Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

204 Coping online 
comprehension (Lehmann and Seufert, 2017). It appears to do 
this by increasing the “working memory capacity” of your brain. 
Efectively, that means you can hold more things in your tempo-
rary memory, enabling you to process more pieces of informa-
tion. Te German research showed that this efect happened for 
most people, except for individuals who already have low memory 
issues. So, it has been shown background music can help most 
students concentrate. 
One way it might help students is by making them feel better and 
more positive while studying. Research among students in Hong 
Kong has demonstrated that fast tempo background music can 
improve mood (Hu, Li, and Kong, 2019). Clearly, if you are in a 
more positive mood, you are likely to fnd studying a better ex-
perience. However, you need to be sure to only use instrumental 
music. Research at the University of Tennessee found that lyrics 
in music while studying appear to distract students enough to re-
duce their performance (Oliver, Levy, and Baldwin, 2021). 
QUICK TIP: Play some fast-paced instrumental music in the 
background, and you will feel better and will probably remain 
more focused on your studies. 
If you listen to background music through noise-cancelling head-
phones, you will also avoid being unnecessarily interrupted by 
members of your family while you are studying. 
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avoiding inTerruPTions aT home 
Online students often study at home. Tis means they are prone 
to several potential interruptions. Tese can include siblings, 
parents, school friends, and neighbours. Tey see you “at home”, 
which to them means you are not “at university”. Except, of course, 

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Avoiding distractions 205 
you are at university, just via the Internet. Because the people 
around you perceive you as being at home, they will fnd it easier 
to interrupt you and distract you from your work. In Chapter 2, 
you will have seen the need to establish ground rules. However, 
you can take some additional measures to help avoid being inter-
rupted while you are studying. 
One efective way of doing this is with a series of door signs. You 
can make these easily by printing out some signs. If you want to 
be artistic, you can use an online creative graphics program like 
Canva (www.canva.com). You could have a range of signs such as: 
y
Do not disturb 
y
Come back in 25 minutes 
y
Available in an hour 
y
Happy to chat for fve minutes. 
If you have one of these on your study room door, the rest of the 
household and visitors will know what to do. Signs that make it 
clear you cannot be interrupted or when you can be spoken with 
are helpful to the people around you. If they know, for instance, 
that you are “Available in an hour”, they will not interrupt you. Par-
ents, in particular, are prone to keep knocking on their children’s 
doors and asking, “Everything OK?”. Tat’s a needless interruption 
that destroys your focus and slows down your studying. If your 
parents can see a sign saying “Come back in 25 minutes”, they will 
only interrupt you when you want to be sociable. Tis will allow 
you to remain much more focused on your studies. 
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