Summer Sessions

Week 2: Effective Self Management

Changing your mindset can make a huge difference to your productivity.

This self-paced session will cover:

• How to develop a growth mindset and it's benefits
• How to recognise and combat the procrastination cycle

Here are some tips on how to develop a positive work ethic:

• Develop a growth mindset. Having a growth mindset means believing that academic success can be earned and achieved through hard-work and dedication rather due to innate ability. A growth mindset will make you more resilient to setbacks, and enable you to learn from academic feedback in a positive way.

• Planning and managing your time effectively is another way to boost your productivity. By creating a realistic study timetable, that has plenty of breaks and includes enough time for your other commitments, you will be more likely to manage your time well.

• Procrastination is something that affects all of us. Getting stuck in a procrastination cycle is one of the most common barriers to studying. If you feel this happening to you- start small. Study for just 20mins and then tell yourself you can have a break. Over time, 20mins will become easier and you will be able to manage longer study sessions. 
   

Week 3: Teamwork and Communication

In this self-directed session we'll cover:

• Assessing your own role in a group
• How to contribute effectively to a team task
• Working with others to increase productivity

Here are some tips on how to communicate effectively:

• Being able to work with others is an important part of academic study. You may be assessed on group tasks such as group presentations and written or practical assignments. Have a think about the previous roles you have taken in a team before - are you a good team player?
• People sometimes confuse leadership with teamwork. Being a good team member does not always mean leading the group. In an effective team, everyone feels ownership of the main task or goal. The best way to achieve this by ensuring that everyone is adding a valuable contribution to the task.  
• Learning some effective communication techniques such as giving praise, active listening asking for feedback, being flexible, noting down actions and driving things forward can make a huge difference to your team. 

Week 4: Critical Thinking

What is critical thinking and how does it help?

In this self-directed session we'll cover:

• Understand what critical thinking means
• Learn how to effectively use this skill
• Develop strategies to improve critical thinking

Here are some tips on how to think critically:

• Critical thinking means making judgements on something, based on evidence and reasoning. This is an important aspect of academic study, as you will often be asked to develop and explain an opinion on something. Forming an opinion after having considered different viewpoints, theories and looking at the evidence behind them, is the best way to get top marks. 
• Asking questions about your course literature is the best way to begin to develop critical thinking. Seemingly simple questions like why? What if? So what? What’s next? can help you to develop higher order thinking, and to construct strong arguments in your work.

Week 5: Critical Reading Skills

Want to know the best ways to choose and use reliable sources or learn how to make effective notes?

This self-paced session will cover:

Sources of information

• How to identify appropriate information sources
• How to find reliable sources using the Library and other search tools

Note-taking

• How to make notes for different purposes
• How to use different strategies and techniques to maximise note-taking

Here are some tips on how to read critically:

• Critical reading for study means engaging with sources in a meaningful way. There are academic sources such as journals, textbooks and websites published by official bodies, which are appropriate to use in your academic work. Sources that are not appropriate are novels, popular books and unofficial websites such as Wikipedia, blogs, and websites published by an individual.
•  You should only use information from academic sources to form your arguments. You have to clearly cite and reference all of your sources of information, as part of your academic work, and so your tutor will be able to see if you have used something inappropriate like Wikipedia. 
• Effective note taking whilst reading is a great way to achieve academic success. Rather than copying sentences word for word from books, try to re-phrase and summarise what you have read in your own words. This will deepen your understanding and will make you more likely to remember the information.