Yet Shorter Study Periods

Generally, students have a tendency to study at the last moment. But it will be a very bad decision when you are an online student. Successful students usually arrange their studies over shorter periods of time. They hardly ever aspire to keep studies to the last minute. If you would like to become a successful student, you need to learn to be constant in your studies. If you are an online student have regular, yet shorter, study periods to make academic success.

Online courses are a convenient and handy means to attend a course that you might otherwise not be able to attend on campus. Online students require being self-sufficient and taking responsibility for their learning more than traditional students. Students that are enthusiastic about online learning should have the following features:

·         Time Management.

·         Study Skills.

·         Goal Setting.

·         Motivation.

·         Learning Preferences.

·         Technology Skills.

Author Bio:

Glenda Kaplan is a well known writer, in an online professional resume writing service. He is always advising the students to buy professional resumes through online which will give new ideas for the students about professional resume writing.

Study Smart Info-graphic

Source: http://www.studymedicineeurope.com/

Message from one of our partner organisations - MCODE [Uganda]

Behind the growth of every young organization, there must be a well-wishing and supporting group of people or organization and in the tremendous growth of Mission for Community Development (MCODE) in Uganda, there was “Educate the World” formerly known as Primary Education for All in the UK.

MCODE was not known, not well established and with very little resources by the time Educate the World accepted to support it. Since the beginning of this partnership between Educate the World and MCODE, a lot has changed;

Dean Brockway together with his team designed and up to date still host MCODE’s website which has made a very big impact in keeping our supporters and all stakeholders updated and making other donors attracted to support MCODE. Dean and the entire team of Educate the World did not only support MCODE with the website but went further to provide consultancy services in relation to a number of funding applications.

The entire MCODE team is truly grateful for the continued support by Educate the World which has made MCODE a fast growing NGO in our area, they have further committed to work with MCODE to support the education of some of the most vulnerable children who would otherwise not have the chance to have an education, thank you Dean and your entire team!!!

Yours; Eng. Deo Lubanga Kayondo – founder and Executive Director of Mission for Community Development (MCODE).

7 Ways to Use Prezi in the Classroom

Heard about the coolest presentation building software in town? And no, it doesn’t include double “P”s. Prezi is forcing teachers, businesses, motivational speakers, and other presentation-givers to forget about a world where the MS PowerPoint was the only tool to use for creating classy presentation.

Prezi is quite unique in the way it offers users to build memorable presentations and bring ideas to life. All you have to do is pick a template, add your content, and then give your best presentation ever.

Teachers can find this tool very useful for engaging students in even the most boring topics. A visual and engaging “prezi” is bound to commit your lessons to their memories. Need some ideas? Here are 7 ways you can use Prezi in the classroom.

•  Present a Topic: Your Prezi could cover a not-so-interesting topic by making it more compelling with the help of strong visuals in Prezi. You may also include other media such as YouTube videos and bring a lesson to life.
• Present Historic Figures: Prezi is unlike traditional presentations that move slide by slide. With Prezi, you can have an “infinite canvas” that allows you to zoom in and out. This will work great for social studies classes where you want to sum up the contributions of a variety of famous figures. To find out more about each historical figure you can move in and out of picture to display more information.
• Spark Debates: How can a Prezi allow you to spark debates? With the help of the Venn diagram feature in Prezi you can show two sides of an argument with the help of pictures, text, or questions inside the circles. You can also edit this during class. This is much better than writing groovy essays on argumentative topics.
• Teach Students to “Sell Themselves”: Whether in graduate school or high school, it is a teacher’s duty to show students how to “sell themselves”. You can come up with a fun activity requires students to create wonderful Prezis all about themselves and why someone would want to hire them. So, this can turn into a presentation, come resume, that promotes their skills, qualities, ambitions, etc. The most creative ones should be rewarded!
• Take a Quiz: Have you ever thought of presentation quiz before? We’re sure you probably haven’t. This will require teachers to start out with a question and let students write it down before it switches over to the next question. If you’re not looking for a seriously challenging quiz, you can simply prezent the answer right after the question has been answered by the students.
• Reveal their results: Anything that promotes competition is a great way to engage students. With Prezi you can use cute avatars and reveal who came first, second, or thirdin a competitive activity you had in class. Each time, the students consolidated marks, comparison with the average, and the total marks could be shown. There are so many ways you could get creative with this!
• Cover Topics to be discussed: This is something every teacher has to present every once in a while. It can be very boring for students to follow or take any interest in what’s “coming up” next. However, with the help of Prezi, you can present semester outlines in a unique way. Each topic can be given individual attention and include visuals to make it even more interesting.

