Workload Survival Guide for Academics

18 September 2020

Going to university is exciting and fun; however, it means you have to balance your studies and social life. It can be stressful if you don’t know how to manage your workload. Responsibilities sound fantastic, but they can overwhelm you if you don’t plan effectively.

The UAE hosts top-notch universities with world-class facilities that offer high-quality education. The country has partnered with international education providers to bring the most prestigious higher education institutions globally. These resources provide students with the best education; it also means that they have to balance their lives and studies.

Studying in the UAE

The United Arab Emirates is known for its hospitality, diversity, economic vitality, political stability, religious tolerance, and safety. The education sector is also competitive and provides world-class institutions.

Pursuing higher education in the UAE enables you to study in some of the most reputable universities in the world. This is a guarantee that you will receive an internationally-recognized certificate at the end of your studies.

Studying in this country also means that you have extensive resources and facilities to help you pursue your degree. Higher education facilities in the UAE are keen to provide their students with the best education. It also enables you to build a strong network that can help you in your career. Also, you can confidently look for jobs anywhere in the world.

How to Manage Your Workload

How do you manage your social life, education, and extracurricular activities at the university? Here is the survival guide to workload management.

Planning:

Planning is crucial for balancing your life at university. It is necessary to have a planner; write down your lectures and other significant events throughout the semester. Look through the modules and note down assignments due dates. Decide how many hours you will spend studying every week and stick to this plan. Set realistic and achievable goals. This way, you can do your assignments on time, study for exams, and have a social life.

Balance:

Studying at a university in Dubai allows you to study and socialize; however, you must prioritize your studies and find a balance in your life. Allow enough time for studies and rest. It is tempting to want to party and have fun with friends, but you have to remind yourself why you decided to study. If you always feel overwhelmed, try to do the most vital or challenging tasks first.

Avoid Multitasking:

You will never get anything done if you focus on many things at once. The best way to excel at your university in Dubai is to follow your planner; study when you need to and do your assignments as you have planned. Multitasking like watching TV or using your phone while studying distracts you and causes poor absorption of information; this might cause failure or requiring more time to study. Focusing on many tasks also causes brain-drain.

Don’t Overwork:

Working hard will help you excel in your studies; however, overworking will strain you, and you might not achieve your goals. Study breaks are crucial to achieving success; it motivates and helps you to stay focused. A productive study break leaves you energized and ready to study again. Effective breaks should refresh and give your mind a break. Doing different things activate different parts of your brain. If you were revising, do something completely different, like taking a short walk. Allowing your mind to rest allows it to absorb and retain more information.

Start Early:

The best way to excel and have balance your studies and social life in the university is to start early. Start with your assignments and essays early; it reduces stress, and you can submit an extensively-researched paper. Waiting to write several essays and meet deadlines at the last minute increases pressure and stress. It also leads to low-quality output which means failure. Stress is harmful to your physical and mental wellbeing.

Routine:

Having a routine and sticking to it crucial for your wellbeing. You get enough rest and still accomplish your goals. It’s easy to go with the flow in the university because life is not structured and you have a few rules on what to do at a particular time. Routines can be exciting, reduce stress, and improve health; these are essential for goal achievement.

Ask for Support:

Do not shy away from asking for help if you find anything too hard to grasp. Knowing when to ask for support helps you to avoid mistakes and save time. Some topics can be hard to understand, and no matter how hard you try, you just don’t get it. It’s necessary to ask your peers or the professor for help instead of failing.

Going to university is fun and exciting because you have more freedom. However, there are more responsibilities. You want to study, socialize and have time for yourself and all these can be overwhelming. You have to prioritize and plan how to deal with every aspect of your life.

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Best Uses of Micro learning Based Training

