Technology Is Your Friend: Tools to Make Your Graduate Student Journey a Breeze

Try these apps and tricks for a smoother classroom experience

Going back to college after a few years—or even decades—since your undergraduate commencement? A few things have changed. Modern technology is ready to help make it easier to take notes, stay organized and work with classmates.

Check out apps and tools recommended by your professor or programs

Some colleges or academic programs assign students laptops or software or require use of certain collaborative tools and apps. Be sure to familiarize yourself with these tools as soon as they’re available and be open to using them, even if it may seem awkward at first.

At Sacred Heart University, students studying journalism, sports communication and strategic communications are given MacBooks with recommended software to use for the program; the students keep them upon graduation.

Note-taking in the 21st century

Sure, you could take notes with a pen on paper, but why not opt for some of the new, efficient ways to ensure you don’t miss a thing and can actually read the results later? Modern note-taking tools, such as Notion, Evernote, Google Keep, Obsidian and OneNote, do far more than let you jot down some thoughts during a lecture. Most allow you to both create notes and search them across all your devices, create and annotate PDFs and add helpful multimedia elements like audio and video. Note-taking is an intensely personal task. Try a few apps and find the one that works the same way that you think.

Stay on track with productivity and workflow apps

When you are getting towards the end of your program and begin to tackle your end-of-year term capstone or thesis, you and your team can use the same apps to track work projects. Try Basecamp, Asana or Trello for creating to-do lists and setting reminders for due dates. Productivity apps, such as Microsoft To Do and Todoist, can help you break down larger projects into actionable steps, prioritize them and plot them out over the course of a semester or academic year.

Reference management tools

Is it time to research your first big paper? Making an appointment with a college librarian is still a good choice, as today’s librarians are whizzes with online research tools and can help you find what you need—and what you didn’t even know you needed. Want to do a little of your own digging? Helpful tools such as Mendeley, EndNote and Zortero can assist in finding the perfect papers and books, as well as complete the tedious job of creating citations you can use in your footnotes and bibliography.

Got a group project? There’s an app for that.

Does your program require a group presentation or final project? Finding a way to assign tasks, review others’ work and offer timely feedback can turn a nightmare assignment into a dream. Look to things like Google Workspace, Slack or Microsoft Teams for ways your team can collaborate smoothly and get the work done on time. Some platforms include instant messaging, conferencing tools and file sharing that allow several people to view and comment on work together and set up meetings to get the job done.

Combat digital distraction

Sometimes technology is the biggest barrier to your success. Are the plethora of apps available to you causing you to lose concentration on the task at hand? There’s even an app for that! The aptly named Freedom, Cold Turkey, StayFocusd and AppBlock all block attention-grabbing websites and games and help you focus on your studies. You can designate study times and some are particularly helpful when you’re trying to stay focused on online studies.

What resources does SHU have to offer?

SHU’s library has graduate student resources to assist with finding library tools and research databases. You can make an appointment with a librarian who specializes in your specific subject area to discuss the library’s offerings. The University also has its Online Writing Lab to provide students the opportunity to have their papers reviewed via asynchronous online submission.

Think SHU might be right for you?

Want to know more about SHU’s more than 40 graduate degrees and certificate programs? Visit Graduate Admissions to contact a member of the graduate admissions team.