Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

196 Coping online 
get up and do the work ready for when she met me in the lecture 
just a few hours later. 
Tis is typical student behaviour. Tere are sudden opportuni-
ties to do things you haven’t planned. Te spontaneity of student 
life is something that university students love. Indeed, it is part 
of being a student. Lecturers used to be students themselves, so 
we understand the distractions that exist for anyone studying on 
campus. Quite apart from the Student Union bar, there are all 
sorts of clubs and societies that have meetings and events. Plus, 
there are talks and seminars organised by the university itself. 
As a campus-based university student, you are never short of 
anything to do. 
Terefore, it might seem that being an online student means you 
will not get distracted anywhere near as much. However, that line 
of thinking ignores the many distractions there are at home if that 
is where you study. Tere’s the local pub, rather than the Student 
Union, but there are also all your school friends to hang out with. 
Ten there are the family pets to look after before you even think 
about spending time with your siblings, chatting to the neigh-
bours, or watching that local sports team you love so much. Tere 
are plenty of distractions from studying, even if you are not on 
campus. Research conducted by psychologists in Greece shows 
that distractions at home are a real problem for those studying 
online (Kostaki and Karayianni, 2021). 
Worse still, for those studying online, there are all the distractions 
of the Internet within easy reach. For face-to-face students sitting 
in lecture theatres or classrooms, being distracted by the Internet 
is less likely as they are busily engaged with what is happening 
in the room (or should be ...!). For online students, though, all 
of their work is on the Internet. Hence, they get even more dis-
tracted. Even though students on campus complain about being 
distracted by the various and spontaneous activities, those study-
ing entirely online probably have a much more challenging time 
dealing with the variety of distractions that come their way. 

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