News & Events

Round Up: Student Success Skills

Welcome to our monthly link round up! Each month, we share a list of links to Library and other resources covering one topic or idea. For September, we're covering Student Success Skills.

College can be a crash course in "adulting." Between your class schedule, work shifts, care duties, and other life management, there can be a lot to tackle. Luckily, there are plenty of tools you can turn to for help.

Library Recommendations

• Learning Express - This online learning platform provides a comprehensive selection of academic and career-related resources including college success skills, career and workplace preparation, basic computer skills, and more. You can learn organizational strategies, time management, note-taking, effective classroom listening, and reading tips. 
• LinkedIn Learning - This online video training library that provides you with the opportunity to bridge the gap between the career you want and the skills you need. Learn online at your own pace, with their library of more than 16,000 creative, business, and technology courses and more than 200,000 videos on topics ranging from time management to reading skills to how to write an academic paper.
• Student Success Center - The UDC office dedicated to helping you succeed while you're a Firebird!

A Few Books

The Secrets of College Success

Heading off to college? Or perhaps already there? This book's just for you. Winner of the 2010 USA Book News Award for best book in the college category, The Secrets of College Success combines easy-to-follow tips that really work with insider information that few professors are willing to reveal. The over 800 tips in this book will show you how to: Pick courses and choose a major Manage your time and develop college-level study skills Get on top of the core requirements Get good grades and avoid stress Interact effectively with the professor Match college and career, and more. New to this second edition are tips for: Online courses and MOOCs Community Colleges, Engineering Schools, and Arts and Design Colleges E-readers, tablets, and laptops Taking out Student Loans and Paying them Off, and more. Ideal for college students at any stage, and college-bound high school students, The Secrets of College Success makes a wonderful back-to-college or high-school-graduation gift - or a smart investment in your own future.

Developing College Skills in Students with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome 

Going to college can be a daunting prospect for any young person, but for teenagers on the autism spectrum this is especially true. This book describes the unique needs that ASD students entering further or higher education are likely to have. The author identifies the key skill-sets they will need to develop in order to be successful in college and in life, and shows how they can be helped to develop these. She outlines the skills required for success in further and higher education in relation to the strengths and weaknesses of individuals with ASDs, and explains how those weaknesses can be ameliorated to enable success at college. Describing the unique accommodations and support that students with ASD will need, and the skills for which they will need particular help, she provides effective intervention strategies that can be implemented throughout the period leading up to college entrance.  

 

The Mindful College Student 

This book offers powerful skills to increase academic success and boost mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health--now and for a lifetime. College is a time of transition. It's a time for learning and preparing to make your own way in the world. But if you're like many teens and young adults, the thought of leaving home and being on your own in a new place can also be intimidating--even overwhelming. That's why you need a solid foundation to help you manage stress, stay focused, and maintain healthy habits--in body, mind, and spirit. Grounded in evidence-based mindfulness, The Mindful College Student will help you cultivate the cognitive and emotional skills you need to increase well-being and reach your highest aspirations. You'll also learn positive coping strategies for dealing with stress, sadness, and anxiety--including diet, fitness, and sleep habits. 

 

A Guide to College Success for Post-Traditional Students 

The majority of the students earning the BAAS degree are post-traditional students. They are often defined with some or all of these characteristics: over age 25 years old when starting or returning to college, may not have a traditional high school diploma, enroll part-time, work full-time, are financially independent, have dependents other than a spouse and may be a single parent. These students juggle multiple roles and responsibilities in the family, workplace, and community. Post-traditional students bring rich work/life experiences, may be experiencing personal and/or professional transitions, have clear career goals, and often finance their education. They seek flexible programs including online education, PLA, and accelerated course formats. Thus, post-traditional students want active, collaborative, and interactive learning relevant to career and other roles and goals.

 

 

20 Secrets to Success for NCAA Student-Athletes 

The premier NCAA student-athlete handbook, now in a second, updated edition designed for today's competitive market and with a new chapter on name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. Few student-athletes dreaming of athletic stardom ever make it to the pros. Yet, the discipline and skills they've developed while balancing a sport and academics make them ideally suited for satisfying careers elsewhere. The book's authors draw on personal experience, interviews, expert opinion, and industry data to provide a game plan for student-athletes to help them transition from high school to college, navigate evolving rules about NIL rights, and find success in life after college. Modeled after Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, this expanded and updated guide provides a much-needed strategy for student-athletes as they prepare for postcollege careers, while serving as a valuable resource for their parents, coaches, and sports administrators across the country.

 

You've Got This

You can take control of your well-being and mental health. Student life can be overwhelming, with so many issues to deal with including living away from home, workload, deadlines and exams, family pressures and challenging relationships. It is not surprising that you might struggle to cope sometimes. But there are simple and effective ways that you can take ownership of your mental health, meaning you stay stress free, enjoy your university experience and achieve academic success. This book guides you through your student journey from preparing to go to college or university, managing the academic pressures, finding a job, and everything in-between. Relevant scenarios are presented, linked to a series of topics that explore the challenges you might experience, along with self-enquiry reflections which help you to apply the theory to your own experience and key take-aways. The approaches and strategies outlined will help you improve your academic performance, enhance your social skills, learn to manage your emotions, reduce your anxieties, and help you to think in more empowering ways.  

Tools & Software

• Grammarly - A writing tool that helps improve your papers. Sign in with your UDC email to get full access!
• Trello - Stay on top of your projects and an assignments with this well-known organization/to-do list tool
• Toggl - Figure how how much time you need to do something with this time-tracking tool.
• Purdue OWL - Stay on top of paper formatting and citation styles.
• Zotero - Keep track of all of your research in one place. Plus, this tool can help you build your works cited page!

The Community College's Center for Academic and Career Excellence has a phenomenal list of resources, organized by subject, to help you succeed.

A Little More Reading

• College Success (Open Textbook Library)
• College Success Concise (Open Textbook Library)
• University 101: Study, Strategize and Succeed (Open Textbook Library)
• How to Learn Like a Pro (Open Textbook Library)
• Reading and Writing Successfully in College (Open Textbook Library)
• Blueprint for Success in College and Career (Open Textbook Library)
• A Different Road to College: A Guide for Transitioning Non-Traditional Students (Open Textbook Library)
• How to be Successful in College: 9 Tips (Coursera)
• College Success Skills (College for Adults)

What are your favorite tools or tips? Drop them in the comments.