How assignments are presented to college students may affect the students’ performance. One of the elements under students’ control is the schedule that they follow when preparing and presenting their work for evaluation. Procrastination affects students’ academic performance. Faculty may use findings from behavioral economics, such as loss aversion theory, to encourage positive student behaviors. Students, when seeking to complete their academic work and meet their academic responsibilities, must make choices that require evaluating tradeoffs (e.g., complete the assignment or join friends at a social gathering, submit an assignment response on time even though the submission does not reflect best work or complete the assignment but accept a grade sanction for late submission). Improving students’ ability to make choices that best serve their academic interests, particularly in regard to the organization of their time and effort, may lead to the students to more fully meeting academic requirements.
Keywords: academic, behavioral economics, loss aversion, procrastination
Critical reading requires the reader to read intentionally and skeptically, looking to understand not only what the author says but also asking questions such as,
College students often fear the research project. However, in truth, the research project is an opportunity to delve deeply into a domain of knowledge, learn new facts, and acquire an appreciation for perspectives that often come through no other venue, other than the research project.
Reading is required in both academic study and general citizenship. The more accurately one reads, comprehending the presented data and relationships among the arguments and retaining the details, the greater the benefit that may be accrued from the reading effort.
By the time a student enters college, he or she must have attained a degree of literacy that demonstrates preparation for the rigors of post secondary academic study. One of the markers of this preparation is the list of books that have been read. I have noticed that few undergraduate students are fully prepared for the reading, writing, and critical thinking requirements of their first few years of college work. To help rectify this problem, I offer my list of the books that all Americans should read before entering college. If you are already in college and have not read all of these books, waste no time in getting up to speed.
I have had a number of conversations recently with students that got me to thinking about my profession. Some of these conversations were face-to-face dialogues, others I must admit, were voyeuristic intrusions into students’ conversations before and after class.
I have spent five hours this week addressing a single issue of academic dishonesty. The student who presented plagiarized material in an academic essay may have misunderstood the expectation of academic honesty that is placed on scholars.
Americans use multiple resources when searching for specific answers. The traditional sources, libraries and librarians, are still common alternatives, even with the ubiquitous availability of internet access.
Kojo Nnamdi, a radio host at WAMU interviewed Ryan Watkins and Michael Corry, authors of E-learning Compantion. More than three million students take online courses, annually. Watkins and Corry offer salient advice for both students and faculty who participate in a computer-mediated classroom.
A number of students have commented on the amount of reading that is required in our graduate business program. I agree, there is quite a bit of reading, sometimes well over 1,000 pages of densely-packed text in a single course.
I suggest that you read Peter Kump’s book, Breakthrough Rapid Reading. I have been recommending this book to students for many years, and I receive more hugs of thank you at commencements for having made this recommendation than I receive for my teaching abilities. ;-(
Personal exposure and experience with using any technology is a definite asset; however, it is not by any means a prerequisite in the business environment. There are many technologies that we use on a daily basis without understanding how to create the technology. Good examples are our automobiles, televisions, and digital video recorders.
I agree with the process, write as we speak. I frequently recommend to writers that they aurally record their thoughts and then write their comments down, as they play back the recording. I have a microtape transcription machine (it was the only gift that I wanted for my 35th birthday), and I used it for many years, documenting my spoken lecture. Now, I use a digital voice recorder; however, the outcome is the same: I speak first, and then I write. I found that this process of speaking, then writing has helped my podcasting. I am now speaking, writing, speaking. 😉
In general, I judge that you, students, are able to demonstrate a clear command of the course content. Your class discussions are well focused, and your individual formal papers are prepared in a manner that coveys your comprehension the details of each week’s material.
However, in reading many assignments, I have noticed a pattern in your writing.
At the recent Chaos Communications Congress, Steven J. Murdoch, a researcher in the security group at the University of Cambridge, discussed how clock skew can be used to facilitate a digital attack against anonymity networks. Clock skew, the tendency for a computer’s clock to become less precise when heated, can reduce the efficacy of anonymizers, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Tor network.
Have you recently been receiving messages from a number of new friends? If so, you are either a good person or a one of the millions of spam victims. Experts estimate that 90% of e-mail traffic is spam, and those spammers claiming to be your friend may not really have your best interests at heart.
