Paul Menton Centre's Virtual Make the Cut 2020:
Video #2 - Learning Strategies Presentation - Transcript

SOMEI TAM:
The first presenter is Amanda Blais who is a disability coordinator and learning strategist. Amanda will be presenting on learning strategies in post secondary. She will talk about creating structure and accountability as a motivation for completing tasks and staying on task as well as understanding course expectation in communication, knowing different areas of learning strategy support offered by the Paul Menton Centre, as well as exploring various tools for planning, managing time and maintaining productivity. So, without further delay, I'm going to turn over the microphone to Amanda Blais who will begin her presentation.

AMANDA BLAIS:
Hi, everyone, once again here I am! I will be talking to you today about learning strategies supports in post secondary. We will be talking a lot about what is offered here at Carleton but a lot of the things I will be talking about today are also available in other institutions as well.

So, to get started we're going to look at an overview of what to expect during this session. So, we're going to talk about what is learning strategies and why is it important. We are going to talk about the differences between high school and university or college-whatever you choose to do, how to get started, what areas does the learning strategies address, and the three levels of time management. So, let's get started and we'll see if this works. If it doesn't work that's okay too. We are going to try a Poll Everywhere. So, on your screens you will see a QR code and a web browser for pollEV.com/MTC2020.

So, once you get there, you're going to find yourself a question. And the question is going to ask you: what do you think are the biggest differences between going to school in high school and going to university?

Freedom-wow, that's a big word! Deadlines are real. Awesome. Level of self-advocacy. Amount of people in classes. The workload. Daily schedule.

This is awesome. We can see you guys are out there. This is so great. "Heavier workload, tighter deadlines."

So, everyone is really hitting at, kind of, what it is we're going to be moving on to. So, why am I asking this question? So, if we can get to the next slide, I know that we are getting in there. Thank you all for your input. I love these Polls Everywhere so we can see what engagement looks like out there. So, I'm not the only one talking, it's nice to be able to hear from all of you viewing today.

So, what I really want to hit at is how to get started. So, you guys talked a lot about schedules and freedom and deadlines, but all of those things are really difficult to manage on your own. So, if we can go to who to connect with first, one of the things I wanted to point out is, uh, where to explore university resources.

So, I have posted in the slides, which will be made available afterwards, links to university resources here at Carleton. But you're going to want to look for support resources in any of the institutions you go to. Whether it's college or university, you're going to have support resources there. Myself, I am a disabilities coordinator. You're also going to be hearing from Sonia later who is also a disabilities coordinator.

And we also exist in every post-secondary institution. So, unlike in high school, and Sonia is going to go into this in her presentation too, once you get to post secondary you're going to need to identify yourself as having a disability. And most likely, once you do that and go to the accessibility office or disability office, you'll meet with someone like myself who will talk to you about what accommodations and services you can access. There are also people called departmental advisors. So, departmental advisors are those who are really knowledgeable about the program that you're in.

So they can tell you essentially, like, where your degree is going to take you, what types courses and successions you should take if you've got questions about what that looks like. The best people to talk to are always your professors and your teaching assistants. So, professors and teaching assistants are the content matter experts.

They're the ones that are going to be grading your work. They're going to be the ones teaching you that information. So, if you've got questions about your courses or your content, they're going to be the number one people to contact. There are also student service specialists. So those are people who are available through, quite often, support centres on campus that are available to any student on a university or college campus. And then there is also residence advisers or Rez Fellows. So those choosing to live in residence-we actually do have students living in residence this year as well-will have Rez Fellows who will oversee the floor and make sure everything is going OK. So, there is a lot of support for you on campus if you need it.

But today I'm talking to you about learning strategies. Learning strategies is available again through the disability office or available to the general population through usually library services. But at Carleton, when we offer learning strategies here, and also at Algonquin too, we offer one-on-one support for students. And our one-on-one support is very similar to what you would find with a tutor, except for that we don't teach you the content for your courses. We teach you how to learn the content for your courses.

So we're designed-our sessions are designed to address the metacognitive challenges-metacognitive means learning about the way you learn or you think-and figuring out ways to make sure that the content that you're trying to study is the most accessible for you.

