How University Students Cultivate Self-discipline during Distance Learning
Introduction Paragraph
According to the Collins COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary, self-discipline is defined as the ability to control yourself and to make yourself work harder and behave in a particular way without needing anyone else to tell you what to do. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, students are starting to take online courses to curb the spread of the epidemic, but distance learning sometimes makes students lack self-discipline. When the courses are not taking place in usual environments, such as an actual classroom, students’ attention may be distracted, which results in the consequences of the ineffective study. As a result, in this paper, we will identify three major problems regarding self-discipline of university students during online learning and provide recommendations to cultivate their self-discipline.
Background
There are several reasons behind the lack of self-discipline during online learning. With the rising usage of online learning in the pandemic, students are able to access classes wherever they are. However, the freedom of being able to attend classes without physically showing up has also brought up several problems, such as self-regulation. Alhazbi and Hasan (2021) stated, “Regardless of online delivery mode, self-regulated students perform better than others do in online learning.” Furthermore, according to our survey based on 52 university students’ responses, 35 participants agreed that they find it more difficult to achieve self-discipline during distance learning (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Do you agree that online learning makes it more difficult to be self-disciplined? (1~5: strongly disagree~ strongly agree)
In addition, over 41 participants stated that they have done the following things during online lessons, such as “lying on the bed”, “leaving class to do other things”, and “eating during class” (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Have you ever done the following things during online courses?
(Top three: “Eat”: 92.3%; “Leaving class to do other things”: 86.5% & “Lying on the bed”: 78.8%.)
They stated that they often become easily distracted during online learning due to the following reasons: “the professor will not be able to see them without opening the camera”, and “there are too many temptations in the house”, and “the lack of classmates around making it less like being in class” (Figure 3).
Figure 3: What are the reasons for you to be less self-disciplined in online classes than physical classes?
(Top three: “The professor will not be able to see me if I do not open my camera
“: 84.6%; “There are too many temptations at home”: 75% & “It does not feel like being in class without my classmates beside me”: 36.5%)
From these results, we can learn that lack of self-discipline during online learning could cause a decline in the efficiency of students’ learning, and also students would have to spend more time studying by themselves to make up for the time they did not pay attention in class. According to Hodges (2005), “Students in learner-controlled, computer-based instruction require strong self-regulatory skills to succeed.” The information above clearly stated the importance and need for finding ways to help with students’ self-discipline during online learning sessions. In the following paragraphs, three solutions will be discussed to help with this problem.
First Solution
First of all, university students can create a sense of ritual when they find it hard to concentrate during online courses. Taking online courses provides students with the convenience of an unlimited learning environment, but it also results in the problem of laziness and idleness during classes. According to our survey, when students are taking online courses, 41 of 52 respondents (78.8%) have the experience of lying in bed while the course is ongoing. (Figure 2) This result shows that students would be lazy due to the coziness environment and posture, and they may not focus on the course content. As a result, to prevent inattentiveness, students could find the sense of ritual before the class starts. The survey result indicates that 38 respondents (73.1%) agreed that having a sense of ceremony can bring them suggestion and power in mind that boosts the motivation to focus on the course. (Figure 4)
Figure 4: Do you think it is helpful to create a sense of ritual before online classes begin? (Yes: 73.1%; No: 25%.)
In addition, 34 respondents (65.3%) have tried to create a sense of ceremony before the class. These students tend to tidy up their desks to prepare for the beginning of the day, take off their pajamas and put on their daytime dress, or drink a cup of coffee to start their learning of that day. (Figure 5) They consent that taking a small action and creating a sense of ceremony did bring effects of encouraging the intention of staying focus in class. In conclusion, by finding a sense of ritual and separating classes from daily routine, students can be more attentive and avoid laziness or idleness in taking online courses.
