3 Free Online Tools to Help You Finish Finals

By Julia Dunn on November 27, 2016

For students on the quarter system, next week is “week 10” — and if you live your college life based on what week number it is, you know that week 10 is the last week before finals (yikes!)

Even if you’re on a semester system, you may still be thinking about finals in the distance (probably in several weeks). Final projects and assignments can be intimidating especially if they require specific resources that you aren’t sure how to find, or if they involve a multi genre project in media outside of your comfort zone.

More and more professors are assigning projects that differ from the standard take-home essay or in-class exam. In literature classes, some students may have to create a “digital humanities” project that involves not only an essay but a digitally-made visual component that reflects the essay’s argument.

In other classes like linguistics or even biology, students may have a group project due for finals week that involves conducting a research experiment and tying it up with a reflective or analytical essay.

No matter what your final projects look like, be aware of these three online resources that can really help you out when you get assigned a final project and need some assistance.

1. Canva

Canva is essentially similar to Photoshop, but it’s accessible on a web browser from any computer. If you’re a Chromebook owner who struggles to create any graphic design projects because of your computer type, Canva is one of the best free online websites for graphic design that still provides a high amount of freedom design-wise. It’s a little more user friendly than Photoshop, too, and more intuitive in terms of features.

If you aren’t very well-versed in graphic design functions, Canva offers a number of pre-existing templates and designs you can select as a jumping-off point to making your design. You can choose a background image or solid color, add clipart or other images and access tons of font options suitable for different types of projects from personal to professional.

At the beginning when you’re creating a new document, Canva prompts you to select a type of project such as a poster, brochure or even a card. Canva can come in really handy when your art history professor asks you to create a visual for a final project and you have little experience translating an argument into an image. There is even a Canva app so that you can access your designs when you’re not in front of your laptop.

2. Google Slides

Are you stressed about a group presentation? Google Slides makes it extremely easy for several people to work on a single slideshow at a time. As is true with every Google program, all you need to do to share a document with someone is enter in the emails of everyone you want to have access to it.

Image via Pixabay.com

Google Slides is user-friendly especially for college students needing a quick, nice-looking slideshow that can be accessed from any computer. This also prevents you from having difficulty accessing the slideshow on the day of your final presentation, since all you need is your email address and password to sign into Google Slides (you’ll need an internet connection too, of course!)

Another great feature of Google Slides (and, again, every other Google program like Docs, Sheets and Forms) is that you can see who made what edit on your document and you can even watch them typing in real-time. This way, your group members can be held accountable for their work (or lack of work — let your professors know if a group member isn’t holding their weight of the project)!

3. Purdue OWL

You’ve probably heard about this resource every day of your educational careers (especially in high school and in some college courses). That’s because The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University truly is a fantastic resource for any student lost on how to cite sources, format papers in different genres and pick up tips for writing coherent essays.

Confused on how to cite in APA style for the developmental psychology final you have? Wondering how to avoid comma splices or make sense of visual rhetoric? OWL can help. More concerned about your graduate school application essays than you are about finals?

OWL has an entire section of their website dedicated to helping students with every detail involved in applying to graduate school, from writing a statement of purpose to requesting letters of recommendation.

Image via Pixabay.com

Don’t risk losing points on a final exam because you didn’t know what a comma splice was or you had too many run-together sentences. Purdue OWL is designed to give students a hand with the ins and outs of formatting, composition and crafting of essays and other written projects in any genre.

With these three online resources in your toolbox, finals week doesn’t have to bring you anxiety! Sometimes the internet actually can save the day.

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