So, one of the biggest things I should mention is is that accessing supports in university is not a requirement but it is highly recommended. You're not going to be able to do this on your own. And you really do want to reach out the support to make sure you can be as successful as possible. Which is why active participation in your sessions and actually trying the stuff out that you work with your learning strategist on is going to be really important.
So, the areas that we work with students to develop are all listed there and there is many more. So, we work with students on things like active reading strategies, writing strategies, time and task management, problem solving, organization, study skills, note-taking skills, test-taking and other academic skills that may arise. You will be hearing from Jordyn after I speak today and Jordyn is one of our assistive technologists who pairs assistive technology with learning strategies. So, we really do try to not only teach you some of the strategies to help you learn all of the things listed there but also to give you some learning strategies that support that learning as all.

So how do we put everything together? So again, we talk to you as learning strategists about how to learn your information, but we also need to be able to allow you to learn the information too. So, one of the most important things, and some of you hit on this in the Poll Everywhere, is time management. Time management happens in three levels of planning. Obviously, we like memes here which is why you see that cute little baby planning like a boss! So, there's three things you want to think about whenever you're doing time management. So, the first level is a term calendar. You can see next to me on the wall there is a calendar with a lot of months on here. So that would be something similar to what you would want to do for a term calendar. There is a weekly schedule and there's a to-do list. So, let's take a look at what should be included in the term calendar. So, the term calendar should have all of your due dates that you have coming up in the term.

It's always good to colour code each of your courses so you can see when things are coming up as well as putting the percentages that they're worth. The percentages that they're worth really help you understand how much time you should be allotting to that task and how to prioritize that task. You're also going to want to create goal dates for larger assignments or bigger tests. So, we often recommend setting a goal date for a week before or at least a few days before in case you run into any issues-you get sick, you need to ask for help. Um, it just gives you time to be able to do all of those things.

And, one of the biggest pieces that we should recommend is to make it visible. So, like I said you can see it here on my wall. So you're really going to want to make it in a predominant location where you look at it every day. That way if, again, you start to see things clustering you can start to plan ahead of time. The next time management tool I want to chat to you about is the weekly schedule. So here you can see in the weekly schedule, you know, where to plan your classes. So, especially with this online structure, there are courses called asynchronous courses and those won't necessarily have a day that you'll have to be on to watch your videos. So, you can imagine if you don't schedule a time to watch those the same day every week you could end up at the end of the term with having to watch 12, 24-however many videos that were remaining for that term and it's not going to give you enough time to complete your work on time. So, it's really important to actually schedule in your classes on a weekly basis.

Then we are going to take a look at-and then you can also see on the weekly schedule that we have planned in time for homework. So, what you see there is the colour codes for each of the classes, and when the classes will take place. But then there is going to be readings associated with your classes or practice problems that you'll have to do, additional studying, maybe study groups. So, all of those things need to be accounted for and that is not even including if you have a job or responsibilities at home that you need to account for as well.

So to help you prioritize, it's really helpful to do something like a to-do list. So, to-do lists are things you'll want to do on a daily or weekly basis that kind of outlines what you have to get done that week. So here you will see the priority matrix-that's what we call it. It helps you prioritize when you have to do things. So, prioritize what needs to get done first and if it's in the "Do Never" category, which means it's low importance and low urgency, then consider passing it off to somebody else who might have more time than you do to complete that. You can also check off your tasks on the to-do list as you complete them. And the best part about it is enjoying the satisfaction of actually completing a task.
So, there are some online tools that you can use. I think they are going to be put in the question and answer section of the presentation here. So, those are "Todoist" is a really good checklist. And I believe we also put another really good one in there too which aligns with Microsoft Teams. You can use Outlook Calendars. Um, there's a lot of really good ways to track your to-do list and what you have to get done.

