Week 2 - The learning process

Hi all,

I know a lot of you have found the first week a little difficult - getting your head around RSS feeds & blogging, but hang in there. It gets easier.

Here are a couple of things which should help to clarify things.

1. Certificate in Relaxation massage programme page - if you haven't already, add this to your bookmarks/favourites. You should be able to access most essential course materials through the links on this page.
2. Learning support is a page which I've created to help anyone who's not yet clear on where you should go to get support for academic or computer-related difficulties. This is accessible off the main programme page (above).

It's been nice to get to know you all a little bit, and it's inspired me to update the about page of my blog so that it's a bit more current. If you're interested here it is.


This week - the learning process

Hopefully you enjoyed getting started with basic massage. Next week we will get going with massage-related theory, but your online learning this week will concentrate on the learning process.

1. If you've still got work to do on the OP IT Induction course, put some time into this. I have no idea of the time commitment required here, so I'd appreciate hearing from some of you how you're finding it.
   
   
2. Work your way through the online learning module - the learning process to explore the learning process, and ways that you can be a more effective learner. If you have any questions please put your query through the course email group. If any of the links do not work, please get in touch with David as soon as you can.
   
   
3. We do not have any elluminate sessions this week, however please make it a priority to prepare yourself for getting started in elluminate next week by working through the learning module - Your first elluminate session. Once you've done this, please try to log into the massage common room (you can find it on the programme page - see above)

Week 1

Here’s a list of tasks that you’ll need to work through before the end of the week.

Task 1 – Setting up your browser

Set up your browser homepages. This video will show you how to set up your browser homepage to include

o Google reader

o Google docs

o Google calendar

As discussed in class there is no course requirement of using Google calendar, so you may choose to omit this tab. Also if there are other web pages that you often visit, you may want to consider making them a tab within your homepage.

Task 2 - Scheduling

Using either Google calendar, a diary, or another scheduling tool, record the key dates of your course of study. Remember to include block practical dates, due dates for assessments, and elluminate sessions. Continue to record and schedule key study-related dates throughout the course of your study.

Task 3 – Important Reference Information

Save the timetable as one of your favourites/bookmarks.

Save the programme overview as one of your favourites/bookmarks, and familiarise yourself with the contents of this page.

Task 4 – Subscribe to your classmates blogs

Here’s the list

http://sarahjlaing.blogspot.com/

http://rachie25.blogspot.com/

http://missymoocow31.blogspot.com/

http://chrismassage.blogspot.com/

http://will-grant.blogspot.com/

http://melitasenorita.blogspot.com/

http://andreawereta.blogspot.com/

http://bodyease.blogspot.com/

http://indulgence-rural-retreat.blogspot.com/

http://amycarlson123.blogspot.com/

http://wendles-f.blogspot.com/

http://tania-mcd.blogspot.com/

http://sophiemassage.blogspot.com/

http://jennifraser-healinghands.blogspot.com/

http://anitasawesome.blogspot.com/

http://jules-massage-blog.blogspot.com/

http://ecologiemassagetherapy.blogspot.com/

http://charmzhealinghands.blogspot.com/

http://clairstherapy.blogspot.com/

http://suzmassage.blogspot.com/

http://krisprocter-massagetherapy.blogspot.com/

If you're not on this list, please fire your blog address into the course email group.

Task 5 – Read & comment on your classmates blogs

If you can relate to something that your classmates have posted in their introductory blog posts, scroll down to the bottom of the post, and click on comment. Then make a comment. :-)

Task 6 – Study Skills Assessment Task 3 – part 1

Send your lecturer an email describing the feeds that have come into your rss feed reader related to the courses that you are enrolled in.

Also remember the BBQ that's on at Woodhaugh this Thursday at 2:30pm. Buses leave from Polytech at 2:15pm, or you can find your own way there.

Phew. That was a big post.

Studying for your exams

I'm hearing a fair bit of pre-exam anxiety out there, so I thought that I'd offer some suggestions to make your process of studying a bit smoother.

I found these basic guidelines from the University of New South Wales. Forget about the first section, but sections 2 & 3 (Preparation & Revising to remember) are quite good.

In abscence of previous exams, it might be a good idea to ask yourself when studying - "What questions are likely to be asked?". This is a useful technique which was not discussed in the guidelines above. Create a list of questions that you can ask yourself or others. This is particularly useful if you have a study group. Then you can ask each other the questions that you've made. In a group of 4/5, you can easily build up quite a few questions.

To guide you in creating these questions, I can tell you that the questions in the exams will mostly tend to either test your understanding of key ideas/principles/models, or test your ability to relate your understanding of these things to massage practice (often through the use of cases).

Over the next month I will make available to you a number of cases that you can use to apply the theory that you've learnt in Stress management & Intermediate massage.

In the hopes that it's useful to someone I'm going to outline my typical study process here...

1. Organise my notes so that I have all of the information which has been provided. (Most of your notes are already "filed" for you via the course blog. If you haven't already done this I suggest going through your emails to record discussions, and getting some kind of organisation for electronic files)
   
2. Create an overview of each subject which states all of the main topics in each subject
3. Write study notes which summarise the main ideas in each topic in sufficient detail so that I don't need to go back to the original notes. This process ensures that you understand the content.
   
4. Take note of the areas which the lecturer has focussed on more, and prioritise these in my study
5. If you don't understand anything, keep at it until you do. Seek other perspectives if your notes don't make it clear. Talk to your lecturer, your classmates, surf the net.
6. Memorise important pieces of information (e.g. if you think that I might ask you what are the 5 principles of palpation then memorise this).
7. Create diagrams to represent relationships.
   
8. Try applying the concepts to the types of examples that you are likely to see in the exam. This is a bit trickier for you because there aren't any previous exams, but I can say that the case studies that you've had so far are along the lines of what you should expect.
9. As you become more familiar with the material you should be able to reduce your study notes down to key concepts. This happens because learning involves making connections between related ideas. When the links are strong enough you can represent groups of knowledge with a single statement.
10. Before the exam allow yourself some mental space to prepare yourself for performance. For some people this involves not studying at all on the day of the exam. I usually liked to quickly skim over my revised study notes just before going into the exam.

This process is not for everyone. You will have learnt a bit this year about how you learn effectively. Use the knowing now.

Completing study skills

Here's a list of what you need to work your way through to complete Study Skills.

Task 6 - instructions.

Task 7 - You will need to work your way through the Setting Personal learning goals module to complete this assessment task, and if you have not had much experience of academic writing, the Academic writing learning module is highly recommended.

Task 8 - This task is supported by the learning module - Time management.

Task 9 & 10 - If you've completed the previous learning modules, you should be prepared to complete this one. It's good to allow some time between Task 7 & Task 10 (if that's possible) so that you can get feedback on your essay writing style.

Please let me know when you've completed Task 6.

Week 7 & 8 - Setting Personal Learning Goals

I notice that no work has occured in the Story of Stuff Google document. You may have set up another Google doc and forgotten to share it with me, but your Task 6, which was set last week is due at the end of this week. Please let me know ASAP if you have any queries.

The other task for this week and next week is to work your way through the learning module - Setting Personal learning goals, however you'll struggle to complete both of these tasks if you haven't yet started on Task 6. The setting personal learning goals module supports Task 7.

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