Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

22 Getting ready for online study 
then, of course ...! For hundreds of years, universities have been 
setting out how students will study. 
Even if you do not want to study in your bedroom (and many stu-
dents don’t), traditional universities provide alternatives. You can 
use the library or study areas within faculties or school buildings. 
Some of the more up-to-date campuses have “study pods”. Tese 
are small cubicles that are for a student on their own or for small 
groups. Tese pods range from simple items to designer-style 
options or small rooms in garden areas, for instance. However, 
the university has decided what you need to study. Ultimately, the 
study pods are the same – desk, light, seat, computer access. Stu-
dents don’t really get much choice. 
However, studying online provides students with a range of op-
tions they have not needed to consider before. Furthermore, if 
you are studying online, you now need to think about all the pos-
sibilities previously worked out and provided for you by the uni-
versity. Studying online means you have to make all the decisions 
yourself, which would have been made for you with traditional 
study. 
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WHERE WILL YOU STUDY? 
Studying online means that you get the option to choose where to 
study. You can study from anywhere because you are not tied to 
one place. You can study from any room in your house or study 
from the garden if you have one. If you don’t have a garden, why 
not study in the local park, if the weather is good? Or you could 
study in a nearby library or your favourite cofee shop. Some peo-
ple even study from the beach. 
In 2020 when the Coronavirus pandemic forced students to study 
at a distance I remember speaking with one of my students via 
Microsoft Teams. I noticed that he was somewhere relatively sun-
ny, and he was high up on a balcony. “Where are you?” I asked 
because I was curious. I knew where the student lived, and he 

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