Overview

In this course, you’ll learn about many important skills to support your study, including time management, discovering your own learning styles, and reading more effectively and increasing your vocabulary. You’ll hear some guidelines for studying effectively in online or remote classes, which are becoming more and more popular in university-level education. You’ll also improve your skills in listening to lectures and taking good notes to help you as you study for tests. Finally, you’ll hear about expectations for participating in lecture classes and tips for communicating with professors and making friends with classmates. Being a university student can be a rich, rewarding experience if you have the skills you need to succeed both in your classwork and in getting along with others. This course will help you gain some of those skills.

Syllabus

Learning to Be a Successful Student

In this first week of the course, we’ll talk about some things that will make your university life easier and more productive. You’ll learn about managing your time well and make a plan to fit in all the things you need to do for your classes and still have time for yourself. You’ll hear about different learning styles and take a quiz to discover what learning style is strongest for you. You’ll also hear some tips for success in taking an online class and hear about rules regarding academic integrity—what is and isn’t acceptable if you’re a university student in the U.S. Let’s get started on the road to university success!

Listening and Notetaking

This week we’ll learn about a skill you’ll need in every university class: Listening and notetaking. You’ll hear about the importance of taking good notes to help you understand class material and review later. You’ll also hear about several ways to organize your notes and have a chance to practice the Cornell Notes method. You’ll read some tips for improving your notetaking skill and focus on an important part of any lecture—the introduction—so you’ll know what kinds of information might be included, and what are the most important points to include in your notes. Are you ready to take notes? Let’s get started!

More Skills for Successful Learning

This week you’ll hear about more skills to help you succeed in university classes. First you’ll learn some hints for reading more effectively. Next you’ll consider some vocabulary for describing and analyzing graphs and charts, which are a vital way of representing data. You’ll practice by choosing a graph from real-life news sources and recording your description of it for your classmates to respond to. You’ll hear some tips for building your vocabulary of both general academic words and specialized words from your field of study. Finally, you’ll learn some strategies for doing well on tests, whether they’re multiple choice, true/false, or essay styles. So let’s get going on mastering these important skills!

Participating in a University Class

This last week of the course will focus on “people skills” that lead toward success. You’ll learn about expectations for class participation in American universities and what you should and shouldn’t do in class. You’ll hear some suggestions for communicating with professors, along with tips for making friends with classmates and neighbors. Finally, you’ll watch a video introducing an American university and hear students, faculty, and administrators talk about their experiences. Your final practice will be to put all your skills to use by watching a video of an authentic university lecture, taking notes, and taking a short quiz on the material. Good luck as you prepare for university life!