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©PSI Tutor:Mentor, 2009 email us at [email protected] www.psitutor.org Cairns, Australia

Everything

is going

to be OK ~

Undergraduate Study Support Handbook

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Contents

Page

Introduce Yourself to PSI Tutor:Mentor … 4

The (You) Student-Centered Learning Focus 5

How to be a 21st Century Student 5

Discover Your Learning Style Combo 5

Get Things Done (GTD) Now! 6

Calendar Your Semester 9

Take Note~ 9

Flashcard Moments… 10

Mindmap Your Way 11

Academic Tips & Tricks 12

Academic Search Engines 15

The Sociable Student 17

Cultivate Reflection 19

Be Constructive! 20

References 22

Acknowledgments

Thanks to; You the students whose feedback and questions helped to shape the focus of this

Handbook. Looking forward to your edit suggestions for the next edition ~:-) ; to Carnival

contributors whose links helped with resarch efforts; and much appreciation to Nicholas Browne

for reseach, writing and checking of links; all without whom this Handbook would have

remained an intention.

Note: Are You an EFL Student? You may find Google Translate useful.

http://translate.google.com/#

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Introduce Yourself to PSI Tutor:Mentor …

Inspiring Your academic achievement is the key objective of PSI Tutor:Mentor services. This

unique Undergraduate Study Support Handbook is one step toward achieving this goal.

The Handbook is intended to provide You with improved availability, quality and

comprehensiveness of study resources in Social, Health and Business disciplines.

It is intended for You to share in the resources provided here to become a part of an ongoing,

dynamic exchange of ideas. The Handbook is part of an umbrella of study resources that

includes:

• A blog, PSI Tutor:Mentor www.psitutor.org

• A Study Club (Membership requried), http://budurl.com/studyclub

and

• A free e-study supplement newsletter, Juice! http://budurl.com/juicesupplement

Hi~ My name is Charmayne (Char) Paul and I am the director ofPSI Tutor:Mentor, an on and offline academic coaching servicefor Social, Health & Business Students across the globe.

Come visit the site sometime at www.psitutor.org, andintroduce Yourself. We would love to hear from You. Chat aboutYour academic goals, start a conversation about a studychallenge or join the Study Club.

And don’t forget to subscribe to our free monthly e-studysupplement~ Juice!http://budurl.com/juicesupplement

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PSI Tutor:Mentor aims to help You as student to gain greater competence in Your undergraduate

field. Better planning, understanding and application of Your subject knowledge is a fantastic

way to succeed in academia.

To provide You with quality consistent study resources is only part of the PSI Tutor:Mentor

vision. The role of the Tutor:Mentor is one of study companion, sounding board, devil’s

advocate, academic coach and educator.

The ultimate goal here as You read these pages is to ensure You have an easy to use study

resource reference. The experiential learning experience empowers Your self-esteem and

confidence as a professional-in-training. All of the resources provided in this Handbook are

tailored to enable You to apply knowledge learnt in Your Social, Health and Business fields.

As such, this reference Handbook aims to complement, enhance, and deepen Your learning. If

You dip into just a few of the wealth of resources given in this Handbook You will have the

opportunity to learn more about Yourself as a professional-in-training.

The (You) Student-Centred Learning Focus

This Handbook for Your learning support operates within a learning and teaching plan that is

informed by student-centred principles. Placing the student at the hub of the professional

development wheel enables effectecive academic learning.

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Skill development support at college and university requires a multifaceted approach. One-to-one

assistance and specialised workshops and resources are the PSI Tutor:Mentor way to focus on

You, the student.

The student support strategies pointed to in this Handbook are to facilitate Your learner success.

Focusing on Your needs for the duration of Your studies will allow You to develop as an

independent learner.

Underpinning the goal of learning support is a developmental model of adult learning rather than

using a deficit model. A clear pathway to supplementary study support can provide You with a

sense of direction and reassurance. Draw on the diverse study support resources provided in this

Handbook to better integrate Your learning efforts.

Flexility of learning support in Your studies is essential to enable ongoing learning successes.

Knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will develop You as an evidence-based professional

committed to ongoing learning.

How to be a 21st Century Student

Discover Your Learning Style Combo

Recent months have seen the learning style approach receive a lot of crticism (Felder & Spurlin,

2005). At PSI Tutor:Mentor, the approach remains valid and useful to students. We are keping an

open mind, and reading and writing about the topic. Join our critiques over at the blog

(www.psitutor.org).

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Meanwhile, a lot of literature exists to support You as the student being aware of Your personal

comibnation of learning styles (Coffield, Moseley, Hall, & Ecclestone, 2009).

Knowledge of what type of learner You are enables You to learn more effectively. Apply Your

understanding of how You engage best with information delivered in class, to help You to adapt

to teaching styles that You clash with.

Discover Your Learning Styles: A graphic learning style inventory.

http://www.learning-styles-online.com/

Getting to Grips with Learning Styles: More details about each style.

http://www.ncver.edu.au/research/proj/nd3103b.pdf

Get Things Done (GTD) Now!

The academic-work-personal life of an undergraduate student can be highly stressful. The more

organised You are, the more time You will have to do the things that releive the build up of

stress. Try some of these links to help organise Your academic schedules.

Organisation is an art form that will enable You to make time which is productive and

meaningful.

Archive Tweets: Sort and file Your tweets; they have an expiration date You know ~:-)

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10_ways_to_archive_Your_tweets.php

Basecamp: A great option for sharing files with classmates or amongst a study group.

https://signup.37signals.com/basecamp/free/signup/account/new

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Firetask: A phone app to organise Your tasks and ideas.

http://www.firetask.com/

Google Docs: Organise and share Your documents, spreadsheets and folders.

http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=158074&hl=en

Murdoch University Time Management Handout: A brief organisational tip sheet for

undergrads.

http://www.tlc.murdoch.edu.au/slearn/resource/pdf/time_management.pdf

Omnifocus: Personal productivity management software. iPhone app option, tutorials provided.