But I want to talk to you about two time management trackers or productivity trackers. One is the "Pomodoro Technique" and the other is "Don't Break the Chain." 
Um, I think that Hunter will put the links to the videos in the published chat as well. So, I'll talk to you first about the Pomodoro Technique. So, the premise behind the Pomodoro Technique is that you work in 25-minute increments. So, you set a timer, or even if you Google Pomodoro Timer, there is one on Google that will start to count down a 25-minute period. After the 25 minutes is over it'll tell you to take a quick five-minute break and then it'll also alert you to come back for the next 25 minutes. So, it will let you to do this four times, so a total of two hours, before it tells you to take a bigger break. Now, at the beginning of each 25-minute period, you're going to want to choose a task that you want to complete during that time. And it has to be something that's realistic and manageable. So, you wouldn't want to say I need to write my entire 10-page assignment. You're going to want to start with OK, I want to start with my research and I want to find five sources in that time.

A lot of students are always really skeptical about how much can be done in 25 minutes and you'd be amazed, whenever we do sessions, how much can actually be done in that time. So, check out the Pomodoro Timer. If you download a couple-if you download the apps, there are free apps-there's one called the Focus Timer and there's one called Clockwork Tomato. Both of them will track how much you do the Pomodoro Technique and will even start to show you what the most productive times of your day are. 
The second technique that is there is called Don't Break the Chain. If you want to watch a really fun YouTube video, he definitely is phenomenal. Um, but essentially the Don't Break the Chain was developed by Jerry Seinfeld apparently, and it-what you do is you pick one thing that you want to work on and you have a calendar-the Don't Break the Chain calendar that you can print off-and every time you complete the task you market off on your calendar. Just like your term calendar, you will want to take the don't break the chain goal and put it up on your wall so you can see your progress everyday.

So let's say, for example, you are working on math and math is a really tricky course for you, you don't like doing it but you know you have to practice for math. So, you might want to say something along the lines of setting aside 20 minutes every day to practice your math homework. So, 20 minutes isn't a lot of time and if that's the only thing you get done on the day, it's better than getting nothing done on that day and over time you can quickly start to see how often you get those tasks done. So, check out those two techniques. You can even do it right now while you are doing your school work.

Even as professionals we do it all the time. I do it with my colleagues when we are working towards deadlines. So, Don't Break the Chain and the Pomodoro Technique can be very helpful. 
Why do we get you to start with time management? The biggest reason is because if you don't get a handle on your time then everything is just going to snowball. So, unlike high school where everything is really structured. So, you've got bells that tell you-well, not right now for most of you. You're probably at home but traditionally you'd have bells that tell you when your class is over and you need to move on. Most of the time your teachers are reminding you of when tests are or when assignments are due. You don't have any of that structure in university. It's all based on-or college. It's all based on your own motivation to get things done, your own structure that you create for yourself, so the earlier you can do that the better.

So, the other reason that you want to get started with the three levels of time management is so you can see a problem coming. So, your first place to check for potential issues is going to be on your course outline or your syllabus. That's where your professors, kind of, outline what's required of you in the course, or how you're going to be marked. The next place you can start is checking with professors or TA's. And, again, the reason why we have the "Kept Calm and Read the Syllabus" is because if the answer is in the syllabus and you didn't check it before asking your professor or your TA's, they might get a little irritated. Um, so you always want to check it first or even the course website first. And then, if you've tried those two things and you still got questions, by all means, come and talk to your PMC coordinator or your disability coordinator, or your learning strategist and we can help you navigate through those problems. But the trick is to make sure you are doing it early enough so that if we need to help you find a solution, we have time to do it.

If it's already past the due date, a lot of the time it's over with and you can't really make those marks back. So that's why it's really important to start doing the time management early.
So, this year we actually started a program called the MORE Program. It's the Metacognition Outcomes Resilience and Education Program. And so, um, through this program you can access learning strategies support. It's only offered at Carleton so far but very similar programs for learning strategies will exist elsewhere as well. So, if you do choose to come to Carleton next year and you register with PMC, by all means, talk your coordinator about joining the MORE program, so you can either be set up with a learning strategist or disability-specific counselor.
So, I think I'm going to get Sonia to join me, um, to talk about some questions that you might have. Hopefully you've been writing them down so you can ask us. Uh, up on the screen right now you'll see the contact information should you want to follow up with myself or any other learning strategist at Carleton right now.