The Digital Revolution: Online Study Resources

Our computers; the thing we love so much we are almost carrying it for 24/7 and to most of us it’s probably the most precious thing we own. Then we have the internet, probably the place where most of us spend our time procrastinating, browsing our facebook pages, reading and making internet memes and so much more time wasted. Like most people, I used to struggle with finding anything helpful online or even on my computer to revise, but that was the old me. These few years I came across so much helpful resources and well, today I’m here to share with you some of the most useful websites and resources to learn online, and trust me, it is so much better than reading your textbook… (I promise.)

1. Youtube: Crash Course series

by John Green and friends

John Green’s Crash course series are short 10 to 15 minutes videos covering wide range of topics and subjects. They cover the Sciences, Histories, Social Sciences and sometimes even current issues!! The best part about it is that it’s simply so interesting to watch their videos. The amount of knowledge you gain just cannot simply be achieved from a textbook and a lot of people seems to agree as the channel has 5 million+ subscribers. Although it’s may not the best idea to completely follow and learn, given it targeting the American Syllabus and audience,

But hey, when is self-learning only limited to your own syllabus?

2. Khan Academy

By Salman Khan & Co.

Salman Khan started the KhanAcademy channel with education for all in his mind, where he can share knowledge to anyone anywhere. Khan’s channel features lectures on all subject, with no specific syllabus in mind. Khan’s channel is growing and currently has 2 million+ subscribers. Whats even better with Khan academy is his channel is divided into different playlists, which makes studies even better on the student’s side.

But the setup of the KhanAcademy website has pushed online education to a whole new level as students can watch tutorials and take interactive tests accordingly. Teachers can even track progress to see when students are struggling.

Khan has one of the best teaching attitudes amongst most channels in kickstarting this digital revolution. Today, he’s registered KhanAcademy as an NGO trying to spread education around the world, and reaches out to over 6 million active users.

3. Website: GCSE Bitesize

By BBC

Although mainly suited for British IGCSE A levels or O-levels students, GCSE Bitesize offers comprehensive summaries of many different topics. It covers such a wide range of subjects and topics, from common subjects like: English (obviously the most important one) physics, chemistry and biology to less common subjects like art, economic etc. It won’t go really deep into each topic, and sometimes you have to refer to other sources to get the full picture, but it’s an excellent starting point when you’re trying to understanding the basics of a subject.

4. If you are into poems…: Shoomp.com

By Shoomp

As you all know this is an English Ambassador Outreach website, so I cannot resist myself from putting something in related with English and Literature in this article. Shoomp is one of my favourite study guides because of how much more easier helps students understand poems, sometimes even offering annotations and notes, which is very crucial in analyzing poems. The site and company hopes to (quote unquote) “shine a little light into student dark corners’ of student minds” and it sometimes it certainly does when you have no idea what your poem is about.

5. If you are into literature…: Sparknotes

By Sparknotes

Pretty sure I’m not the only one but we all had that one time we struggled with Shakespeare? Right? No…? Well I overcame my fear of literature (AKA Shakespeare and other classics) with Sparknotes!

Sparknotes helps you understand each line easier. It gives you summary and also translation of words from old English to contemporary English which helps a lot. Even if it’s not in Shakespearian, it provides you with critical thinking points and analysis on important paragraphs/phrases, you will not miss out on the essence of the book. Finally, do you know what’s the best part about Sparknotes? They now come with published books analyzing other books and more recently published an app for sparknotes users.

Is that useful or what?

6. Time management tools (Myhomework, quizlet..)

The most important aspect of studying most people struggle with yet overlook is time management. It doesn’t matter which subject you are talking about, time management is a must. Good time management doesn’t necessarily leads you to glory, but it’s a big step towards it. Bad time management, on the other hand not only causes your grades to fall, but you will lose sleep, social life and lower productivity.

Two apps/websites truly allow me to organise myself better. First of all, “myHomework” is an app you can get from the App store where you can write your homework down, organise your school and home timetable to get your time schedule sorted. If you somehow can get your classmates and teachers involved, that would be great as this provides an interactive platform between all of you as your teachers are able to interact with your from that platform!

On the other hand, Quizlet is a website/app that allows you to create flashcards to help you remember keywords and notes, where it allows you to test yourself with quizzes. Truly a miracle when you’re trying to memorize something!

Going into a digital age, it is important we make optimal use of online tools and resources, especially in studies. Our ambassadors hope you all find the online resources useful, and to all of you who are having exams soon, good luck!