Study Skill

This type of education has gained its growing popularity with the developing of Internet, even paving in the different parts of the world, students can simply interact with their teachers and exchange materials over the net. Distance learning has a lot of advantages that make It really a strong and potential competitor against a traditional education. For example, by attending a distance learning course, learners can study at their own place, with their own time and flexible schedules combine different actively simultaneously. It Is also useful for people over 25 who mostly have a full time Job and can study after It.

Also It Is a great financial advantage as during stance learning, travel expenses and educational fees are significantly lower. Distance learning is defined as a form of education in which learners and instructors are separated during the majority of the instruction; furthermore, learners have the opportunity to learn whenever a computer is accessible to them Monsoons, 2003; Andre, 2005, Anderson, 2008). Within this new technology era, nothing is possible anymore. Prosthetic (2010) agreed and added that increasing web-based technologies have significantly influenced the dynamics of teaching and learning.

The online aroma has lead distance learners and their Instructors Into new possibilities for interaction and Information access Monsoons, 2003; Prosthetic 2010). In many circumstances, respond to distance learning and education programs have been positive, although more research is needed. There are many different techniques that are used in the distance learning. The most popular and efficient are e-mails, forums, faxes, print materials, video recordings, internet radio, telephone, live streaming and many more.

Thanks to all these technologies, distance learners can receive the same learning source such as terrestrial, worksheets and writing assignments same as full time students on campus. Definition of study skills Study skills can be defines as a combination skills of ability knowledge and experience that enables a person to do something well (http:. ‘/ skill is vital for distance leaner in order to help them to cope with their studies. Research shows that learning skills influence academic achievement whereby they enhance increasing in academic skills and performance.

The significance of learning skills is also shown in the many instruments that have evolved. There are several hypes of study skills. Students will need to improve deferent skills at different times in their career. They will also wish to use different methods according to their particular need and learning style time. What then are the study skills that students need to improve, apart from those taught inside the program? They can be divided into four stages: time management, note taking, information seeking and communication skills.

Distance learning program tend to have a looser structure and many students are studying alongside a Job or personal commitments. Working out hen you can study and how to make best use of precious study time is essential if the student is going to succeed. Good organizational skills are also essential to deal with course materials and administrative matters. Knowing how to get advice, are skills worth developing, including when and from whom, as distance learners often have to be their own advocates and need to develop the resourcefulness to do this.

Time management Time Management skills are crucial for successful people. These are the useful techniques that have helped the leading people in sport, business and public service each the high points of their careers. Time management is the way you regulate or schedule your time. Learning good time management techniques can motivate you to accomplish your goals. (Rite O’ Donahue, Mill, M. A. (Deed) 2005-2006) National University of Ireland, Galway) by keeping Journal activity for several times helps you to know when you perform at your best and understand how you spend your time.

Don’t change your daily routine, note down everything that you always do. Every time you change activities, whether working, making coffee, opening mail, talking with colleagues or whatever, note down any changes. Same goes with recording activities, note your feeling, whether, flat, tired, alert, energetic, etc. Do this regularly throughout the day. Time management has been described using many terms including balance, spontaneous, flexibility, and having control over time (Laurie – Ann M. Hellenizes (2012) What do we know about time management; Lankier 1973).

Many people experience time management problems and suffer from time pressure and an increasingly fast pace of life (Hawkins & Klaus, 1997; Major, Klein, & Rather, 2002; McCullough, 1984; Attachment, Dotterels, & Parker, 1996; Heisenberg, Bergsten, Cote, Craver, & Heath, 1982). There are several skills in time management, such as planning, proportioning, organizing, and list making and persevering. By having a good time management its helps us to become more productive, stress free and you will be able to create your own free time when you are needed.

As a distance learner, time management skills are vital in order for you to cope with your studies. Management effectives in increasing your learning skills. However, individuals who participated in a time management program did perceive more control over their mime after the program. Perceived control over time was related to positive outcomes. Individuals who perceived having more control over their time reported fewer Job induced tensions, fewer stresses, and greater Job satisfaction than individuals who did not perceive themselves as having control over their time.

