The Problem With College Today

[Eggs n Coffee]

---

Members do not see this ad.

The problem with college today is...

EVERY CLASS REQUIRES YOU TO USE YOUR LAPTOP/INTERNET FOR JUST ABOUT EVERY ASSIGNMENT.

Webassign for chem, WeBWork for math, online lecture notes, etc...

And my problem is, whenever I do homework (which I will inevitably have to do on my laptop/online), I end up getting so distracted by all the loveliness the internet has to offer... NYTimes, reddit, SDN, cuteoverload (don't make fun), etc... the list goes on and on.....

Every 5 minutes I get distracted.
My studying consists of studying/doing homework 10 minutes for every 45 minutes spent browsing the net.
I'm doing OK in classes as of now, but I know I can't keep this up forever.

Anyone have any tips and advice? Any similar experiences to share?

Someone help me!

 

[GregoryMD]

Who uses WebAssign for chem? It's all about MasteringChemistry. And I love it. The questions on MasteringChem give a lot of bonus points if you don't use the hints, and they give mini-lessons within each assignment. I never had to use my book for the class; lecture and the MasteringChem lessons gave me more than enough to boost my grade up in lecture.

 

[Eggs n Coffee]

Who uses WebAssign for chem? It's all about MasteringChemistry. And I love it. The questions on MasteringChem give a lot of bonus points if you don't use the hints, and they give mini-lessons within each assignment. I never had to use my book for the class; lecture and the MasteringChem lessons gave me more than enough to boost my grade up in lecture.

We use WebAssign at our school for just the homework. Lecture notes are posted online at another site.

I do despise webassign though. For each problem, 3 strikes and you're out...
MasteringChem sounds pretty awesome though. Too bad we don't use it here.

 

[jvesco22]

We use webassign as well. A good thing to do so you don't get distracted is to print out the online homework. That's what I do. Do the first problem on paper, then of course check your answer online. Once you know that you're doing the problem correctly, then do the remaining ones on paper until you're finished and input them afterwards 🙂

 

[DNM]

Who uses WebAssign for chem? It's all about MasteringChemistry. And I love it. The questions on MasteringChem give a lot of bonus points if you don't use the hints, and they give mini-lessons within each assignment. I never had to use my book for the class; lecture and the MasteringChem lessons gave me more than enough to boost my grade up in lecture.

We use MasteringChem too. It's pretty sweet

 

[MilkmanAl]

WebAssign is quite possibly the worst program ever to be invented. It's an absolute nightmare and is particularly atrocious for chem. It's never clear what kind of formatting is required for non-numerical answers, and it's easy to get a problem wrong just because you can't figure out how to type it. I can't say enough bad things about it. If you want to assign homework, let your students write it down.

 

[GoodmanBrown]

The problem with college today is...

EVERY CLASS REQUIRES YOU TO USE YOUR LAPTOP/INTERNET FOR JUST ABOUT EVERY ASSIGNMENT.

Webassign for chem, WeBWork for math, online lecture notes, etc...

And my problem is, whenever I do homework (which I will inevitably have to do on my laptop/online), I end up getting so distracted by all the loveliness the internet has to offer... NYTimes, reddit, SDN, cuteoverload (don't make fun), etc... the list goes on and on.....

Every 5 minutes I get distracted.
My studying consists of studying/doing homework 10 minutes for every 45 minutes spent browsing the net.
I'm doing OK in classes as of now, but I know I can't keep this up forever.

Anyone have any tips and advice? Any similar experiences to share?

Someone help me!

Have you tried printing out assignments and then doing them on paper first? For physics WebAssign, I printed off the assignment (usually 3-4 pages of paper), did all the problems on the back of each printer sheet, then just went back and typed them in. It actually helped me keep focus on the problems to do them all first. I'd say about 50% were right straight away, then 45% had just a small math mistake, then the last 5% took a bit more work.

But, overall, I liked it better and felt like I was less distracted.

 

[orthomyxo]

Yea, I kind of hate that. I don't even have a laptop, and when my english prof tells us to bring in our "technology" for an in-class assignment, she always gets pissed that I have nothing to do. Sorry lady, we can't all afford $2500 MacBooks.