Topics, Objectives, Materials, Terms, To-Do List

Topics

This unit covers the following focus points:

• Procrastination (and how to avoid it)
• Self Efficacy and World View (as related to a successful academic experience)
• Distractions (and how to minimize them)
• Schedules and schedulers
• Study aids
• Study areas
• Study groups

Objectives

After you have completed this unit you should be able to:

• Understand more how your world view and sense of self-efficacy contribute to your time, tools, and environment management habits.
• Understand how to best manage your time with regards to the needs of your life (school, homework, home life, work, and “me time”) and your optimum working times.
• Understand new ideas about how to manage distractions to add to what you may already employ.
• Understand how to manage procrastination tendencies with some tried-and-true strategies as well as a few new ones.
• Understand how to enhance your sense of self-efficacy.
• Understand how to create useful organizational materials to help you with a variety of educational tasks as well as in other areas of your life.

Materials

• e-book, “How to Learn Like a pro!” (instructor may require some materials to be downloaded)
• A package of 3×5 or 4×6 cards, plain, lined, and/or colored.

Terms (These terms also appear in the Glossary of Terms)

NOTE: the definitions are adapted and/or abbreviated from the original.

Expository: Explanatory. Expository writing includes argument/persuasive, cause/effect, comparison/contrast, definition, exemplification and process writing.

Locus of control: The extent to which individuals believe they can control events affecting them. a person’s “locus” (Latin for “place” or “location”) is conceptualized as either internal (the person believes they can control their life) or external (meaning they believe their decisions and life are controlled by environmental factors which they cannot influence, or by chance or fate).

Self-efficacy: One’s belief in one’s ability to achieve goals successfully.

Style manual: Any one of a number of manuals that explain the rubric for manuscript presentation. Elements include such things as spacing, heading, page numbering, and Word Cited/Bibliography organization. Modern Language Association (MLA) is very common for most undergraduate papers. Others include the American Psychological Association (APA) style, the Chicago Manual of Style, and the Associated Press Stylebook (AP).

World View: The fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the entirety of the individual or society’s knowledge and point of view. How one views/perceives/interprets the world.

To-Do List

• Complete the exercises, as assigned, in each lesson.
• In face-to-face classes, your instructor may include optional additional activities.