Three months ago, if you'd told me that you had the idea of studying and being taught solely online, I would have told you that you're a bit bonkers. But now it's the new norm as we finish up week six of online learning. My lecturers hadn't anticipated needing to do this either; we were all new to the idea. Somehow, though, like the party's best trick, over the course of the weekend, we were able to switch to this new method and to carry on teaching and learning.

Everyone knew that to make it work, we'd need to function as a team and communicate what does, and doesn't, work for us. Immediately, we'd found that there were some amazing things that were going well: we were still following our timetable, giving us routine; we were able to carry on communicating with each other, meaning that – even if not in person – we still felt connected as a group; we were able to carry on learning new content, allowing us to feel confident that we'd still get our qualifications.

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However, as with anything new, we also found that there were a few bumps that needed to be ironed out to maximise the efficiency of the experience. So, with the help of some friends, I've compiled a list of the three key things that we wanted our lecturers to be aware of. Below, I've shared a little about how they've adapted their delivery to accommodate for them.

1. The length of the lessons

It will come as news to absolutely nobody when I say that teenagers can't concentrate for long. In the classroom, you're able to prompt us to stay on task. It turns out that we still lose concentration on video lessons, and quicker than normal. The trouble is, you're not there telling us to "get on with it". Our ability to concentrate on the content isn't linked to how academic we students are, or how well you're teaching; it's recognised that video calls are a tiring task. 

The consensus among my class was that we're not actively listening and able to retain information after the first 30 minutes. We fed this back to our tutor, and the lecturers have now changed the way they plan the sessions to be no more than 30 minutes of input, followed by a task to complete. We're finding this much better and feel that it's far more effective. 

2. Some of us might be afraid to talk

I don't mind answering questions in the classroom – but some of my friends do. There's nothing wrong with that; not everyone contributes to the class in the same way. You may find, though, that the proportion of students who are happy to talk on video lessons is significantly smaller than in the classroom. There's a trend among some of my friends where they're experiencing "Skype anxiety" – not wanting to unmute themselves and speak – because they don't feel as comfortable online as they do in the classroom. They say that "it's easier to tell in the classroom if I've got the answer right", and that they are "scared that I'll sound funny and people will laugh".

One way we've tried to overcome this is by using the text chat function, so that everyone is still able to contribute, even if they don't want to speak. This lets those of us who wish to have a spoken conversation do so, and those who are more anxious about the idea can still communicate and contribute – in a less intrusive and potentially less anxiety-inducing way. 

3. Can we do something other than write an essay?

In more "normal" times, I would be putting the final touches on my end-of-first-year short film. But the equipment lives at college so needless to say, I can't do that. Instead, we're making a start on next year’s theory units, which means we're doing a lot more writing. If it's not obvious, I quite like writing. But even I can only do so much – and churning out 1,000-word essays weekly isn't fun and is even harder to do with everything else that's going on.

We fed this back to our tutor, and they've now adapted our next set assignment to include alternatives for those of us that would rather not write as much (for example, writing a magazine article instead). I've also asked if we can look at doing presentations as well. Obviously we can't do the stand-up-and-talk-type presentations, but – as everyone will have experienced by now – it's a skill in itself being able to host video calls. It doesn't look like this way of working is going anywhere any time soon, either.

I think the bottom line is this: overall, online learning is going well. We're thankful that we're able to carry on learning, and it’s allowing us to stay connected with each other. We're grateful that, despite the difficult circumstances, we're able to continue with the education experience, and that we can learn everything we need to for our qualifications. But we also need to make sure that the process is as effective as possible, to make sure that everyone feels as supported as possible.  

Alfie Payne is a creative media college student at Farnborough College of Technology