At the beginning of this semester, UNY students from the Sociology Education Study Program had the opportunity to receive reinforcement through a webinar with the theme "Becoming a Mentally Healthy and Productive Student, How to Deal with free time, laziness and Toxic Friends?" which held online on January 31, 2022, via zoom.
Learning preparation is related to physical and academic preparation and needs psychological preparation to follow lectures productively and mentally healthy. Another background that forms the basis for this event is the implementation of long online lectures for class 2020 and 2021 who practically never experienced lectures offline, which is a challenge in itself. In addition, students rarely socialize directly with other friends, lack the motivation to learn because they feel they struggle with online lectures, or do not have the enthusiasm to attend classes. Some of these things become a challenge for students in carrying out online courses, which often impact the psychological and mental conditions of students. These various conditions are why the need for a forum to motivate each other to share experiences so that students do not feel alone in struggling to carry out online lectures.
Natri Sutanti, M.A. who is one of the counselors at the Integrated Counseling Guidance Service Unit (UPTBK) of UNY as well as a psychology lecturer at Mercubuana University Yogyakarta, stated that there are several important points that students need to know, namely (1) how to eliminate unproductive free time and laziness; (2) how to recognize one's potential and avoid feeling insecure; (3) how to accept one's shortcomings and respect the strengths of others; and (4) how to change the perspective of “ambition” into something positive.
Some of these points are very relevant to the condition of today's students, many of whom are experiencing fatigue and demotivation in carrying out online lectures. The material provided by the speaker is also very relevant, primarily related to how today's students also share a lot of insecurity over themselves both academically and non-academically. Without proper care, it may create negative traits by demeaning other people (verbal and nonverbal), to have the same worries as they feel. Students' enthusiasm in this event was quite large, indicated by the number of students who joined and several questions that arose in the discussion.