Microlearning is a modern learning technique based on short nuggets of information, focused on meeting a specific learning outcome. In other words, the purpose of the learning process is to acquire a specific skill that you will use in the near future. The bite-sized format of the courses makes it easy to retain new information, and it allows even the busiest people to learn new skills in their own time. While this learning technique can be applied to any subject, it has proven itself particularly efficient in a few specific situations. For corporate training : Corporate learning is usually based on a formal training model. However, microlearning can successfully be used in corporate environments in order to reinforce or supplement the primary training. This learning method is very successful in agile environments, it has low costs, it is easy to update and it can be applied for both formal and informal training. It can also be a great tool for compliance training courses, such as Health, Safety, and Environment courses. For learning a new language : Nowadays, most, if not all, language learning apps are based on micro lessons. The most popular language-learning app and the one that makes the best use of the microlearning concept is Duolingo. Not only does Duolingo use micro-lessons for written content, but it also uses them for speaking, listening and translating exercises. This app also uses gamification as a way to motivate and engage learners. For retail training : The retail industry is having a hard time at the moment, as online stores have become a serious competition. Not only that, but modern customers are a lot more informed than they used to be, and store employees need to be properly trained to help these new, discerning customers. Microlearning can be a flexible and cost-efficient solution for training store employees and keep them up to date with daily changes. the app is one of the few learning applications that address the particular needs of the retail industry. While EdApp’s user-friendly format allows it to be used for any topic, retail training is one of the most popular app microlearning ideas. The main reason why EdApp is so efficient is due to its intuitive authoring tool, engaging gamification, and analytics tool that helps monitor and improve the learning experience. For developing soft skills : Personal development is a very popular topic at the moment, as more and more people realize that you need more than just hard technical skills in order to be successful. Since learning soft skills require more practice than theory, they can be easily learned with micro lessons. This way, the learners can learn new skills fast, and they have all the time in the world to practice them in real life before they move on to the next lessons. Communication and time management are the most sought after soft skills of the moment and there are numerous learning apps that address these particular skills. To supplement traditional education : While mobile learning seems to be the enemy of a traditional educational system, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Many learning apps can successfully be used in classrooms, and the ones that use micro lessons are particularly efficient in keeping the students engaged and motivated. As a teacher, you can use an app with an intuitive authoring tool such as EdApp in order to create your own bite-sized lessons, or you can use an existing learning app such as Duolingo or TED-Ed to make your teachings more relevant and more engaging. Read More : Benefits Of Using Technology To Ace Your Physics NEET 2018 Notification Delayed: Is It Due To MCI Amendments?

Online Services to Help Student

If students have modern gadgets and stable Internet connection they can't complain about the lack of assistance because the number of online services exclusively designated for this purpose is enormous. Some of them haven't realized that yet because they haven't spent time discovering and exploring all the advantages of the Web learning sources and management services. Review the types of online remedies with actual examples to organize the studying process and improve your academic performance. Study planners : When you're not aware of what you have to do how can you complete it? The system and order are essential for any undertaking. These attributes save time and contribute to performance quality. Online services like MyStudyLife will help you to set and achieve your learning goals. Improve your time-management by creating classes and individual learning session’s schedules, keep track of your progress to stick to existing and come up with new studying strategies. Besides the website and browser extension, you can access your account on any portable device with the network connection since it has multi-platform compatibility and online synchronization. Specialty dedicated websites : There are many online services that provide information repositories, special task execution instruments and tutorials for the majority of the fields of study. Consider also sites for the professionals to learn by their experience and extend your overall knowledge range. For instance, if you study statistics the site like Stat Trek will come in handy. It provides various task manuals, definitions dictionary, formulas with their application examples, statistical tables and tools, etc. Other like Wiley’s Statistics for Dummies will supply you with straightforward written materials that will be useful especially for undergraduates. Writing checkers : Academic papers require a multi-stage reviewing and revising process. After hours of the tedious research and the content completion to perform a quality checkup of grammar, punctuation, semantics, authenticity, etc. is hard without assistance. Tools like Grammarly provide more developed writing improving mechanisms in comparison to classical text editors and suggest words, marks, and formulations corrections. This online service available as a browser extension, add-ons for Microsoft Word or Outlook and a desktop application. It can also be applied as a plagiarism checker to increase the percentage of your work uniqueness. Online libraries : Paper books aren't as convenient now for studying as their digital versions. The last ones are always available, more portable and easily quotable. You can access even copies of rare editions that are preserved in museums or private collections. Online repositories like Gutenberg.org provide thousands of free eBooks in different languages and categories. The books at all or already aren't protected by copyright law. Other services like Openlibrary.org adhere to the conventional borrow-return library system and contain textbooks and MIT press publications. Homework assistance : Every now and then students struggle with their assignments. The reasons can vary from the lack of organization or exploration skills, limited spare time due to the employment to unclear material and regulations representation at classes. There are online services that provide help from tutors that will assist them to overcome difficulties with tasks completion and clarify puzzling concepts. For instance, Homework Lab - student collaboration platform that also supplies students with study tips and learning-management instruments to adhere to well-known or develop individual efficient homework accomplishment methods. Routine helpers : It's hard to concentrate on studying when your other life is chaotic. Constant money problems, accommodation changes or health issues significantly affect the educational process and can cause its premature ending. The Internet is filled with websites and applications that can help organize and refine all life aspects thanks to helpful advice and tools. Manage your finances, save money with discounts, find a permanent home, learn how to cook, switch to healthy meals, explore various lifehacks, etc. Other services like Evernote can bring order to your daily routine and other undertakings. Create notes, reminders, lists, team projects with multiple instruments and various attachments types. Keep a finger on your day's pulse with it's mobile or desktop app. Exploit to the utmost your devices to find assistance during your studying you are looking for. Don't forget about moral support. Receive it via social networks and various chat and video calls applications from your relatives and friends. Read Also : Ten Ways Technology Is Impacting Modern Education Google And Digital Promise Team Up To Make Teachers More Tech-Savvy Than Ever Perfect Day: How To Manage Everything You Have Planned?

