Myths & Realities

Step 2 of this orientation is all about helping you to be successful in my class but also generalize to your success as a college student. Since many of you come to college at different levels of preparedness and understanding one aspect of my job is to ensure that each of you have the same access to learning, regardless of your past experiences and where you are currently in your academic careers. Please take the time to thoroughly listen, read, and review the information on this page as it is filled with a lot of information to help you succeed including:

• False beliefs vs. Realities of learning
• Growth vs. Fixed Mindset
• High school vs. College Expectations
• Successful Online Student Characteristics

False Beliefs about Learning

Professor Stephen Chew of Samford University (Alabama) has created a series of videos to help you be a better student and it starts with changing the way we think about learning. According to Stephen Chew, here are the most common false beliefs about learning that impede student success:

1. Learning is fast.
2. Knowledge is composed of isolated facts.
3. Being good at a subject is a matter or inborn talent rather than hard work.
4. I'm really good at multitasking, especially during class or studying.

For a more detailed discussion about how these false beliefs impede student success please watch the video below.

Realities about Learning

As you move away from these false beliefs here are some practical and useful beliefs to replace them:

1. Intelligence is something that grows and develops throughout our lifetime through hard work and commitment to learning.
2. Learning is an on-going process rather than a quick matter of reading information.
3. Knowledge is interconnected and finding those connections will facilitate the process of learning.
4. Learning is best achieved through focused effort in an environment that is free from distractions.

More Resources to Optimize Learning

We've only scratched the surface in this orientation so if you'd really like to develop strong study skills to maximize your academic success then I encourage you to watch the additional videos posted by Stephen Chew below (more videos are also available by visiting Stephen Chew's YouTube channel). These are optional but I guarantee that taking the time to watch each of them will make you more efficient and effective learner!

• Cognitive Principles for Optimized Learning - Developing Effective Study Skills (5:46)
• Putting Principles for Learning into Practice - Metacognition (9:17)
• I Blew the Exam, Now What? (7:29)

Growth vs. Fixed Mindset

"The mind is everything. What you think, you become."

- Buddha

There is growing body of evidence that how you view yourself in relation to the world has a profound impact on your future success. Carol Dweck calls this "mindset" and her research and subsequent studies have shown that those who possess a growth mindset tend to do better; this is especially true for students. Distance learning can at times be more difficult than learning in the traditional face-to-face classroom and present unique challenges. How will you address those challenges?

By changing your perspective you might be able to change your future. Here are some additional links about mindset that you might find interesting - you need only to watch/read at least one of these to help you better understand the impact of these mindsets and how they effect your success in the classroom, but they each offer something unique to understanding mindset so feel free to use them all:

• Carol Dweck: The power of believing that you can improve (TED Talk)
• Carol Dweck revisits the "growth mindset"
• How can you change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset?

High School vs. College

There are many differences between high school and college classes, which means that you need to realign your expectations of the classroom, yourself, and your professor as you are becoming a successful college student. Here are some helpful links to clarify your expectations of yourself and your professors; you don't have to read them all, but you should read at least one of these:

• How is College Different from High School? (Southern Methodist University)
• What you didn't need in High School but DO need in College (Front Range Community College)

Another misconception that needs to be challenged is the false belief that community college is a "step down" from a four year college. You should approach each class you take at American River College as a transfer level course, unless stated otherwise in the course catalog. Any class that is transferable will be the equivalent to a course taken at a four year college. This is just one misconception about education at a community college, but here are some other misconceptions you need to debunk:

• 5 Myths About Community Colleges (Community College of Aurora)

Successful Online Student Characteristics

I will do everything that I can to present psychological concepts and theories to you in ways that foster learning, through a variety of activities and assessments (in all of our shared learning spaces), however I have found that a significant component of student success falls on the shoulders of the student. There has been much research on the characteristics of a successful online student - do you have what it takes to be a successful online learner? Review the characteristics in the links below and figure out which characteristics will be your strength and which will be your weaknesses.

• Illinois Online Network
• The Successful Online Learner - University of Washington (Tacoma)

Reflect on these questions as you assess what characteristics will help you, and which might hold you back.

• Which 2 characteristics will be your strongest assets?
• Which characteristics will be your vulnerability and how will you overcome them?

Here are the top 5 characteristics that I consider to contribute the most to student success in my class:

Self-motivated

Self-disciplined

Thoughtful vs. reactive

Collaborative

Flexible

In addition these are the top 5 behaviors that I consider to correlate with student success in my classroom, which include:

• Schedules different time throughout the week to work on the class activities
• Isn't afraid to ask questions of his/her peers or the professor
• Frequently refers to the class documents and resources for important information
• Effectively communicates with his/her peers and/or the professor
• Tries new things with a positive attitude and persists when faced with challenges.

Student Introductions Activity - Keys to Success

Registered Students Only: This activity must be completed no later than the end of Week 1. Please feel free to complete it now or wait until Week 1.

You should have already posted your brief introduction in our Student Introductions Padlet; now you are going to add some information to your post.

• What do you think is going to be your key to success, based on what you learned in this step of the orientation? Be sure that you pick one specific thing that you learned from this page. Try to summarize in 1-2 sentences - be clear but brief.

Below is the Student Introduction Padlet where you should be able to find your introductory post; now it's time to edit your post. You can click on the arrow in the top right corner to open our Padlet in a new window or tab, or edit it below.

You've finished Step 2 of the Online Orientation. Now it's time to move on to

Step 3 - Online Learning