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Understanding the Emphasis of Reading in Your Online Learning Journey
Figure 23.1: Stacked textbooks. Photograph by Emily Tan.
Online learning typically requires you to interact with a larger amount of written material than traditional classroom courses. This can benefit your growth as a lifelong learner by developing your skills in selecting relevant reading material, approaching it purposefully, and managing the information you read. Consider the following principles as a guide as you approach reading:
1. Not all reading material requires equal time or attention. Unlike a novel, where you might give most pages equal time to understand the story, much of your professional reading is focused on finding and using relevant information. This means that you may not read every word in the readings. Some information may require close and careful reading, while other information may be skimmed to find key points.
2. Before you begin reading, identify your purpose for reading. What do you need to learn from this reading? This will determine how you approach the reading material.
3. Use questions to guide your reading. In the next chapters of this module, you will learn a strategy called SQ3R that can guide you by using questions to focus your reading.
4. Develop a system for identifying important information and taking notes. You have already explored systems for online information management. Consider how you will mark key learning in the texts that you read and organize this information in a format that allows you to easily access it again.
Go to the next chapter to explore reading strategies in more detail.