Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

168 Studying online 
Roper, P. and Lopata, A. (2011) 
And Death Came Tird
, 2nd edn. St Albans: 
Ecademy Press. 
Tor, D., Xiao, N., Zheng, M., Ma, R. and Yu, X.X. (2017) ‘An Interactive 
Online Approach to Small-Group Student Presentations and Discus-
sions’, 
Advances in Physiology Education
, 41(4), pp. 498–504. 
Wood, C.J., Clow, A., Hucklebridge, F., Law, R. and Smyth, N. (2018) 
‘Physical Fitness and Prior Physical Activity are Both Associated with 
Less Cortisol Secretion during Psychosocial Stress’, 
Anxiety, Stress, & 
Coping
, 31(2), pp. 135–145. 

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9
 
Coping 
with online 
assessment 
Students have a love-hate relationship with assignments and ex-
ams. Tey know they need to be assessed so that they can be rec-
ognised for their knowledge and understanding. However, they 
would rather not have to go through the fuss and bother of writ-
ing essays or sitting in exam halls. Lecturers feel their pain. After 
all, every lecturer will have written many essays and sat through 
lengthy exams themselves to gain their qualifcations. Indeed, 
I obtained my frst degree many years ago, yet I still recall my ex-
ams. One troubled me greatly. It was held in the last week of my 
three-year degree programme. It was a three-hour exam that had 
only one question. Tere was no choice, and we were expected to 
write an essay over that three hours in which we brought in every 
aspect of our studies. Worse still, this single essay was worth an 
entire 10 per cent of the degree marks. Tankfully, these days such 
pressurised assessment is not the norm. Indeed, you will fnd a 
wide variety of assessments in your studies. As an example, here is 
a list of the types of assessment that I currently use in the modules 
that I teach: 
y
Blogs 
y
Case study analysis 
DOI: 10.4324/9781003259695-11 

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