17/11/2020

Topic 02: Introduction to Learning Skills

ICT100 Transition to IT
Dr Danny Toohey

Introduction

• University study can be challenging

• There are a number of skills that can make it somewhat easier
• You may have some of these skills already, you might need to work at
developing others
• You will learn more about study skills as the unit progresses and as
your understanding of what you need to do increases

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Topic Learning Outcomes

• At the completion of this topic, you should be able to:

• Discuss some of the aspects of university study that are different from earlier
studies
• Create a strategy to manage your time to allow you to study effectively
• Describe how you learn and how that may impact on the way you study
• Identify and access library resources relevant to your studies

Topic 02: Introduction to Study Skills

• University Study
• Goal-Setting
• Time Management
• Learning Styles
• Lectures

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Topic 02: Part 02

University Study

University Study

• Some of the things you might notice as being

• “University learning different to your previous experiences are:
often requires you to • You are expected to be responsible for your own
do things in a different learning
way from school…or • You need to have an analytical approach; this will
work.” (McMillan and often mean having to thing logically and examine
Weyers, 2012, p.20) things from multiple perspectives
• You will need to be able to challenge your own
perceptions and consider information and ideas
critically

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What does ‘being responsible for my own

learning’ mean in practice?

• Essentially, it means it is up to you to “do the

learning”
• My job as a lecturer, is not to make you
remember a whole heap of stuff so you can give
it back to me in the exam
• …rather, it is to provide you with the resources that
will help you to come to an understanding of what the
unit is about
• …but what you do with those resources is up to
you!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zitting_cisticola_feed Budi Santoso Adji / CC BY-SA

ing_its_chicks.jpg (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

…asking for help

• This does not mean that the teaching staff aren’t
prepared to help you, it means that you have to
ask for help if you don’t understand
• …you might not always • You will also have to make a number of decisions
get the answer for about your study
which you are • https://www.murdoch.edu.au/life-at-
looking… murdoch/support-services

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Mode of enrolment

• The pace and mode of your study

• What other things do • Many students are either employed or have other
you have to do during commitments that will impact on their capacity to
the week apart from study
uni? • You need to think about:
• Full-time/Part-time
• How many units to take?
• Trade off between other commitments and results???
• Internal/External
• Differences between on and off-campus studies

Topic 02: Part 03

Goal Setting

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Goal Setting

• In last week’s tutorials, you discussed why you

• Keep the goal in sight… were coming to uni and what you were hoping
to do when you finish
• This is a long-term goal
• While the finish point might not be set in stone, you can
still take the time to think about what you are trying to
achieve and how you will go about that
• You might also have shorter-term goals, such as
getting through the semester, or completing an
assignment on time

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Topic 02: Part 04

Time management

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Time Management

• As discussed earlier, you will have to work out

• The first semester is how to make best use of your time
vital in setting you up • Competing demands, limited time
for the rest of your
• Some people will find this simple
course and after that…
• There are many tools you can use

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Some suggestions

https://aso-resources.une.edu.au/learning-
• You will be looking at a strategies/time-management/
different set of time • Know your time patterns
management • Prioritise
strategies in the • Set study blocks that support you
tutorial • Break up your study blocks
• It really is a case of • Be clear about what you want to achieve in each
finding the things that study block
work best for you
• Begin major projects ahead of time
• Reward yourself when you complete tasks on time
• Use ‘down time’ for study

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Topic 02: Part 05

Learning Styles

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How do we learn?

• Not everyone learns in the same way

• Understanding how we
• Not everything can be learnt in the same way
learn can help us to
• Some things require repetition and practise
plan the best way to
• Some require you to bring ideas together or to
learn new things… explain how an example is relevant
• Some require you to reflect on what you have read
or experienced and bring your own understanding
to that

By Henry Vandyke Carter - Henry Gray (1918) Anatomy of the Human Body
(See "Book" section below)Bartleby.com: Gray's Anatomy, Plate 290, Public
Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=792372
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Learning Styles

• There is much debate around learning styles

• You will be completing and the impact they have
a VAK quiz and
• One of the more commonly referred to
exploring it in a little
schemas is the VAK
more detail in the
• Visual learners
tutorial
• Auditory learners
• Kinaesthetic learners
• These styles are not mutually exclusive but can
help to think a bit more about how we learn
http://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-
learning/learning/preferences/learning-styles/vak/

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Topic 02: Part 06

Lectures

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Learning Activities

• As you are now in Week 02, you should already

• Generally your labs have met a range of different activities:
and tutorials will have • Lectures
instructions as to what • Labs
you need to do and • Tutorials
how to prepare • …anything else??

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Lectures

• How will you make the

most of lectures?

Laurentius de Voltolina / Public domain

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Why do we have lectures?

• Generally, lectures are there to introduce new

ideas, or to view a concept from different
perspectives, and to explain and give context
to a set of theories or ideas…
• If you can prepare, you will generally get more out
of a lecture
• What is the topic of the lecture?
• Are there any pre-readings?
• What are the learning outcomes for the topic?

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A really useful link for notetaking

• I would really like to be able to tell you one thing that will make
notetaking in lectures/recordings effective and mean that you will
remember every word your lecturer says…
• Of course, that’s not going to happen.
• People listen differently
• Lecturers lecture differently
• Some suggestions:
• https://aso-resources.une.edu.au/learning-
strategies/notetaking/?l=notetaking#hints

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Strategies for listening and notetaking

• Active listening involves

• If you can listen to a • preparing to listen – what do you already know
lecture “actively” about the subject?
(even if it is the • observing the speaker (if possible) – learn to read
their body language
recording), you will be • focusing on what they are saying
more likely to • thinking about what they are saying
understand, take • notetaking key points
effective notes and • writing notes in your own words
remember what was • actively responding to questions or directions
said… • showing your interest (e.g. giving eye contact,
leaning forward).

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Topic 02: Conclusion

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Learning Skills

• University study is most likely different to your previous studies

• It is important to be clear about why you are at uni and what you are
trying to achieve
• We all learn in different ways, and some things require a different
approach to learning
• There are a range of learning skills/tips/tricks etc

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References

Muller, M., and Nulty, D. (2011). Survive and thrive: Skills for your first
year at university. Plagrave Macmillan.

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