Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

58 Studying online 
help. You can “read” using audio while doing something else, 
such as working out in the gym or taking the bus to the student 
union building. 
For someone studying online, the use of audiobooks or text-to-
speech software becomes more essential than for traditional stu-
dents. In a real-world lecture theatre, lectures may supplement 
their teaching using handouts or copies of journal articles. Tra-
ditional students will get to see more printed items than those 
learning at a distance. When you are studying online, you don’t 
get the chance to visit the library to check books, nor do you get 
those physical handouts provided to students in lecture theatres. 
For online students, everything is just a click away. Tat’s nice 
and convenient. However, it also means you have considerably 
less printed material to read than traditional students. Te rise 
in online reading materials means you can get more tired, and 
hence anything you can do to reduce the impact of online-only 
reading, the better it is for you and your well-being. Tat’s why 
online students need to consider options such as text-to-speech 
as it will make studying online more manageable and more enjoy-
able. Even so, audiobooks are not replacements for textbooks. You 
can’t make notes or highlight critical passages, for example. So, 
audiobooks and text-to-speech software should be seen as a way 
of enhancing your reading and not replacing it. For students with 
dyslexia or other difculties such as any of the attention defcit 
disorders, reading online can be troublesome, and this is where 
audio versions can be of real help. 
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CURATING YOUR READING 
One of the problems with the amount of online reading you will 
do is remembering where it is all located. You will not want to add 
bookmarks to your web browser as it will become cluttered and 
unusable before long. You will need something to collect togeth-
er all your reading materials. Otherwise, you will fnd it difcult 
when you need to revise or have to complete an assignment. With 
traditional studying, you would probably keep notes and printouts 

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