WHY ADOPT ON COURSE?
SEE WHAT MAKES ON COURSE SO EFFECTIVE
Quite simply, adopting On Course improves student academic success and retention. Each year, more than 100,000 students benefit from On Course. Read Compelling Data from some of the 500+ colleges and universities that use On Course to improve the academic outcomes and retention of their students by as much as 27%.
Why is On Course such a powerful intervention for improving student success? Before students can succeed in college, they need to become active and responsible partners in their own education. Also, many students need to master the challenges and conflicting priorities of their complicated lives, including jobs, finances, relationships, children, and personal problems. In addition to presenting essential study skills, On Course offers students the opportunity to learn essential behaviors, beliefs, and skills for creating success in college and in life. And it does so in a way that is unlike any other student success book. |
On Course empowers students to take control of their lives by helping them apply eight essential success principles to their important decisions. First they read about these time-tested principles; then they apply them to their own academic and personal lives through the writing of guided journals. These success principles include:
Imagine working with students who have adopted these eight principles…what a difference! |
In addition to providing short, engaging articles about the eight success principles above, On Course offers students…
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…a comprehensive self-assessment of non-cognitive skills. This self-assessment enables students to determine their personal strengths and weaknesses at the beginning of the course; taken again at the end of the course, the self-assessment shows students how they have changed for the better. |
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…the CORE Learning System. Applying the latest discoveries from brain and learning research, the CORE Learning System provides students with the four behaviors that are essential for learning any information or skill. |
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…critical thinking skills. Approaches for developing logical and analytical thinking prepare students to apply these skills in their academic, personal and professional lives. |
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…case studies in critical thinking. Stories of real-life situations generate spirited discussions and offer students a chance to apply critical thinking skills to their exploration of key success principles such as self-responsibility, self-motivation, and self-management. |
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…cultural awareness. Woven throughout the text is information to help students successfully negotiate their experiences with the unique and challenging culture of higher education as well as respecting and working effectively with the people from diverse world cultures they will encounter in college and in life. |
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…effective study strategies. Students learn more than 150 proven techniques for improving their academic success in college, including sections on Reading, Taking Notes, Organizing Study Materials, Rehearsing and Memorizing Study Materials, Taking Tests, and Writing. In the Study Skills Plus edition of On Course, students are offered additional study skills, more examples of employing study skills, and activities to practice the skills. |
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…guided journal writing. Students apply what they are learning to their lives by reflecting on and applying success skills to their personal situation. With thirty-two journal entries in the text, students have an opportunity for extensive practice in writing. |
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…learning preference inventory. A learning preference self-assessment gives students a valuable understanding of how they prefer to learn; importantly they discover specific strategies for succeeding in a course when the instructor doesn’t teach the way they prefer to learn. |
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…stress control and money management. Stress and financial problems are significant contributors to high attrition among first-year students. Learning to manage stress and money problems greatly enhances students’ ability to persevere in higher education. |
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…workplace applications. Students learn how the eight On Course Principles, called “soft skills” in the the work world, will help them excel in their careers. These are the same skills mentioned in the US Secretary of Labor’s SCANS report and the Conference Board of Canada’s report about the essential abilities that employers require of their employees. |
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…inspiring stories from fellow students. Short, inspiring essays by 29 students tell how they used specific On Course strategies to overcome obstacles to their academic success. Obstacles discussed in these essays are ones your students will recognize as real-world challenges to their own success in college: from dealing with difficult text books, overwhelming schedules, and academic anxieties to coping with personal self-doubts, binge drinking, and abusive partners. |
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…a comprehensive self-assessment of study skills. This self-assessment enables students to determine their grasp of learning skills at the beginning of the course; taken again at the end of the course, the self-assessment shows students how they have changed for the better. |
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…College Smart-Start Guide. Students learn what a survey of hundreds of college educators recommend they do in their first week to get off to a good start in higher education. |
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…Tech Tips. Students are introduced to dozens of free web sites and apps that are designed to help them succeed in college. |
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[On Course] is the absolute best approach for a first-year seminar/college success class that there is. The philosophy and textbook are exactly what students need. –Catherine Eloranto, Clinton Community College, NY
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