Joseph A. Egan's Guide to Independent Learning in College

Welcome
…
The future is in your hands!

Which of the
following images
best represents
your view
of third level
education?

• Today
• You Decide

•Freedom
•Diversity
•Challenge
•Discovery
•Help

Go for it

What to expect in college
• Teaching Methods
– Lectures
• Size (30-50 students), 1-3 hours long, more than 20 hours a week, no
individual attention
– Tutorials
• Give feedback on your work, solving study problems
• Other teaching styles
– Group works
– E-learning and technology
– Independent study
• All courses expect students to work on their own for the rest of the
week.
• Seeing your lecturers
– Lecturers are Less available than high school teachers
– Teaching is only one of their responsibilities

What to expect in college
• Lecturers’ varied approaches
– Each lecturer has personal tastes i.e. some of
them prefer give write notes out on the
whiteboard some of them may prefer to use
computer
• The college week
– Equivalent of an average working week in
employment (35 - 40 hours)

Independent learning-
Taking control
• In college it is expected that you to work on your own for longer
periods.
• Independent learning includes:
– Making choices
• Between subjects
– Finding resources and support
• There is Recommended Reading on each subject, you have
to read it, understand it and reproduce it on your exam.
– Time management
• Only small amount of time in the classes.
• You are responsible for organising your time to meet
deadlines
– Keeping going
• Stay focused and maintain motivation
• Friends support each other

What is expected from you ?
• Independence
– Study + Personal life
• Self-motivation
– Work on your own
• Work with others
– Work with other students
• Ability to work things out for yourself
• Ability to set goals to improve your work
• Ability to organise your time
– Know all the deadlines
– Know all the class timetable
– Know when do you have to hand out your work
• Ability to work out when, how and where you learn best

Managing your time
• Only small part of your time is formally
timetabled, you will be responsible for
organising most of your study time. It is
challenging to find the balance between
work, study and friends.

Managing your time
• To manage time well, it helps to do the
following:
– Be aware of your own time management
– Be aware of how much time it takes you to
complete your study tasks
– Schedule time for unforeseen events
– Schedule time for relaxation and leisure
– Be very specific in your time-planning
– Set your priorities

Managing your time
• Beware of your own time management
– Ask students to breakdown how they use their
time now

Managing your time
• Effectively use your diary and planner
– Carry your diary with you at all times
– Check several times a day, especially at night
and first thing in the morning
– Add new appointments straight into it
– Priorities your appointments

Priority-setting
• Written a list of everything you have to do
• Underline essential tasks in one colour,
and items can wait in another colour
• Indentify the most urgent item on the list
• Work out the best order in which to do
things
• Work out how long you can spend on each
• Enter each essential task into your diary

Managing your time
• Other techniques that improve your time
management;
– Time patterns: develop a time pattern that suit
you for example study law in the morning and
study financial accounting at the night time.
– Mini-goals: break larger assignments, put
each part into smaller tasks, set a realistic
time for each of them, set a end-time, make
sure you finish each tasks.

Managing stress
• Set priority
– Identify things need to be done immediately
– Create a order to do your things
• Identify the resources that can help you
– Student union
– Student services department
– International office
– Head of department
• Talk to other students who may have the
same worries, may learn from them or at
least make you feel comfortable

Aim of the Module
– Support Students in Transition
– Help Students to become independent
learners in Higher Education.
– Enable students to develop a range of skills
and strategies essential to personal and
professional development

Learning Outcomes
• Apply
– good study skill
– Time management techniques
– Assessment methods
– Examination techniques
– Group work practices
to help you do well in your studies now
• Develop appropriate communication skills for social and
business situations (personal and professional)
• Develop competent academic and business writing skills

Learning outcomes cont....
• Self Assessment of Learning styles and develop
appropriate learning strategies – know how you best
learn
• Recognise the importance of self awareness
• Apply the skills of self appraisal through reflection and
self evaluation – see how you are doing and how you
can improve
• Help you to deal confidently with difficult situations in a
learning and business environment

Self Management
• Planning
• Goal setting
• Reflection
• Emotional Intelligence

Time Management
• Organising life at College
• Managing Stress
• Task Planning

Learning and Skills
• Active Learning
• Kolb Learning Styles

Effective Study Skills
• Good Note Taking
• Learning Resources
• SQ3R Method
• Mind Mapping

