Introduction
Many incoming students report their concern over successfully managing a college workload and balancing their time between academic, social, family, and work commitments.
This workshop helps students get control of their time by offering them guided practice in breaking assignments into smaller pieces, estimating how long each of those pieces might take to complete, and planning a realistic schedule of working sessions to complete their work and stay on track for the semester.
Survey (Before) | Survey (After)
Workshop Plan
- Current challenges
- College learning time is different from HS learning time
- Task Interpretation and Backwards Planning
- Daily Activity Log & Metacognitive Assignment Planner
- Finding and using course calendars
- Sample month-at-a-glance and week-at-a-glance calendars
- Sharing and improving use of calendaring tools
Learning Outcomes
After participating in this workshop, students should:
- Know how to locate their course calendar/schedule
- Know how to locate more detailed information about readings and assignments
- Know what “backwards planning” is
- Know some basics about task analysis to break an assignment down into smaller learning activities
- Know how to use backward planning and task analysis to plan an appropriate number of study/homework sessions to complete each assignment
- Know why it’s important to revisit and revise plans during a project
- Know why reflection after a project is essential to future academic success
Resources
- MyStudyLife.com – all platforms planner app – planner, scheduler, task planning, reminder (IOS, Android, desktop/laptop)
- MyHomeworkApp.com – similar to MyStudyLife.com
- Backward (or Reverse) Planning for Academic Success
- Reverse Plan for a Paper Due in 14 Days (Sample)
- Reverse Plan to Prepare for a Final Exam (Sample – Bucknell Teaching and Learning Center)
- The Study Cycle & Focused Study Sessions – integrate study sessions into a cycle of activities to maximize your academic success; learn how to structure your study sessions and know how many you should schedule
- Log Your Daily Activities – find out how you really spend your time by completing this daily log, which analyzes the amount and quality of time spent on your activities and encourages reflection
- Metacognitive Assignment Planner & Tracker – keep track of your progress on assigned work, encourages task planning and prioritizing
- Simple Assignment Planner (Tik Tok) – doesn’t encourage task analysis, but some students like it
- Semester-At-A-Glance Calendar Template – see important dates for the semester “in-a-glance”
- Week-At-A-Glance Calendar Template – see important dates for the week “in-a-glance”
- Make a “Whole-Life” Planner – why you should plan non-academic aspects of your life as well, with a template
- SAMPLE – Filled in Month-At-A-Glance calendar
- SAMPLE – Filled in Week-At-A-Glance calendar