There’s really a million ways you can creative with Prezi for educational purposes. Just put your mind to it, and you’ll come up with tons of brilliant ideas that could make use of dynamic features.

Happy teaching!

Author Bio:

Christina Matthew is an academic from downtown LA. She offers academic consultancy to junior and high school students. When not consulting, she works in quality assurance for an online research firm.

Bangladesh - A safe country for living and visiting

Historically Bangladesh endures the reputation of maintaining peaceful law and order and communal harmony that enable the country to make the safest comfortable place for living. Year after year the nations of the country are struggling hard to protect this reputation of safe coexistence of native people with different religions, colors, races and castes along with peoples from abroad. No conspiracies can ever deviate people of the country from this attitude of respecting coexistence safely and happily. It is really very tough for the nation of a densely populated country like Bangladesh with people of multi religion, race, caste and color to maintain peaceful law and order with a view to make the country a safe place for living and visiting. The valiant country friendly but easy hearted nation can claim to the world community as proud contributors for introducing the country as one of the safest places for living and visiting in the world.

World community has come to know about Bangladesh’s new identity as one of the safest places in the world by two recently published reports. Gallup the Washington DC carried out The Global Law and Order 2015 report presents that Bangladesh is one of the safest countries in the world.  The report says that Singapore with 89 points is the safest country in the world followed by Uzbekistan (88) and Hong Kong (87). The worst ranking countries are Liberia with 40 points and Venezuela with 42 points. Bangladesh with 78 points is one of the safest countries of the world, according to the Report. Bangladesh is closely followed by the United States and Australia with 77 points. France, the recent epicenter of global attention, was ranked lower than Bangladesh with 75 points. Apart from Bangladesh the ratings for other countries of South Asia were not particularly inspiring with India scoring 67 points and Pakistan 60 points. Gallup’s report presents the results from its latest measure of people’s answers to following three questions, based on more than 142,000 interviews with adults in 141 countries in 2014.

·        In the city or area where you live, do you have confidence in the local police force?

·        Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live?

·        Within the last 12 months, have you had money or property stolen from you or another household member?

On the other hand, Institute for Economics and Peace carried out Global Peace Index (GPI) that measures the state of peace in 162 countries. GPI report shows that Iceland is the most peaceful and Syria is the least peaceful countries in the world. Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh registering gains in ranking compare to last year ranking. The position in ranking of Bangladesh is 84 while Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan’s positions in ranking are respectively 114, 143 and 154. GPI considered indicators like Population, CO2 Emissions, National police personnel (per 100,000 residents), Traffic deaths (per 100,000 residents), Assaults (per 100,000 residents) and Life expectancy (in years) for ranking & scoring the 162 countries.

But a few sporadic incidents can never futile achieved reputation of the country. Compare to other countries even developed countries in the world we feel proud in terms of maintaining peaceful law and orders with insignificant numbers of law & order enforcers. Hardly people of the country face political instability in the forms of violence, rampage and vandalism. But it never long lasts. In a densely populated country like Bangladesh with inadequate numbers of law & order enforcers incidents like rape, assassinations, killings, rampages etc happen in very few numbers compare to developed countries in the world. Only patriotism, humanity and attitude of respecting people enabled to maintain peaceful law & order despite of having lesser resources compare to huge number of people. Even the most developed countries like USA, South Africa can never claim proudly to consider the countries as the safest places for living and visiting as crimes, rapes, killings etc committed frequently and regularly.

