At this point, staying engaged with online learning might be really difficult. Your eyes are feeling strained, you’re tired of constantly being perceived on camera by your peers, and you’re doing class from your bed, so you’re drifting off every five minutes.
Stop. Don’t fall asleep. Don’t scroll on Facebook and do not mute yourself and start watching TikToks. You cannot do both, trust me.
If you’re getting bored or fidgety in Zoom class, there are a few things you can do to stay alert.
- Doodle.
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Draw your classmates, illustrate your notes, do anything you can to keep yourself busy. Plus, it will look like you’re taking notes (even if you’re not.)
- Turn off your video and pretend you’re listening to a podcast.
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Lie on the floor. Walk around the room. Mute your microphone and repeat the parts of the lecture you want to remember. You might just discover a new way of learning that works for you.
- Try to figure out which of your classmates are looking at your Zoom square.
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Craft a complicated narrative in your head about how mysterious you look, and how that girl with the pink hair is totally into you, but that guy in the blue shirt is into her. What a complicated love triangle you’ve found yourself in! Just remember that they probably are just watching the lecture… unless…?
- Derail the lecture with pet show-and-tell.
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Put your pet onscreen with you. I guarantee someone will mention it in the chat. If you see someone else with a pet, pay it forward. Pay them a compliment.
- Camera and microphone off. Put funny Snapchat filters on your prof.
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Watch them deliver the lecture with a pigeon on their head. Just don’t record it, because you wouldn’t want someone to do that to you, even if it’s really funny.
It’s okay if you zone out during class. Training yourself to concentrate on a constant stream of online lectures is going to take time. It might not get easier, and you have to forgive yourself if you need to entertain yourself and learn outside of the box.