Posts Tagged ‘time management’
Stories in a snap
Posted October 7, 2016
on:There are moments in the day to take up a book. If you already enjoy reading for pleasure these moments come naturally – during ad breaks on TV, on the train or between classes. For others, spare time is eaten up by other things. Sometimes snatching 5 minutes here and there is not enough to really get the most out of reading. It takes time to get into a book whether you are an avid or a more deliberate reader. Although just 20 minutes a day is supposed to be helpful to relaxation and more. One way we try to make it easier to enter the world of a book is through shorter reads. Snappy stories that get you hooked in fast.
In the LRC we have Quick Reads and Graded Readers. These short reads are designed to fit into busy schedules or for people who don’t have time or feel like reading much. The Graded Readers also have CDs to make it even easier to keep reading and leap over that first 5 minute hurdle to become immersed in a book. There’ll be six new Quick Reads in the new year to widen the selection even further.
It’s easy to underestimate the power of a good read. Finding out something new, seeing a new perspective, escaping the daily grind. Books are meaningful.
Dummies by No Means…
Posted January 15, 2016
on:This week we’ve added two ebooks in the Dummies series to our collection. They are:
Sociology for Dummies by Nasar Meer and Jay Gabler
Psychology for Dummies by Adam Cash
Our students requested these two. The Dummies series are a fantastic way of getting to understand a subject which is completely new to you. The books are great as they all come with lots of call-out boxes and diagrams to break up the text and give you tips and reminders.
We’ve got a number of ebooks and books from the series. Other handy ones in the study skills area are:
Time Management for Dummies by Clare Evans
Writing Essays for Dummies by Mary Page and Carrie Winstanley
Speed Reading for Dummies by Richard Sutz and Peter Weverka
First of all, what do we mean by information overload? It is that feeling of falling down a dark hole when there is too much information to carry out a task. So even simple tasks can be made difficult when we are faced with too many options and no specific direction.
For example, you may need to find out about main theorists for a subject for your UCAS application. As Confucius is credited with saying ‘You can not open a book without learning something.’ There are entire libraries online and offline devoted to human knowledge. Where do you start?
If you have access to lots of information this gives you the chance to be selective and find a direction. The trouble is how can you be selective without being biased or limited? How can you read it all? We all need help with overcoming our biases, speed reading and managing time. The key is not learning willy-nilly (although this can be great too sometimes!) but to focus on what you need to learn for the task at hand. Finding the most appropriate, relevant nuggets of information is the ultimate challenge of academic study (and who knows, probably in life too!).
There is no one way to cope with information overload. We would like to hear about your advice to other students on that awful feeling of being overwhelmed with too many sources, too many theories, too many words. What do you do? What if you are dyslexic? What if you are starved for time?
If you post a tip to us by email, on Twitter or in the LRC and you may receive a World Science Day calendar thanks to UNESCO.
Study Skills Online
Posted October 10, 2014
on:At the beginning of this autumn term we are running two trials on Palgrave Macmillan study skills software to help our students study better. The first one is Cite Them Right Online – an online version of the Richard Pears and Graham Shields book which guides students and researchers on how to reference different materials using various referencing systems. Here we use Harvard and the book is great for describing how to reference everything from an ebook, to tutor/lecture notes to graffiti. The online version includes tips to help students work out how to reference, practice their skills and get tips on how to avoid plagiarism.
The second trial is for Skills4studycampus which helps students get back into studying, assess their skills and pick up areas where they need to put in effort. There are a number of modules covering everything from note taking to critical thinking, working in groups and time management. We’ve placed both on our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so students and staff can access it easily. It’s based on the best selling Stella Cottrell book The Study Skills Handbook
This week the Learning Resources team have been inducting Preaccess students on referencing and we’ve been promoting the handy app on Harvard referencing created by the University of Lincoln. It’s available as a pdf document and its free to download on Googleplay for android/tablets and the Appstore for iOS devices.