Note making and note taking Note making and note taking is one of the important study skills for distance learners. What to note down and how detailed the notes should be, takes time to develop. It is difficult therefore you need to develop you self with basic skills of note asking and note taking. The ability to take good notes will help you save time and focus on your studies. The difference between note taking and note making is, notes taking is happen when you listen to e-tutorial lecturer, seminar or writing down what other people say by taking important notes from it.

In dissimilarity, note making involves a process of personal understanding. You will remember the entire note that you making by your own because you are learning and understand the topic. This may take several time to complete. Yet, it is much more efficient and effective in arms of learning than trying to sort out lecture notes and read text books in great haste before an important test or exam. Note taking its difficult than making note. Some of the approaches from reading note-taking also been apply to listening note- taking.

This is because you cannot control the flow of a speech, you cannot expect the tutor to repeat the entire tutorial. You need to prepare yourself before coming to the class, such as do a pre revision or pre read of the topic so that you can easily understand during the lecture. Note making will reinforce your understanding of hat you have read for the course. As such, you are urged to use these skills effectively to prepare yourself for the tutorial class. J Song, M. (2012) agreed that note taking and note making effectives in enhance personal skills especially in learning skills.

Information seeking skills As a distance learning student, one of the crucial challenges for us to success in our studies is our information seeking skills. This is because in the current era we are living now, the way people post, store and even seek information make it easier for us to access faster and easier for all sorts of information. Students need to have knowledge on seeking the correct and proper information that related to their studies. On top of that, it is important for students to have a good decision making skills and critical thinking to be successful in the learning process.

First of all, students need to identify the various sources available for the information. One of the sources which are superior in quality of results which is from the OPAC or Online Public Access Catalogue which is an electronic or online catalogue for materials available from the library. Another source for distance learners to search the information is from electronic databases such as Emerald, Prosiest, NSP e-Media and BLISS to name a few bibliographic records of books, Journal articles, reports, book famous form of searching information in this information age is the Internet.

Web search engine such as Google or Yahoo have developed their own search algorithm that can help students retrieve information, Journals, e-book, articles etc. Easier and faster. Research has shown that distance learners decide on using the Internet resources as their primary source in seeking for the information for their studies. Sati and Appropriator (2008) consider that almost all students use the Internet because it is convenient, easy and quick access.

While the web search engine may be the easiest and fastest way to search for information, distance learners must remember that the accuracy and validity of information retrieved on the internet should be concerned. However most distance learners still choose web search engine such as Google to search for their daily information needs. Thompson, A. J. (2007) found that 83 percent of students from her research used web pages as their daily information resources. The tendency of distance learners uses the Internet for information searching because of the time constraint distance learners have.

Many distance learners are studying alongside a Job or family commitments. Communication skills Communication is one of the most important aspects in distance learner. Julia Wood defines communication as a “systemic process in which people interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings” (pa topic 4 module English Communication). Communication is effective when the recipient of the message understands its meaning and can express that meaning back to the speaker or the ender of the message. In a meanwhile, an ineffective communication occurs when the meaning is not understood.

Good communication is important in helping you to enhance the quality of work, develop a stable relationship and inhibit misunderstandings, and navigate daily deadlines. Good communication skills also give people an edge in getting the Jobs they want and help them move up the ladder to better paid positions. There are three types of communication in the workplace, which are formal communication, informal communication and non-verbal communication. Formal communication is a message or information delivered wrought the organization.

Bartok and Martin, define formal communication as “Formal communication refers to vertical and horizontal communication that flows path specified by the official hierarchical organizational structure and related task (http://thebusinesscommunication. Com). Example, in a workplace where employee getting information or instruction from superior is consider as a formal communication. The formal communication is aimed to complete a tasks to meet the management goals. Informal communication can be defined as informal and spontaneous or also known as a grapevine. Grapevine is an informal network of information among employees.

Grapevine can be defined as rumors, even though they are rumors it is also useful to management. This is because through the grapevine, management is capable to deliver information and receive feedback faster without involving too much high cost in achieving it. Informal communication is designed to express the individual desires and interests. People are more relaxed and comfortable when they are in an informal gathering where they sharing or barriers. Example, when you communicate with your lecturer after class, you are ore comfortable because it is more flexible and no formal communication required during that time.