Figure 5: Have you ever use the methods below to create a sense of ritual? (Top: “tiding up the desks”: 48.1%, “taking off pajamas and put on daytime dress”: 36.5% & “none of them”: 34.6%)
Second Solution
Second, another solution is to create a learning environment to stay away from temptations and avoid distraction. Being easily distracted by many temptations at home is one common problem while taking online courses. In our survey, 51 respondents (98.1%) claimed that they ever tried to do other things when they were in the online courses. 48 respondents (92.3%) ever lay on the bed, and 41respondents (78.8%) ever had meals while taking the online courses. (Figure 2) This result shows that students are more laidback at home since home is the coziest place containing many temptations, such as bed, food, electronic equipment, etc. Hence, in order to avoid getting distracted in the online courses, the best solution to keep away from the temptations at home is changing the environment. A study showed that the atmosphere of the learning environment is an incentive for students to concentrate more on learning (Simbolon & Simbolon 2022). Therefore, although students cannot take the course in a classroom together, they can still go to the school library or a quiet coffee shop to create a learning atmosphere and stay focused. Our survey results also showed that 42 respondents (80.8%) agreed that changing the environment does improve their power of concentration. However, some respondents claimed this solution is helpless because they just cannot stay focused no matter where they are. Selvina stated that the learning environment is part of the learning process which plays an important role in growing motivation to learn. Therefore, changing the environment is like a stimulus to increase students' learning motivation and help them prevent distractions. In other words, it is apparently useless for those who have no motivation to learn at all. To sum up, for those who want to participate in online courses, changing the learning environment is a good way to raise the power of concentration and keep away from the temptations.
Figure 6: Do you think changing the environment is a helpful way to develop self-discipline during online courses?
Third Solution
Lastly, the most effective solution is opening the web camera during online classes. 44 participants (84.6%) stated that they are easily distracted in online lessons because they are not required to open their cameras, and thus doing other things in class would not be seen by the professors (Figure 3). According to Chang and Lee (2021), many teachers complained about not being able to see their students, and students stated that they would play online games, watch other videos, or scroll through social media during class. Additionally, 10 participants of our survey stated that opening the camera during lessons would be the most effective way to force them to pay attention in class (Figure 7).
Figure 7: What are the other ways to be more self-disciplined during online learning?
(Top three: “None”: 19; “Opening the web camera”: 10 & “Create a sense of ritual”: 9.)
Sederevičiūtė-Pačiauskienė, Valantinaitė & Asakavičiūtė (2022) found that, “The (non) use of a video camera during distance learning can affect the quality of studies. At the same time, they note that their video camera helps to focus on the topic of the activity, not to engage in extraneous activities, and to become even more actively involved in the organized activities or to listen to the teacher’s explanation actively, and to take notes.” That means opening the web camera would help students to focus and participate more in class. It would be a win-win situation for both the professors and the students if students would open their web cameras. This method might be the most suitable for those who strongly lack self-regulation. And because the professor could be able to see what the students are doing in class; students would not be distracted to do other things. As a result, opening the camera can not only help students stay focused during classes, but also increase their interaction and engagement in class.
Conclusion
During the pandemic, many schools have shifted the physical classes to the online courses. Students are required to have higher self-discipline to learn effectively in this new learning form--online learning. In the online learning situations, many students tend to become more sluggish and easily distracted by temptations at home. In order to solve these problems, we conducted a survey and provided three useful ways. First, creating a sense of ritual to stop being lazy and enter a better learning state. Second, we can change the learning environment to avoid temptations and distractions while taking online courses. Third, opening the camera can help students to stay focused and become more actively involved in the class. Enhancing self-discipline is an essential issue to tackle because online learning has become a new trend after the breakout of the pandemic. If students don’t boost themselves in studying, they will not only waste time but also expensive tuition fees for college. Therefore, by adopting the three solutions, it is hoped that students can become more self-disciplined during the online courses.
References
Alhazbi, S., & Hasan, M. A. (2021). The Role of Self-Regulation in Remote Emergency Learning: Comparing Synchronous and Asynchronous Online Learning. Sustainability, 13(19), 11070.
Hodges, C. B. (2005). SELF-REGULATION IN WEB-BASED COURSES. Quarterly Review of Distance Education,6(4), pp. 375–383.
Johnson, & Selvina, M. (2018.) The influence of the learning environment and student learning creativity on the economics learning achievement of class XI Social Sciences students. Journal of Educational Economics, 8, 19–33.
Sederevičiūtė-Pačiauskienė, Ž., Valantinaitė, I., & Asakavičiūtė, V. (2022). ‘Should I Turn on My Video Camera?’ The Students’ Perceptions of the use of Video Cameras in Synchronous Distant Learning. Electronics, 11(5), pp. 813.
Simbolon, P., & Simbolon, N. (2022, February). Learning environment with the learning concentration on students. In Proceeding International Conference on Religion, Science and Education (Vol. 1, pp. 109-115).
張瑞賓, & 李建華. (2021). 遠距教學常態化問題之探討與建議. 臺灣教育評論月刊, 10(6), 27-34.
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