5 Counseling Specializations Undergraduate Students Should Understand

Many counseling degree programs give their enrolled students a broad educational background, offering courses that teach them a variety of ways to administer therapy to people who need help. If you want to become a counselor, it is important to acquire this wide scope of training for maximum career versatility. However, when you make the decision that counseling is the right career path for you, it is also wise to choose your counselings specialization as soon as you can. This will allow you to tailor your education to your career goals as closely as possible given the requirements of your degree program. The following counselling specialisations are possible in Australia: 1. School Counsellor : School counsellors can help students deal with problem behaviors such as bullying. Helpful electives for this specialisation could include courses like Educational Sociology; Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Multi-Problem Adolescents; Child Parent Relationship Training; Impacts of Autism Spectrum Disorder; and Supporting Students With Disabilities. Such specialised courses might not already be a part of the required foundation courses for the counselling degree program you're enrolled in. 2. Career Counsellor : Career counsellors often administer group session to job seekers. They also frequently give tailor-made advice helping individual job seekers understand the various options that are open to them. They also recommend specific actions their clients can take to achieve their career development goals. If you're considering a specialisation in career counselling, you may wish to select electives such as Employment Law Fundamentals and Managing Technology in Career Services. 3. Substance Abuse Counsellor : Substance abuse counsellors find ways of helping their clients detoxify from alcohol or drugs; then they attempt to help them permanently beat their unwanted addictions. If you want to pursue a career as a substance abuse counsellor, a few electives that could prove helpful include Psychopharmacology Fundamentals, Relapse Prevention Strategies, Art Therapy in Addiction Treatment, Twelve Step Fundamentals and Engaging Families of Youth in Substance Use Disorder Treatment. 4. Family and Marriage Counsellor : When couples experience marital difficulties, they often choose to work with a family and marriage counsellor instead of seeking the divorce. In many cases, an experienced counsellor can help them find reconciliation. Working With Neurodiverse Couples is an example of an elective course that could be helpful to an aspiring family and marriage counsellor. 5. Grief Counsellor : Grief is an emotion that often follows the significant loss. The death of a loved one or loss of a job can trigger intense grief. A grief counsellor's job is to comfort clients and then help them find productive ways of coping with the grief. A successful grief counsellor is able to help clients find solace in acceptance of the loss, although it may take quite some time for each client to reach this stage. An example of a useful elective for aspiring grief counsellors is Bereavement and Art Therapy. In Australia, you have several options if you want to prepare for a career in any of these counselling specialisations. You can complete either a bachelor's degree or a diploma of counselling. Some counsellors also earn a master's degree. Demand for counsellors is growing in Australia, the USA and many other countries around the world. Since this is a career path that requires empathy and human-to-human connections, it is not likely that robots will be able to complete the most important tasks counsellors perform in the foreseeable future. Therefore the employment outlook for counsellors in all of these specialisations is outstanding. It is an excellent time to seek training to become a counsellor. Read Also : 4 Emerging Trends In The Education Sector How Studying Abroad Can Benefit Your Career Benefits Of Using Divorce Lawyers

Workload Survival Guide for Academics

Studying in the UAE