Nonverbal communication is a type of communication that does not involve writing, either words or verbal. Nonverbal communication is the best technique to communicate emotions. Nonverbal communication involves many different channels that express meaning beyond what is being said. These include body movements, facial expressions, gestures and even vocal tone and pitch. Much of the nonverbal information we get from people comes from the eyes (Bloomberg Business Library – Survive Office Politics. 006, pop-45. App). Nonverbal communication represents you to other people.

Nonverbal communication plays an important role in the workplace, especially when you are dealing with the public. Your body gestures, the way you talk and eyes contact can tell a lot about yourself to the other person whether or not you are care, if you are being honest, and how well you are listening. The public can gain trust, clarity and rapport when the nonverbal signal match up with the words you are saying. Otherwise, when they do not understand the message or the message not received well this can create tension, struts and confusion.

Eye contact, by looking a person in the eyes when making conversation is often considered the ultimate form of respect. You also can tell them by looking in the eyes that what they are saying is important and understood. Tone of voice also one of the important element in nonverbal communication skills. Tone of voice provides powerful clues into your true feelings throughout pitch, inflection and volume. For example, tone of voice is a quick sign of sarcasm, confidence, frustration or agreement. Nonverbal communication is not only crucial in workplace but also in our daily routine life especially for distance learner.

Whether interviewing for a Job, working with a client, or interacting with your colleague, by being able to understand and use nonverbal signals is a powerful tools in enhance human interactions and working skills. Communication skills whether it’s formal, informal or nonverbal, it is vital for distance learner. This is because it is helping you to understand better about the studies. Effective communication starts with you. It may require some time and effort to get it right, but you will see the benefits in outstanding performance and purport.

Conclusion It is proven from the research studied shown that study skills is vital for distance learners. As a distance learner, it is essentially important to plan your study and monitor your progress to make sure that you were on the right track with your studies. There are many information in the student services and website to help you with your learning. This page provides information that distance learning students, in general may find it useful for their studies. It helps them to understand and cope with their studies.

Students need to make a number of adjustments when starting university. Critically discuss some of these adjustments in terms of skills brought with them, and new skills that must be developed. Draw on relevant SSK12 material in your essay. In this essay it will be argued that even though students may bring with them such skills as competence in writing secondary school essays and reports, good comprehension and grammar and motivation to succeed with them to university, there are other skills they will need to develop as well as refine those they already possess.

The main skills which any new student will need to develop in order to succeed at university are critical thinking, which also includes critical reading, reflective thinking, learning independently and adjusting to the concept of the university culture which has its own languages and behaviours. New students are likely to experience a cultural clash as university possesses its own culture, and sub-cultures. Adjustments will have to be made with students needing to develop bicultural habits. As Kolb asserts, students entering higher education will have to engage in ‘learning how to learn’ (Kolb 1981).

The lead-up to the first study period, as well as the first study period itself, of a student’s beginning in university can be a massive culture shock. Some students may develop the feeling of uncertainty as to whether they have made the right choice about pursuing higher education and whether they are even likely to succeed. This can be observed by reading some of the student comments on the SSK12 Facebook page during the first weeks of the first study period. In other cases we may see students that take on a particular discipline and after a period of time find that they no longer have a desire to pursue that discipline.

There may be few opportunities for students in these positions to change disciplines. This is primarily due to the fact each discipline has its own sub-culture within the greater university culture. As Kolb has discussed, there are many faculties within the university, each have their own conventions that are unique to themselves such as language, values, ideas and norms (Kolb 1981). This impending transition may be too much for a student who has already had to become acculturated and has potentially experienced a culture shock.

The average individual can be affected by several cultures, for example and not necessarily restricted to, culture of family, culture of the workplace and culture of religion. The culture of university is but one of the cultures that can make a big impact on the individual. Students are faced with a new workload that may come with a pace of instruction that is probably faster and more intense than what they may be used to. There is a potential to feel overwhelmed at first and ways to overcome this may be to develop habits of early preparation, prioritising and time management.

