Sierra’s Tips to Students (Module 7: FINAL Blog Post)

Hi guys!

This will be my final blog post to you guys. You should be making your final decisions on school soon and hopefully taking these tips with you to college in the fall! We’ve learned a lot about online technology and learning strategies. There are so many resources online right at our finger tips and its so important to take advantage of them. We talked about web based study resources like Quizlet, khan academy, and others. These are essential to my success in school and can be very beneficial to you too. Not only are these resources available to help you study but there are also tools that will help you edit your paper, present on topics, and almost any other academic need you can think of. There’s also so many tools online to help you organize your time. Google has many programs that you can use to plan out our day, week, or semester. Their calendar alone is something that you can link to your phone and have with you at all times.

Personally I’ve learned a lot from this online strategies course I’m taking at school It has provided me with tips and tactics that have helped me be successful when it comes to school. It forced me to look at myself as a learner and see what works and what doesn’t; what’s my strength and what are my weaknesses. I’ve learned how much I need to write things down. I knew it was something that helped me but once I really started using a planner and Google calendar my life seemed to just fall in to place. I wasn’t forgetting meetings or assignments as much and I overall felt less stressed. I didn’t feel like I was juggling a bunch of deadlines in my mind anymore. It’s important to learn these things about yourself because not everyone learns the same way. You have to find what strategies work best for you and capitalize on them.

This goes right into what my most meaningful experience would be. It was definitely the module where our assignments focused on time management. Something as a simple as tracking how you spend your time has been extremely beneficial to me. I saw how much time I spent doing nothing. I was stressing myself out trying to meet deadlines when I truly wasn’t spending my time efficiently. Its different to be told you’re doing such and such too much but to actually see it written out was eye opening. We also made a Google calendar that week which I still use. The overall module was by far the most valuable experience.

I will apply a lot of what I learned in this class to the rest of my academic career and I hope you guys do too! I will obviously use a lot of the time management skills. I will also use the resources that people recommended for tools to help you study. Some of them I had heard of before but a lot of them I hadn’t. Overall I will use online tools more. There are so many strategies to help you succeed online that I had no idea about.

I hope this blog has been helpful to you all! Good luck in your freshman year and try to remember the tips I gave you!

Sierra’s Tips for Students (Module 6)

Hey guys!

Today I’m going to talk to you all about researching for sources. It’s most important for you all to remember that researching takes time. In order to write a good research paper in college you must set aside the time to do the proper research and get the right sources. Your sources must be reliable, quality, and be able to be utilized. In order to find out if your source is reliable you should check the credentials of the author, the article, and whether it has been reviewed. The quality of a source is determined by the whether its up to date, well written, and consistent. The utility of the source can be seen by how on topic it is and whether it reaches its targeted audience. These three factors are very important to consider when determining whether to use a source.

I know you may be thinking that Wikipedia is a big no no in college. This is only somewhat true. Wikipedia is user based information so it is typically good for general information on a subject. The best way to use Wikipedia would be to use it as groundwork and then check the sources cited at the bottom of the article.

Remember that searching and researching is different. Searching is literally typing something into a box and coming up with information. Researching is more long and drawn out. These are very important distinctions. Also remember to cite your sources, keep in mind the difference between APA and MLA. Your teacher will specify what they are looking for and make sure to pay attention to their request as they are different forms of citing.

I know this was a lot in this blog but I hope it will help some! You will do at least one research paper in your time at college and they are usually worth a lot of points. Make sure to prepare for the time commitment and to not trip on little things in the assignment.

Talk to you guys next week!

Sierra’s Tips for Students (Module 5)

Hey guys!

This week I’m going to talk to you about note taking in college. While we have taken many strides in technology there is still the age old, pen to paper note taking. This is an important skill to master as it is the key to surviving college. One of the most important rules to remember when it comes to note taking is to listen. Your notes will not be good if you can’t listen to the lecture.