The premiere reasons behind developing Bangladesh as world’s one of the safest places for living are strong family bondages, trustworthiness in brotherhood & neighborhood, respectfulness to others’ religions & cultures etc. Despite of having huge number of peoples with different religions and more than forty-five ethnic minorities, peoples here are living peacefully. Harmonize coexistences has become possible because people here do believe the spirit of “Religions are for individuals, but festivals are for everybody’s”.

The Global Law and Order Report 2015 and GPI Report 2015 revealed the fact to the world community that Bangladesh is one of the safest places for living and visiting despite of raising unjustified debates regarding this issue by some countries very recently. Every citizen of the country must aware to protect the reputation and justify the authenticity of the aforesaid reports presented by Gallup and Institute for Economics and Peace.

MD Bayazid Khan

auparbayazidkhan@gmail.com

The writer is working for primary education in Bangladesh and from 2017 will take on the role of Country Co-ordinator in Bangladesh for Educate the World [UK]

AN OPEN LETTER TO SUPPORTERS OF EDUCATE THE WORLD [UK] FROM FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN MR. DEAN BROCKWAY

Dear Supporters,

I felt now was a good time to write this letter as Educate the World [UK] has seen our supporter numbers grow over the past few months.  New supporters have been drawn to the Charity from different sources including our Patron, Scarlett Quigley, and our on-going #spoonappeal.  Whilst I am sure most, and hopefully all, of our supporters are aware of what Educate the World [UK] is aiming to achieve many of you are probably not aware of the Charity’s history and the hurdles it has faced in recent years.

Educate the World [UK] was founded in 2008 by myself, my wife and a close friend and was granted charitable status in 2010.  After growing well in the early years the charity was plunged into a crisis in June 2013 when my wife, Christine, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.  The Founders agonised long and hard about whether to close the charity, however on Christine’s insistence it remained opened and a new trustee was appointed to take her place.  From June 2013 to October 2014 the Charity was largely dormant relying on donations to keep going as I took the role of my wife’s full time carer.  As my wife’s condition deteriorated she made it clear that following her death she wanted the Charity to grow so that our initial hopes and dreams were not wasted.  Sadly Christine passed away on 30^th October 2014.

In line with Christine’s wishes we relaunched the charity in February 2015.  The person appointed to replace Christine as a trustee was removed from his position following a serious breach of Trust [he borrowed £700 from me 6 days after my wife’s funeral, promised to pay it back in a couple of weeks and to date has paid nothing back], and several of our partner organisation in Africa we removed following an internal investigation into the way they operate.  He was replaced by Andrea Quigley, the hardly working Mum of our patron Scarlett Quigley.  We were also honoured when the explorer and education advocate Justin Miles starting working with Educate the World [UK] in a consultative capacity.  I would like to place on record my thanks to Andrea, Scarlett and Justin all of whom over the past few months have worked closely with me to help the Charity grow and develop.  As we approach the first anniversary of my wife’s passing I can confidently say that we are successfully growing the charity and as far as I am concerned everything we the Charity does is done in her memory.

R.I.P Christine Brockway Founder of Educate the World [UK] 23-05-1953 to 30-10-2014

Message From Our Patron Scarlett Quigley On Our #spoonappeal

This is not music related but it is charity related and as UK Patron of Educate The World UK, I want to help. As I have gone back to college this week I realise how much we take a free education for granted as well as other things such as a simple spoon. We need your spoons! Just a simple spoon can help a child to stop spreading disease during their lunch break at school. To find out more click here http://www.educatetheworld.org.uk/just-a-spoon-a...ppeal/


I am in talks at the moment about visiting the children we help in 2017 so I will be able to see first hand how your spoons have helped.

I love all the opportunities that arise and people I can help through my singing and I am thrilled I can share it with you all.


