student success

Working Through Uncertainty: Navigating the Uncertain when Nothing is Certain

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 17:08:45 +0000

Working Through Uncertainty: Navigating the Uncertain when Nothing is Certain Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/05/2020 - 11:08

A&S AAC Academic Coaching Program

“What do I have to do to make this uncertainty the best thing that happened to me?” - Bill Johnson, Life Design Catalyst Coach and Facilitator, UNC Greensboro

As a college student, uncertainty is all around you. You make a lot of decisions that may impact your current and future success, and those decisions aren’t always easy. On top of that, there’s plenty of uncertainty in the world. This much uncertainty can cause stress and anxiety, so it’s important to know how to work through it.

No matter what kind of uncertainty you experience, working through the unknown requires a growth mindset and self-awareness. This article helps you reflect on your approach to uncertainty and gives you guidance for creating as much certainty for yourself as possible.

Growth Mindset

When you think about your life’s unknowns, you probably don’t think of them as “good.” There aren’t many people who enjoy uncertainty. However, that doesn’t mean that uncertainty has to be “bad.” Think of uncertainty as neutral, a space of possibility that can lead you to any number of outcomes. If uncertainty is a space of possibility, then your attitude and actions can affect how that uncertainty is (or isn’t) resolved. This is where a growth mindset comes in.

Facing uncertainty often connects to feeling a lack of control. You may become frozen with indecision, or you may try to avoid dealing with the uncertainty. With a growth mindset, you can embrace the challenge of uncertainty and see it as an opportunity to learn and grow. It’s like choosing “fight” over “flight” or “freeze.” Having a growth mindset means having a strong sense of agency: you are confident in yourself and in your ability to solve problems and accomplish goals. In short, you believe that you control your decisions, and you have hope that you can resolve your uncertainty in the best way possible.

Self-Awareness

Growth mindset helps facilitate your agency for effective decision making, but you also need a strong sense of self-awareness to guide your actions. When you face the unknown, it helps to know your strengths--your unique talents or abilities that you can turn to whenever you face a challenge. If you’re not sure what yours are, take the CliftonStrengths Assessment through ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ and discuss your results with friends, family and your academic advisor.

In addition to knowing your strengths, it’s important to know your long-term goals. Of course, your long-term goals can be the source of uncertainty. If that is the case, reflect on the five aspects of wellbeing:

Purpose: What do you look forward to? What is something that you would be happy to do every day?
Social: What do strong relationships look like for you? How do they help you?
Financial: What does financial security mean to you? How will you attain it?
Physical: What does it take for you to feel good and healthy? How will you have the energy to get things done on a daily basis?
Community: What do you need from your community? What do you want to give back to your community?

Thinking through these questions brings your long-term goals into focus. When you have a clear sense of your long-term goals, resolving uncertainty can be a matter of making sure that your daily actions and choices are aligned with those goals.

Finally, remember to practice self-care and try not to put too much pressure on yourself. Everybody experiences uncertainty, and your relationship with uncertainty is a process that takes time and effort. Be kind to yourself and be willing to reach out for help.

http://iteaplus.com/

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Productive Failure: How to Turn Failure into Success

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 16:41:06 +0000

Productive Failure: How to Turn Failure into Success Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/05/2020 - 10:41

A&S AAC Academic Coaching Program

When you think about what it means for you to be academically successful in college, you might think of it as an “either-or” question. Either you understand the class material or you don’t. Either you complete all of your assignments or you don’t. Either you get good grades on your tests or you don’t.

There are actually more than two outcomes when it comes to your academic performance. It’s not just about success or failure; it’s about whether or not the learning experience was productive. Productive learning experiences are ultimately beneficial to your long-term learning, not just your short-term performance.

It’s easy to assume that all successes are productive and all failures are unproductive, but that’s not the case. Depending on how you approach success and failure, your successes can become unproductive and your failures can end up being productive. The following will help explain things.

Productive Success

Maximizes your performance in the short term and maximizes your learning in the long term.

Example: You study hard for your test and get a good grade, but you still take the time to review the test and make sure you understand every question.

Unproductive Success

Maximizes your performance in the short term, but does not maximize your learning in the long term.

Example: You cram the night before your test and it works well enough to get you a good grade, but you completely forget the material as soon as the test is over.

Productive Failure

Does not maximize your performance in the short term, but maximizes your learning in the long term.

Example: You do poorly on your test, so you go to a tutor for help. You make sure that you learn from your mistakes and understand the material before moving on.

Unproductive Failure

Does not maximize your performance in the short term or your learning in the long term.

Example: You do poorly on your test, but you don’t reach out for help. You give up on trying to understand the material and hope that the next test will be easier.

Let’s focus on productive failure, which is perhaps the most important section of the chart. It’s nearly impossible to be academically perfect, so you’re bound to experience failure once in a while. That’s OK! When you do experience failure, what matters is that you know how to turn that failure into success. As you can see from the example, productive failure requires three key elements: reflection, growth mindset and reaching out for help.

When you experience a failure, your first instinct might be to move on and try to forget about it.That’s probably not going to help you in the long run. If you take the time to reflect on what went wrong and what you could have done differently, you’re much more likely to learn from your mistakes and improve your academic performance.

Growth mindset is also essential. Try to adopt a curious, self compassionate approach and think about what is the next small, productive step you can take. Finally, it’s important to reach out for help when you need it. You don’t have to struggle alone and figure everything out by yourself. Whether it’s office hours, tutors or academic coaching, there are plenty of resources out there for support.

So, if you ever find yourself feeling unsuccessful, remember that you have the power to change things. Failure is just a temporary setback and an important learning experience on your journey to success.