A key component to note taking is preparation. In the business school a lot of your professors will provide you with the powerpoint slides before class; print them out. It saves your hand from a lot of writing and your notes are already pre-organized. If you forget your slides or can’t print them out, try to organize your notes the way the slides are organized. This will help you keep your thoughts and notes together in a structured manner.

When it comes to online lectures and podcasts its important to really stay focused and pay attention. You aren’t in the room with a live lecturer so it may be easy to zone out but like I said before listening is key. There may be ques in the podcast for important information or the speaker. The speaker may also lay out their main topics at  the beginning so its important to write them down because when they mention them later you already know this is important information to write down.

I hope that prepares you some for note taking in college! Talk to you guys next week!

Educational Video (Module 5)

This video is on the dividend discount model and how to utilize it. This video breaks down the model and then uses it in a practice problem. The point of this model is find the price of a stock by knowing the price of a dividend. It breaks down how to solve a constant growth dividend discount model.

This video supplemented my learning while studying for my past finance midterm. Looking back at my notes wasn’t enough for this process, I needed to see it done out. I also needed to see the reasoing behind certain steps because it prepared me for when I had to do the problems on my own. It also broke down a complicated process into something simple and easy for me to understand. This video really helped me master the chapter on stock valuation.

Sierra’s Tips for Students (Module 4)

Hey guys!

Today I want to talk to all about reading in college. You probably assume you’ll have to do some reading in school, maybe pick up a book or two for each class from the library but that’s not really how it works anymore. The movies are outdated. Alot of your reading now will be online; whether its textbooks, articles, or any other reading material, you’ll be asked to find most of it online. This is tough for some people because being on your computer may be distracting or you may not be able to absorb as much information. I have a couple tips for you! It’s best if you to be in the right mindset before reading online, block social media websites, close other tabs and remove any other distractions. This will allow you to focus solely on your reading. While you’re reading it may be best to take notes, use the highlighting tool, type notes in the margin, and use any other tools that usually come with online articles and textbooks. This will make it easier when you go back and are looking for important information. Reading online vs. reading traditionally are very different so make sure not to underestimate this!

Another important aspect of doing work online is taking advantage of all the amazing online study websites.Use tools like Quizlet, StudyBlue Chegg, Khan Academy, etc. etc. These study tools allow you to keep your mind somewhat active even though you’re just staring at a screen. It’s important to practice creative studying because it’s good for your mind and sanity. You don’t want to drive yourself crazy over 200+ flashcards if there’s better ways to memorize the information. Other than the study tools I mentioned, I would also check out Mind Maps, Animations, Easl.ly, etc etc.

These are all tools to help get ahead of the curve and prepare you for the studying you’ll have to do. Utilize the internet and things will definitely be lot easier.

I’ll talk to you guys next week!

Sierra’s Tips for Students (Module 3)

Hi everyone!

Today I’m going to discuss with you some “netiquette.” You’re probably wondering, what is netiquette? Netiquette is the set of standards related to how people interact and communicate on the internet. As a future college student a lot of your interactions will be done through the internet, particularly through emails. It is important to know how to send a professional email to your professors, advisors, and even your fellow students. There are three very important tips to use when it comes to sending emails; use your school email, treat it like a letter, be straight forward/don’t use sarcasm. These three simple tips will take you very far when it comes to sending emails in college and getting the response you’re looking for. If people read your emails and it isn’t written properly they are less likely to respond or not take you seriously.

I just discussed how you’ll be corresponding via email but you may be working on a group project online. You may not have time to meet, or may be in an online class so you have to work on your group project via the internet. When it comes to projects like these I highly recommend Google Docs, Google Slides, and other Google programs. These allow you to edit documents in real time with your group members. You can also chat while doing these projects so it’s almost like working together in person. My biggest tip on online group projects is to treat it like you’re in person; log in on time, put in effort, and pull your share of the assignment.

That’s all for today! Follow up for my post next week!