WELCOME TO ON COURSE!  Here you'll find a gold mine of resources to support your efforts for improving student academic success and retention. New student success strategies are added frequently, so bookmark this page (Control-D) and come back often. Search our entire web site with the Google search engine at the bottom of this page.

1. STUDENT SUCCESS STRATEGIES: Explore a huge collection of innovative learner-centered strategies for empowering your students to become active, responsible learners. You'll find something here you can download (free!) and implement today! New strategy added 12/03/08

2. ON COURSE I WORKSHOPS: This workshop is our flagship professional development event for college and university educators. In these four-day retreats, you'll learn dozens of learner-centered strategies for empowering students to become active, responsible learners. Like no other workshop you've ever attended, these events are ideal for all college faculty, student success instructors, counselors, Trio personnel, and administrators looking for a proven approach to dramatically improving student success and retention. See what past participants had to say...read the Testimonials. Have specific questions? Try our FAQ.  An On-Line Graduate Course (3 credits) is available as a follow-up to this workshop!  

3. ON COURSE II WORKSHOPS: (Prerequisite: On Course I Workshop) In this advanced workshop, you'll not only add dozens of new learner-centered strategies to your toolbox, you'll also learn the essential skills for effectively designing and facilitating learner-centered experiences of any length...from an hour to a semester or longer.  See what past participants had to say...read the Testimonials.  An On-Line Graduate Course (3 credits) is available as a follow-up to this workshop!  

4. ON COURSE NEWSLETTER: Professional Development on your desk top! Receive FREE bi-weekly e-mails (monthly in the summer) with innovative learner-centered strategies for empowering students to achieve greater success. TO SUBSCRIBE YOURSELF, click here and send the resulting e-mail.  You don't need to type anything. Our computer will automatically subscribe your return address. TO SUBSCRIBE A GROUP (e.g., group of colleagues, your department or division), click here and send a list of the individual email addresses with a request to subscribe them all to the On Course Newsletter. You’re in complete control of your subscription, and you can cancel at any time using the unsubscribe link included with each issue. Rest assured, we won't sell, rent, trade, loan, bend, spindle or mutilate your e-mail address. Subscribe today and join more than 40,000 educator-subscribers...and growing!

5. ON COURSE PRINCIPLES: Learn the eight On Course Success Principles for promoting greater student achievement.  These timeless principles empower students to become active, responsible partners in their own education. Also, read about the Learner-Centered Instructional Principles that are taught, modeled, and experienced in all On Course professional development workshops.

6. ON-CAMPUS FACULTY DEVELOPMENT: Bring a dynamic professional development workshop to your campus. The workshop will assist your educators in providing learner-centered education, and they will leave with dozens of effective new strategies they can implement immediately. These strategies empower students to become active, responsible learners, improving student academic success and retention. 

7. ON COURSE (THE BOOK): On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life (Houghton Mifflin) is a ground-breaking text that presents students with a hands-on approach to learning essential life and study skills. Now in its 5th edition, On Course is used as a text in student success courses, first-year experience programs, and inward-looking courses that promote student growth and self-awareness. Because of the unique journaling component, this text is also used in developmental and freshman composition courses and Writing Across the Curriculum initiatives. See the next menu item for impressive data about On Course programs.  For syllabi of courses using the On Course text, click HERE.

8. ON COURSE DATA: Read compelling data from a number of colleges and universities using the On Course text book and instructional strategies to achieve greater student academic success and retention.

9. ON COURSE AMBASSADORS: Here's the roster of more than 600 educators taking a leadership role at their institutions by introducing their colleagues, as well as students, to On Course strategies. The OCAmbassadors' ultimate goal is to transform their colleges and universities into learner-centered institutions that empower students to become active, responsible learners, thus achieving a significant increase in academic success and retention. Is there an On Course Ambassador on your campus? Check the roster and see.

10. ON COURSE SELF-ASSESSMENT: Have your students take the free On Course Self-Assessment on line.  You'll also find other nifty On Course resources at this link, including self-management forms, practice quizzes, a learning style inventory, affirmation certificates, and additional articles on being successful in college. Many of the resources are accessed through the "Navigate by Chapter" section in the upper left hand corner of your screen. (You'll be leaving this site, so use your back button to return here.)

11. SKIP DOWNING: Meet the creator of On Course Workshops and the author of On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life (Houghton Mifflin).

12. STUDENT ESSAY CONTEST: Motivate your students by having them write about the success they have created with On Course strategies. Winning essays will be published in the next edition of the text, On Course: Strategies for Success in College and in Life. 

QUESTIONS or COMMENTS?  Send them by e-mail.  Or call toll free: 888-597-6451  Or write: On Course Workshop, 1933 Blue Mount Rd, Monkton, MD 21111