Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

Efective online collaboration 141 
Tere is a small group of people known as “active procrastinators”. 
Tese individuals are capable of working under pressure. How-
ever, it does appear they are putting themselves under unneces-
sary stress. One study that looked at how students procrastinate 
found that those who put things of because they feel they work 
better under pressure only achieved the same level of results as 
the people who did not procrastinate (Chun Chu and Choi, 2005). 
In other words, believing that you work better under pressure is 
false. You produce the same level of results as if you were not to 
put of the work. All you do is make getting those results more 
stressful for yourself. In group work, if you put things of due to 
a misplaced sense of believing you work best under pressure, you 
are also putting your fellow students in a higher stress position. 
Tey may not be individuals who feel they work better under pres-
sure. As a result, if you delay things, you put your colleagues under 
unnecessary stress. Tis results in poor group performance. I have 
lost count of the number of students who achieved lower marks 
than they deserved, all because their work was poor due to unnec-
essary delays in group work. 
QUICK TIP: If you are set group work, get on with it straight 
away. Delays cause stress, and there is no beneft in the mis-
placed belief of “working better under pressure”. 
Getting organised for group work, particularly as an online stu-
dent, is vital. Make sure you note down all the deadlines in your 
diary system. Plus, sort out the dates and times for meetings with 
your fellow students in your group, such as Zoom calls. Put these 
into your calendar at the start. Even if you have nothing to talk 
about, meeting up online with your group members will enable 
you to discuss what you need to do and get to know one another 
better. 
It is likely that any documents you need to prepare as a group 
will be created in a software suite such as Microsoft 365 or Goo-
gle Workspace. Setting up items like folder structures, access 

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