Week 7 - Academic writing & APA referencing

The other participant in Study Skills is falling behind. As a result, I've decided to split the class in two. This blog is now purely for your benefit Erna. :o)

The learning module for the week is

• Apply APA Referencing

Task 6 (which was originally supposed to be due at the end of this week) was designed as a collaborative exercise, and this is no longer possible. As a result, I'm going to set you a new task 6.

Your task is to

• Watch the Story of Stuff and take notes (if you haven't done this already).
• Pick out one of the main points which the author makes which you're not 100% convinced by, and research this point using the internet. Find at least three reputable sources of information which relates to this point.
  
• Either set up your own Google document (by logging into any Google service, then selecting Documents from the top left hand side of the screen) and Share it with me (by clicking on share once you're inside the document and adding in my email address as a collaborator). Or use the one which I've set up already.
  
• Then write a short essay (1 page or so). In this essay you should
  1) Summarise the main points which the author makes in the video
  2) Include discussion on whether the point which you investigated is supported or not by the research which you've done, and on the quality of the sources of your information
  3) Reference information according to good APA style.
  4) Follow principles of good essay structure (Intro, body, conclusion | Write, then rewrite to improve linkages & flow)

The due date for this essay is the 19th of September.
As a result the due date for Task 7 will need to be extended to the 18th of October.

Academic writing

You should by now have a whole new appreciation of the learning process, and some strategies which you can use to enhance your learning. Take the opportunity over the next couple of weeks to apply these wherever possible to your learning in other areas. You'll probably find that some of these strategies work for you, and others do not. It's all part of the journey.

This week, it's time to start learning about Academic writing.

Tasks for the week

• Complete the Academic writing learning module
• View this video which outlines my approach to essay writing

Week 5

This week the topics scheduled are

• Approaches to learning
• Introduction to principles of sustainability

Due to delays on the part of one of the participants of this course, Introduction to principles of sustainability will be delayed until further notice. The hand-in date for Task 6 will also be extended.

So, continue with the Approaches to learning module. This should be finished by the end of the week, and Task 5 is also due this week.

Week 4 - Approaches to learning & Introduction to principles of sustainability

This week we're starting on introducing the more traditional study skills.

Tasks for the week

• Start working through the learning module - approaches to learning. You will explore a number of techniques which will help you to become a more effective learner.
  
  
• The learning module Introduction to principles of sustainability has four parts to it. This week you should
  
• watch the video & take notes
  
• Copy the main points that stand out to you over to this Google document.

Week 3

By this stage you should be getting fairly familiar with how the technologies supporting the course work, and have submitted Task 1 & Task 2. If there's anything that you're not feeling comfortable with yet, or do not feel that you understand, please get in touch with David ASAP to clarify things.

This week the following tasks are scheduled if you have not yet completed them.

1. Visit the computer health and safety website that has been recommended to you, and that you are familiar with what it has to say about the use of a computer
   
   
2. Complete the learning module - connect to and surf the internet - unless you feel that you have fairly advanced internet literacy
   
   
3. Submit Task 3 by attaching it to an email - sorry, I realised that some of the text in the last assignment had not been changed & said to submit it to the assignment drop box. All assessment tasks that can be submitted by attachment to an email should be.
   
   
4. Elluminate session to ensure that you are able to access elluminate and use both the chat and the voice functions. Please let me know when you are available this week for this session, and I'll set one up to suit your needs. This is Task 4.
   

Introduction to Study Skills

Here is an outline of the Study Skills course for the second semester.

Alan - You have completed some of the learning modules and assessment already. As discussed there is no need to redo these.

Erna - Following is a link to the Otago Polytechnic online course hub

http://www.pageflakes.com/opmassagetherapyyr1

Please make sure that you save this website to your favorite/bookmarks. This will become more relevant later in the course, but you will need to know how to access pageflakes to get information on your assessments for now.

Alan & Erna

Have a look at the Pageflakes course hub. I'd like you to notice the box in the right corner of the screen. There's a link there called "Assessment". If you click on that link it will take you to box.net, where our assessments are now stored. There's a folder for Study Skills. If you click on that folder, you'll be able to access all of the assessment tasks for Study Skills.

To download any of the files to your computer right-click on them and select download.

To open any of them left-click on them.

You might notice a folder called marking schedules. This folder contains information on what you will be marked against. I strongly recommend that you mark yourself against these marking schedules before handing in your assessments. There are no marking schedules for the written answer tasks because giving you our marking schedule would effectively give away the answers. :-)

Something else I will strongly recommend at this point is downloading the first couple of assessments and getting started. I will be in touch early next week.

Please let me know if you have any queries or difficulties. My contact details follow

David McQuillan
ph - 479-3618
email - david at tekotago.ac.nz

Welcome to Study Skills

This is the course blog for the Otago Polytechnic Study Skills course.