Success strategies for this class . . .

Read the Rethink and Revise sections of the assignment document. Begin revising your essay!

A number of students have asked for some advice about how to improve in this class. There are several topics under College Life in the discussion group on that topic, so I suggest you go back and read those entries and then add to them. But here are some other ideas:

• Do everything! All the small assignments and activities, for sure. Read and write in the discussion group frequently.
  
• Read everything! Don't just skim or scan the pages. Read them carefully. Print them out. Highlight the important points.
• Write something for this class every day! If you've written a draft, revise -- and then revise again.
• Ask questions! The Help & Feedback section of the discussion group is the student's best friend. Ask your questions there!
  

Essay #1: Learning Styles

This first essay asks you to analyze your learning preferences using several inventories that are available on the web. Most of us have a preferred way to learn, although we may not have been aware of that preference. The inventories should help you look at your own preferences critically.

Teachers have preferred ways of presenting course content, and sometimes they aren't aware of those preferences either. In the classes you are currently taking, analyze your teachers' teaching styles or preferences.

Just as there is no right or wrong learning style, there is no right or wrong teaching style either. It's especially useful, however, to be able to size up a teaching style at the very beginning of the semester by looking at the course syllabus and class activities. Then you can adapt your learning strategies to make the best use of the teachers' styles in your classes. This essay will help you figure out how to do that. Useful, huh?

VIDEO: Use this link to access a video about learning styles. It is geared for elementary school teachers, but it presents information about learning styles in an interesting way.

What do you know?

I have posted the final summary assignment on "Brain Candy." Before you even look at the assignment, take a guess at what brain candy might mean. I've set up a topic in the discussion group where you can guess. What do you think is the role of a title?

I have also linked Information Literacy Exercise #9: Kinds of Sources. Learning about how information gets into publications will help you figure out which sources are "good" ones.

Note that both of these exercises include quizzes that are in Blackboard, so have your Blackboard username (your MEID) and your Bb password at hand. Quizzes help you figure out when you know (or don't know) something.

Reminder! Please submit a recording of your Short Take on Statistics (using evoca) with your text in the class Zine. Practice reading your paragraph a couple of times before you call it in. (There is a document called "RecordingHelp.doc) with some suggestions about how to read more effectively in the course folder. Use the link to the right.)

Note that we will be working with the injury data in a second piece of writing; I have posted that assignment and linked it to the assignment page.

If you have questions about this statistics assignment, check the Assignment Questions in the Help & Feedback section of the discussion group. I often provide help there. Remember that there is no such thing as a "dumb" question.

Finally, I have added several additional general-interest topics in the discussion group, and you can write in response to them to meet the discussion group requirement of this class. Make sure to write good solid well-developed paragraphs (no one sentence responses please!) These topics are open to students in all three sections of this class, so make sure you either have a signatiure file or sign your entries with your name. Use the Active Topics link at the top right of the discussion group page to see just the new entries since you last read. Or you can select a time interval you prefer from the drop-down box. I often go back to see what has been written in the past 2-3 days, just in case I missed something good.