Salazar-Núñez, B., 2020. Productive Failure. University of Colorado, Boulder

There is more to your academic performance than Pass/Fail. Productive learning experiences are ultimately beneficial to your long-term learning, not just your short-term performance.

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Tips for Online Learning

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 15:04:23 +0000

Tips for Online Learning Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/16/2020 - 09:04 Chloe Tucker on behalf of the Student Advisory and Resource Board

In light of CU’s decision to move to remote learning for the remainder of the semester, you may be concerned about more than just COVID-19. Making the move to online classes can be tough, especially if you’ve never done one or if you need the structure of going to class in person to help you be successful. I know that for me, online classes can be really difficult. I miss the structure and discussions that come with in-person learning, and I tend to procrastinate more than usual (and I usually procrastinate a lot…). On top of these challenges is the abrupt and overwhelming context of this particular switch. We didn’t sign up for online classes, and we didn’t expect to be making this transition mid-semester. Whether or not you agree with ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ’s decision, here we are and we need to adapt.

Myself, the Student Advisory Board, and the greater ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ community want everyone to be successful this semester, wherever you are and however you learn. So I want to share some of the tips I’ve seen and used for taking courses online, so we can all make the change with grace and continue to do our best.

Dedicate a place to doing schoolwork

That place should NOT be your bed.

That was true for me. I always fall asleep in bed. But if you can study in your bed for long stretches of time, more power to ya. Choose a place that works for your learning style: maybe you do best in silence, maybe you like working with friends. Whatever works for you, find a spot in your home or in the community that meets your needs and make it your study spot. If you can pick a spot that you will use just for the purpose of schoolwork, do it. It can be hard when you study at home, but having a space made just for that will put you in the studying headspace as soon as you sit down. Limit distractions in this space as much as possible. That means you should follow the next tip as well.

Set up and get ready before you start

One of the biggest distractors for me, particularly at home, is thinking about how I should grab a highlighter or a snack or use the bathroom or clean my room. Every time I get up, I end up doing five other things and my study time melts away. Before you settle in to watch the lecture or take notes from slides, take care of all of that stuff. If you need to take the time to clean before you can focus, go ahead and do it. It takes time but it would bother you if you left it. Get that out of the way. As the saying goes: “as without, so as within.” Clean your space; clear your mind. Just try not to deep clean every room in the house…

Grab all the materials you need. Get your laptop charger, pencils, notebooks, a snack and plenty of water. Everything you grab now is one less thing you have to break your concentration to get later.

Keep up

Falling behind in an online course is sooo easy. Especially with asynchronous courses in which lectures are pre-recorded rather than on a live platform like Zoom that requires you to join on-time and participate. Make sure you watch lectures and do classwork the same way you would normally. You won’t see that you are getting behind until you realize you have a quiz due later and haven’t watched the last three lectures. Make sure you are keeping track of due dates without having the safety net of a professor reminding you every other day leading up to them. This is all a part of my next tip.

Keep to a schedule

By this time in the semester, you are used to going to class at set times, your sleep schedule is (mostly) regular (hopefully), and you have built your schedules for your job and free time around school. So just keep that schedule. You already have all the alarms set; you already have your routine. Keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t let yourself fall out of it or it will be much harder to get back on track. Every day, get up on time, set up your study spot and watch the lecture at the same time you normally would on campus. Do your homework as soon as you learn the material for it, and check your calendar or set reminders so you know when those due dates are coming up. Make to-do lists, leave yourself notes and set reminders. Do whatever works best for you, but you may need to try a few options before you find the one that works best!

Utilize Zoom office hours

It may seem strange to be doing online office hours or office hours at all. But really there are only good things that can come from it. Office hours are a great way to keep up and get clarification on class material and homeworks. In online classes, it's also a time you can get information on class structure. You even get the added bonus of not having to go out of your way to make it to the professor/TA’s office AND you get to stay in your PJs. Big win all around. Your professor’s office hours are there just to help students. They want to help you, believe it or not. They often give you important information about exactly what they want to see on homework and tests so you don’t have to guess anymore.

Collaborate with classmates

Professors aren’t your only resource for help with this stuff. Your classmates can also be an awesome source of information and help. Set up a group text, Slack, GroupMe or Zoom meeting together if you feel uncomfortable meeting in person. Working with classmates can help you share knowledge and it assists in getting everyone on the same page. Something you missed from lecture? Somebody probably knows it. A question you have? Someone else has the same one and another may have the answer.

Take breaks when you need them

Although I advocate for keeping to a schedule, you also have a benefit here that comes from the ability to pause when you need it. You won’t be absorbing things or doing your best work when you are run-down or frustrated. You can come back to something if you need to. Don’t use this as an excuse to procrastinate, but be able to recognize when you need to take time for self-care, sleep and the like. For quick breaks while studying, set timers for yourself. Do an hour on and then take a fifteen minute break. This can be helpful for guiding breaks without losing track of time and wasting the day away.

Reward yourself

Sometimes it is really hard to stay motivated, online or not. So make a system of rewards for yourself. You can tell yourself something like, “Once I finish my work for the day, I can (fill in the blank).” That way, when you are getting down to the last bit of work, you have something to look forward to. Making little deals with yourself creates self-discipline that will help you stay on track and keep you from messing around when you should be working. When you complete a task, you get a reward. For me, it’s things like snacks, Reddit, video games, online shopping; you get it. Basically, any of the things I think about when I’m working, I use as a bargain so I can get things done in a timely manner.

I hope some of these tips can make things a bit easier for you. Some of them seem obvious or you’ve heard them a hundred times, but when it comes to online classes, stuff like this can be even more important. We are in a tough situation and nobody wants our GPAs to suffer on top of it. Remember to stay focused, safe and supportive of yourselves and each other while we go through this big transition.

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