There is an expectation that students need to be self-motivated and independent. There will be some guidance available but the general expectation is that the individual should know their own deadlines and the amount of study that is required. This may take some adjustment for individuals as they may be reeling from the cultural demands that university has already begun to place upon them. If they are studying more than one subject in their first study period they will have already potentially experienced the distinction in sub-cultures.

For example, Ballard and Clanchy have noted that each sub-culture will have its own language and values and the new student will have to navigate themselves through an unsteady transition between cultures (Ballard and Clanchy 1988). Individuals also need to develop critical thinking as it is a cornerstone of university studies. Warren contends that critical thinking is necessary to university studies as an individual cannot “process information, form reasoned opinions, evaluate beliefs, construct positions, or articulate a thesis without the use of critical thinking” (Warren 1995, 4).

I can support this through my own experience as critical thinking has been an important component of my university studies to date. One may see, however, that some individuals may have difficulties bringing themselves around to this mode of thinking as critical thinking involves developing an impersonal approach and attempting to put aside any biases that the individual may possess about particular subjects. Critical thinking may also involve critical reading and this may also be a foreign concept to the new student.

One needs to get into the habit of identifying theses in readings rather than just ‘reading’ – ‘sorting the wheat from the chaff’, as it were. Once the thesis has been identified the argument then needs to be analysed and criticised. Any evidence within the reading needs to be assessed. Any conclusions reached need to be examined as well as whether they are supported by evidence. Any other alternatives also need to be considered. In short, the individual will need to read more widely than what they may be used to and in a more analytical fashion. Reflective thinking is another skill that students must develop as it is a valuable tool.

Reflection is integral to learning and assists in critical thinking as it starts with being self-critical in order to learn and improve. As Marshall and Rowland assert, ‘thinking about your own thinking, or metacognition, will give you insights into how you go about your learning, and is important if you want to change or adapt study behaviours’ (Marshall and Rowland 2006 9). Warren further asserts that ‘critical thinking is necessary to learning. One cannot process information, form reasoned opinions, evaluate beliefs, construct positions, or articulate a thesis without the use of critical thinking.

As such, the critical self is integral to learning itself’ (Warren 1995). Reflective thinking makes the individual ask themselves what may be working, what is not working and what may require improvement. Some students may already bring a form of this skill with them to university. I can support this through my personal experience in this area. I served in the police force for thirty years and the procedure in the police force was to conduct ‘debriefs’ of incidents that we were involved in. The police debrief was always framed in the format of discussing what went well and what could be done better.

Every individual involved in that particular incident was expected to contribute. The expectation was that this process would lead to constant improvement in performance. It is a very similar process to reflection within university learning. One method of reflective thinking that students may learn a great deal from is through the keeping of a reflective journal, also known as a learning log. Pavlovich asserts that reflective journals are an invaluable aid in the development of self-awareness and inner leadership (Pavlovich 2007).

The use of a reflective journal aids in developing the individual as a critical thinker as the very nature of its use forces the user to be critical of themselves and lead to change and improvement. Students will also need to develop the skill of speaking and writing in academic English. This is part of the acculturation to the university culture of which language is a major part. Students will have to learn very quickly to become bicultural. In their written work they will have to learn to avoid contractions and develop the passive voice over the active voice.

Academic English is specific whereas informal English, that the student may be used, to is rather vague. Academic English is also often structured in a cautious manner whereas informal English is often structured in a more definite manner. Using my own personal experience to add support to this, I thought I had a reasonable grasp of formal English having come from the police force where, for example, great care goes into compilation of files for the prosecutors to proceed with, but I have also had to make adjustments and become bicultural through working on my own understanding and application of academic English.

The new student may bring skills with them to university but they will be confronted with the need to refine these skills and indeed develop new skills in order to survive at university. Skills that will need to be developed will include the need for critical and reflective thinking, critical reading and adjustment to independent learning. Students will also have to become acculturated to university which possesses its own culture and sub-cultures which are separate to what they may be used to.