4 Managing Information for Online Learning
As you develop your identity as an online learner, you will want to consider the role of information management in your learning process. Strong independent learners actively read, evaluate, and use information for current course tasks, but more importantly, they use it to develop a resource file of information that will support professional growth.
Many online learners feel overwhelmed at the volume of reading and the wealth of online resources available to them. Managing information well requires you to develop skills in identifying the purpose for your reading (what you need to learn from this reading, why it is important to you personally and professionally) and the strategy that will help you achieve your purpose (skimming, reading key portions, a close reading). In Part 7—Strategic Reading, you will discover additional ways to manage the reading process.
Early in your learning journey, you will want to select a system for managing information. As you will frequently work with electronic texts and articles, you will need a system that allows you to store, search, and retrieve readings and notes from current and past courses. Online note systems are highly effective for this purpose.
Benefits of Using an Online Notebook
Online notebook platforms allow you to do the following:
- • create individual notebooks for courses or assignments with additional sections or pages for weekly topics
- • create flexible notes that include text, images, audio, and video files
- • store PDFs and other course documents for your own records
- • clip and store relevant information from the web
- • search stored content to quickly find relevant information, making connections between courses and your previous learning
- • sync notes across your devices
Choose a Notebook
There are various online notebooks available to you—for example, OneNote and Evernote. Consider what the school offers, what you have used in the past successfully, and what features you find helpful. To evaluate which platform best serves your needs, you may wish to investigate by trying them out on your preferred devices.