Students often enter college without understanding effective study strategies and time management skills that are critical to their success.
The How to Learn project involves embedding skill-building content in any course to improve student learning through three instructional goals:
to better prepare students from all backgrounds for collegiate-level work,
to build resilience and growth mindset,
to equip students with metacognitive skills for life-long learning.
There are several different ways to utilize the resources on this site to embed skill-building content in your own courses.
Step 1: decide whether you wish to have a self-contained module in the course, or if you can use some class time to model study strategies and embed one or two skills-based assignments using your content.
Step 2: decide on a mix of support resources from the options below to add to your course, or to the stand-alone module.
You can also add an assigned text or campus reader for further integration! For example, you can add McGuire (2018) Teach Yourself How to Learn as a supplemental textbook to a General Education course without adding too much additional reading to your course design.
Step 3: add the content to your course and discuss it with students!
Consider leveraging AI technology like the chatbot noted below to further support students with in-the-moment learning and feedback. The How to Learn Chatbot, built in Playlab.ai, can be easily copied and updated with your university-specific student resources and links.
Students can ask any question about learning, time management, and other common student struggles and receive feedback on strategies to help them succeed. The chatbot has background prompting to give specific and research-based responses to support learners.
Students converse as if talking to friends, removing cognitive load barriers related to knowing how to effectively prompt AI
Students receive research-based practices and step-by-step examples of how to move forward with their concern
The chatbot helps make the How to Learn project scaleable across campuses, as individual instructors need not be familiar with educational psychology research to effectively answer or support all student needs
Playlab.ai is an education-focused, free AI portal for accessing several Generative AI models, making it a safer space for students to ask questions as well as learn about/use AI.
You can select individual resources from the list below to add as a stand alone module, or mix-and-match a set of resources that relate to your students and embed them throughout the semester.
Note: These resources as well as various approaches to embedding the skills-based content into courses were tested in General Education courses at a regional comprehensive state university in the Midwest and they are being adopted at other institutions following several conference presentations. With almost all students commenting positively on the experience, this project has improved student learning, increased student skill sets and resilience, and built individuals' self-confidence.
Sample Course Module Content (outline of what you might include in a stand-alone module embedded in a course)
Flowchart example of Course Implementation Options (illustrates one way to embed content across the semester)
How to Learn Infographic (quick overview of key concepts and links to share with students)
Plan of Action sample assignment
Reflection sample assignment
Choice assignment (low-stakes practice of learning strategies using course content)
Cohort Study Groups (excellent for Gen Ed courses with freshmen or major courses, this facilitates active learning activities in class and helps students form social/academic social support networks)
Examples of ways instructors can Model Learning Strategies in the Classroom
How to Learn Chatbot (interactive Generative AI chatbot with prompting to specifically support learning strategies and that directs students to university-specific resources--you can copy this chatbot and edit the prompting to direct it to your institutional resources)
Common reader/textbook suggestions:
Gurung & Dunlosky (2023) Study Like a Champ
McGuire (2018) Teach Yourself How to Learn
Dweck (2007) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
McGuire (2015) Teach Students How to Learn
Renninger & Hidi (Eds.) (2019) The Cambridge Handbook of Motivation and Learning
Zakrajsek (2022) The New Science of Learning: How to Learn in Harmony with Your Brain
The Learning Scientists Podcast https://www.learningscientists.org/
Over 96% of students comment positively on the How to Learn content embedded in their General Education courses. Not only do they learn valuable learning strategies and metacognitive skills to serve them in any course or discipline, students experience and speak to the immediate impact it has on their learning quality, academic performance, self-confidence, and time management. Students are motivated to learn and continue applying these new skills, which supports larger institutional retention and student success goals.
“I also appreciate these new study habits because it allows me to actually remember subjects instead of having the test and forgetting the topic. This course has taught me a lot more than history. It has allowed me to get better grades in every class.”
“The self-questioning strategy worked well for me as it helped me stay focused and motivated during my study sessions. The questions I asked myself helped me pinpoint areas I needed to work on and provided me with a clear roadmap of what to do.”
“Honestly, I didn't think I would use the Teach Yourself to Learn book as much as I did. It taught me more than I originally thought it would and I noticed myself implementing it and my plan of action in my other classes. This strategy was extremely helpful.”
“I discovered that there are so many different ways to learn and study. Rather than just using one or two now I actually use quite a few depending on the subject and what information I need to remember or learn.”
“I found myself going and telling my friends what I had learned and then helping them apply it to the way that they learn.”