As always sending you all lots of love ❤🎶❤

Guest Post: The Link Between Food and Education

Food and education are two of the fundamental rights of every child in developing countries like Bangladesh. Food has direct relation on education as poor nutrition and health due to lack of food among school children contributes to the inefficiency of the educational system. Education consists of qualitative learning that enables to face competitiveness as well as behavioural change. Since primary education makes foundation of lifelong learning journey therefore learning of primary school children is a challengeable issue that depends on some touchy matters like regular attendance, attentive participation in the classroom activities, development of intelligences etc. with other elements. And nourishment in the process of children’s’ learning mostly depend on hunger free existence in the classroom. Food has significant positive impact on learning as it ensure of gaining required energy for attentive participation in the classroom activities during long contact hour at as well as encourage children to attend regularly at school. Children, who suffer from protein-energy malnutrition and hunger, do not have the same potential for learning as healthy children. Hunger and poor nutrition diminish children’s cognitive development by reducing their ability to participate actively in the teaching-learning activity that is the vital issue to be addressed for ensuring their qualitative learning.  

Everyday more than 66 million children go to school hungry in developing countries like Bangladesh. Research shows that providing mid-day meals, mid-morning snacks or school feeding programme can increase children’s attention as well as abilities to concentrate classroom activities and perform specific tasks by alleviating short-term hunger. Realizing the effectiveness in learning by removing short-term hunger, the government with the support of international donors and some NGOs introduced humble initiative of School Feeding Program (SFP) in selected primary schools all over the country. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of the SFP in Bangladesh and evaluation findings indicate that SFP has raised school enrollment by 14.2 percent, reduced the probability of dropping out of school by 7.5 percent and increased school attendance by about 1.3 days a month.

In the era of commercialization of education, it is realistically true that most of the students of mainstreaming primary education in Bangladesh are either from lower middle class sections of the community or poverty stricken families. Definitely they are the victims of malnutrition and curse of hunger. As a result, drop out and attendance rate are really alarming as well as children’s achieved learning is not satisfactory to face modern days competitiveness although the country has achieved the pragmatic success in bringing almost all of the school aged children into primary schools. The premier reason behind said issues is that a significant part of primary school children are coming at schools with empty stomach. Confessing the hard reality of facing the issues that prevail in the mainstreaming primary education system, the government badly needs to remove the curse of hunger and malnutrition regarding to ensure children’s regular and attentive participation in the classroom activities. Otherwise, hunger and malnutrition will hinder severely children to strengthen their foundation in lifelong learning journey that compel them to survive in the competitive world.  Regarding this, the government may start School Feeding Programme (SFP) in all government run primary schools all over the country as SFP contributes to the education and well-being of children. A hungry child does not grow, cannot learn as well and faces many health risks in the future. A daily school meal provides a strong incentive to the families for sending off springs to school and keeping them there. It allows children to focus on their studies rather than their stomachs. SFP helps to improve performances on school exams and promote normal progression from grade to grade in completing primary education graduation. It also reduces maternal and infant mortality in the future as it helps younger girl children to make healthier women. Moreover, SFP will enable to make healthy Bangladesh by removing deficiencies of critical nutrients such as iodine, vitamin A and iron among the future generation of the country. SFP supports development of children for becoming healthy and productive adults by removing hunger and micro-nutrient deficiencies that can cause irreversible damage to their growing bodies.

It might be the toughest challenge for the government to take the humble initiative of introducing SFP in all primary schools with own resources. So, the government may start the programme on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) or with the support of domestic and international NGOs or philanthropic donors. The government can ask technical and operational assistance to start the gigantic initiative from an international organization, The Akshaya Patra of India which has vast experiences of serving mid-day meals to more than 1.4 million children maintaining strong qualitative and hygienic standards.  The government should be required sufficient funds, technological innovations, delivery vehicles facilities, quality maintain technologies, volunteers, efficient management team, and support from stakeholders to manage such kind of massive operation. The government might be given the responsibility of starting SFP or mid day meal programme to different local and international NGOs like Educate the World [UK] for different districts to manage such operations on PPP.