Thinking and Memory Skills
• Critical Thinking
• Analysis and evaluation skills
• Memory strategy

Written Skills
• Planning, writing and editing
• Sentences and paragraphs
• Plagiarism and referencing
• Report writing

Presentation Skills
• Planning
• Structuring
• Delivering
• Preparation. Preparation, Preparation

7 Approaches to Learning
• Learning - An adventure
• Use all senses
• Identify what attracts you
• Use active learning
• Take responsibility for your own learning
• Trust your own intelligence
• Recognise your own learning preference

VARK
• The acronym VARK stands for Visual,
Aural, Read/write, and Kinesthetic sensory
modalities that are used for learning
information.
• Ask students to do the questionnaire
during the one hour lab class.
• Go through each different type of learner
with students during the lab class.

Personal Planning
• Personal planning is a process that:
– Deepens your understanding of yourself
– Makes you more aware of your motivations
– Helps you formulate what you really want for your
life and career
– Helps you to face up your own limitation and
address them
– Helps you see yourself as other people see you
– Assist you to plan over the longer term
– Helps you in relation to annual review or
appraisal

Personal Development Planning
• There are four elements in PDP
– Understanding skills development in relation to
different contexts:
• Identifying skills and personal qualities
• Understanding personal learning styles (VARK)
– Planning:
• Setting goals and measure your progress
• Clarifying what you want from college
– Developing a strategy
– Monitoring and evaluating performance:
• Self-evaluations

Skills and qualities
• A skill is a learned activity- something you
can develop through practice and reflection.
– Each skill consists of sub-skills
– Some skills may be transferable i.e. Sub-skills to
academic skills to employment skills
• Identifying your current skills
– Think about something you do well, a difficulty
you overcame, or a personal achievement no
matter how small.
– Skill audit. Skill from experience. ( Photocopy
page 29-32)

Setting Goals
• Goals must be “ SMART”
• Set Mini-goals i.e. Break larger
assignments into smaller tasks.
• Activity- Ambitions

Monitoring and Evaluating
• Reflective Learning

Reflective learning
• Students are responsible for your own
progress it is important not to be dependent
upon the assessment and views of others.
• Students should be able to work out through
a process of analysis and reflection the
following questions:
– What you do well
– What you need to improve
– Your priorities

Reflective learning
• Methods of developing reflection
– Keep a learning journal/blog
– Use the self-evaluation questionnaires
– Fill in progress sheets regularly

Reflective learning journals
• Why do we need reflective leaning journal
– Writing things down helps you to clarify your
thoughts and emotions, to work out strategies,
and focus on your development.
– A written record will help you see how you are
progressing from week to week and from term
to term

Reflective learning journals
• What should be included in your journals?
– Your feelings about your course, lecturers, other
students,
– Things you find difficult
– Changes in your attitude or motivation
– How you tackle tasks- your strategies
– Things you find out about yourself
– Thoughts about how you learn best
– Ideas that arise from your studies
– How different areas of study link up
– How your studies relate to real life

• Reflective learning journals should be
done in a strong notebook, or use
your computer and it is only for
yourself.
• You should read your journal
regularly, and make some comment
for your progress.( monitor
performance.)
• The journals also can help you to
develop your writings and preparing
your tutorial classes and your exams.

Exams
• Preparation
• Time planning
• Study plan

Allocation of Marks
%
• Individual Research Report 20
• Group Research Report
40
• Group Oral Presentation
20
• Individual Reflective Report
20

Groups and teams
• Group development
• Effective group / team behaviour

Syllabus
• What is learning
– Purpose of learning
– Learning styles
– Work based and active learning
– Reflective Journal
– Personal Development Planning
– Thinking and Memory Skills
– Assessment procedure
– Exam and assignment preparation and techniques

Syllabus cont...
• Study and Learning Skills
– Develop good writing skills
– Types of reading
– Effective time management
– Good study skills – note taking

Syllabus cont...
• Communication process
• Non verbal and barriers to communication
• Listening skills
• Presentations – structure and delivery
• Using presentation software and multi
media
• Oral presentation skills
• Written communication

Syllabus cont...
• Creativity
– Concepts of creativity
– Characteristics of a creative person
– The Creative process

Please feel free
to ask questions.
Thank you for
your attention.

Joseph A. Egan's Guide to Independent Learning in College

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