  

Our children are the future of our country and it is the high time for developing them to survive in the competitive world by strengthening their learning in basic education dispeling their sufferings from hunger and malnutrition. Therefore, humble beginning of School Feeding Programme or Mid Day Meal Programme into primary schools could be the best way of developing future generation of the country as valuable human resources for the betterment of the country. 

MD BAYAZID KHAN

auparbayazidkhan@gmail.com

The writer is working for primary education in Bangladesh.  

Infographic: The Value of Upskilling

This infographic was created by Richard Madison, the Marketing Executive of the Brighton School of Business and Management [https://www.brightonsbm.com/]. Training is an investment. For individuals, it builds skills and lifts earnings potential, while for businesses it contributes to a more productive workplace. This infographic highlights the value of upskilling, and shows how both businesses and individuals are making the most of their skill set.

8 Tips For Using YouTube In The Classroom To Guarantee The Best Learning Experience

It is one thing for a teacher to describe a scientific experiment and it is quite another experience to watch it unfold in front of your very eyes. Teachers are now finding that videos help to improve the learning experience, helping students to absorb more information as compared to a teacher only explaining the subject matter verbally.

So, if you are a teacher who plans to make his or her lectures more engaging, think about incorporating some videos in your teaching plans. And what better way to do so than to use YouTube? Follow these tips to ensure the best YouTube learning experience for your students:

1.       Check Out The Video Before You Bring It To Class

This way you can make sure that the content is entirely classroom appropriate and that your students are not exposed to unwanted comments. This will also allow you to check for technical issues, such as video quality.

2.       Restrict Your Search To Reputable Channels

Do not just opt for any video that you find. Channels such as Khan Academy not only take great care to ensure the accuracy of the material they upload, but also take great pains to moderate comments to ensure that no inappropriate material squeezes through.

3.       Ensure That You Are Fully In Control At All Times

When you are teaching a younger class, it is essential to make sure that your students cannot access any YouTube that are inappropriate for their age group. Make sure you go through the settings for Parental Control before using YouTube in the classroom.

4.       Use Quiet Youtube

You can filter out any ads and comments with Quiet YouTube. First locate the video you wish on YouTube then simply replace "youtube" in the URL with "quietyoutube" to view only the video. This is also great for bypassing the proxy servers, as most of them tend to block URLs with YouTube.com in them but are not fully equipped to handle “quietyoutube.com”. This method is used by even academic writers such as those working for academic firms like Dissertation Corp.

5.       Download The Video Using A Video Download Service

YouTube is a video streaming website which means that playing any video requires a functional and reliable Internet connection. When you cannot count on the Internet connection in the classroom, it is advisable to download the video beforehand so that you can just play the video offline.

It is always better to play to video in continuity than to pause it so that it can be buffered. Disruptions in the video would not only disturb the topic being discussed in the video but it would also break the concentration and focus of the students.

6.       Use A Captioning Tool For Hearing-Impaired Students

Hearing impaired students may have difficulty following the subject matter so you can help them out by using a captioning tool such as CaptionTube to add subtitles to your videos. This can also help the students who learn better through reading than watching or listening.

7.       Take Advantage Of Youtube For Education

This is a special channel dedicated to educational videos, and it offers a very comprehensive system of categorization that allows you to locate your required video very easily.

8.       Ensure Appropriate Privacy Settings

When you are creating and uploading your own tutorials, decide whether you want to make them public or you only want your class to see them. This is especially useful when you are creating content unique to your class’s specific needs. Learn more about YouTube’s privacy settings to ensure a smooth and hassle-free lecture.

Most importantly, do not forget to pick out content that not only serves your purpose but also creates an engaging experience for your students. After all, your first priority is to bring something unique to your class.

Author Bio:

Rachelle Scott is a keen blogger who loves to blog about topics related to tech and education, and the recent developments in other sectors. When not writing blogs, she workss at a digital education firm.