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/

Omni Outliner: Organise Your ideas and assignments with an alternative application from the

Omni Group.

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/

Omni Plan: Another project management tool from the Omni Group. Set goals, monitor

milestones, break You project down into lists.

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniplan/

Rcampus: Set up Your own e-portfolio to manage Your academic career.

http://www.rcampus.com/index.cfm?nocache=1261896193007

Remember The Milk: Share tasks, set SMS reminders, create to-do lists and much much more.

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

Smart Sheet: Another great to do list program to help You get things done.

https://www.smartsheet.com/

Ta-Da Lists: Create checklists and to do items that are organised and academically focused.

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Ta-Da Lists: Quick check it off style to do lists.

http://tadalist.com/

Todoist: Another great option for organising Your study day.

http://todoist.com/

Twitter Desktop For a list of Twitter apps check out this article on Desktop software. You can

better organise Your contacts and study groups etc.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10_ways_to_archive_Your_tweets.php

Twitter Lists: Putting Your contacts into different lists can help You to make lists and to

organise Your groups.

http://blog.twitter.com/2009/10/theres-list-for-that.html

Zenbe: Integrate Your email, lists and shareflow Your data amongst classmates.As they say,

‘work better’.

http://www.zenbe.com/

Zoho Project: Project management and collaboration, so much to see there that I needed to

include a pic!

http://projects.zoho.com/home.na

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Calendar Your Semester

30 Boxes: A straightforward way to organise Your calendar schedules, assessments and

activities for Your study breaks.

http://30boxes.com/welcome.php

College Ruled: Set up Your personal class schedule, link it to Your Facebook account, and

create study group discussion boards.

http://collegeruled.com/

Datewheel: An online calculator for determining the amount of time between due dates.

http://datewheel.net/desktop/en/index.html

Google Calendar:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlecalendar/about.html

HipCal: Group as well as personal calendars, set up alerts, coordinate with to-do lists

Rainlendar:

http://www.rainlendar.net/cms/index.php

Take Note~

EverNote: A neat way to collect and organise Your notes and ideas.

http://www.evernote.com/

Google Notebook: Manage Your notes with this Google application.

http://www.google.com/notebook/#b=BDQGMIgoQueWkxKki

Murdoch University Handout on Taking Good Lecture Notes:

http://www.tlc.murdoch.edu.au/slearn/resource/good_notes.html#notes

MyStickies: An alternative to Boobkmarking is to use web-sticky notes.

http://www.mystickies.com/

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Notecentric: Another option for You to access Your notes online.

http://www.notecentric.com/

Notemesh: You can share notes with classmates and create pages similar to that of a wiki.

http://www.notemesh.com/?a=home

shortText: A very simple application for typing up notes online. You can also connect to Twitter

and del.icio.us.

http://www.shorttext.com/

Yahoo! Notepad: Similar to other online notebooks, with Yahoo You can connect to Your

calendar and share notes with classmates.

http://notepad.yahoo.com/

Flashcard Moments …

Cramberry: An iPhone and iPod flashcard app.

http://cramberry.net/

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Flashcard Exchange: As it says, a website for creating, swapping and printing flashcards.

http://www.flashcardexchange.com/

ProProfs: Embed, share, print, and review flashcards online.

http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/

Quizlet: An alternative online flashcard review application.

http://quizlet.com/

Study Stack: You can find and add flashcards across a variety of subjects.

http://www.studystack.com/

Mindmap Your Way

Buzan’s iMindMap: A cartoon like mindmapping tool with brainstorming strategies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzan%27s_iMindMap

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Compedium: A highly visual mindmapping application to record those brainstroming sessions.

http://compendium.open.ac.uk/institute/about.htm

Freemind: Excellent software to help You to organise Your thought-flow to create easy to read

mindmaps.

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Visual Understanding Environment: Another visual mindmapping application focused on

educational purposes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VUE_(Visual_Understanding_Environment)

Academic Tips & Tricks

100 Great Twitter Tips, Tools & Tutorials for Serious Students

http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.org/blog/2009/100-great-twitter-tips-tools-tutorials-for-

serious-students/

Blackboard Mobile: iPhone®, iPod Touch®, Blackberry® and other web-enabled mobile devices

can coonect with Blackboard Learn.

http://www.blackboard.com/Mobile/Mobile-Platform.aspx

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Carmum Killer Bib Tool: Help to format Your paper.

http://carmun.com/easy-bibliography-formatting-APA-MLA.php

CliffsNotes: iPhone and iPod study aid apps, competitions and tips for academic life.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/

Connotea: A reference and management tool.

http://www.connotea.org/

Cramster: An study community social networking site.

http://www.cramster.com/

dict.org: The ultimate dictionary.

http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict

Glossarist: Glossaries across the disciplines.

http://www.glossarist.com/

Google Mobile: Use Your mobile phone to enhance Your learning experience.

http://www.google.com/mobile/products/more.html#tasks

Google Search Techniques: Timeline searches and search navigation experiments.

http://techtracer.com/2007/12/03/google-experiments-are-brilliant/

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Mindtools: Problem solving and organisational tips and trickes. Well worth the visit.

http://www.mindtools.com/index.html

Mocha VNC: Gets Your iPhone/iPod access to a server where you can connect to you can

connect to a Windows PC or Mac OS X.

http://www.mochasoft.dk/iphone_vnc.htm

Murdoch University Assignment Tip Sheet: A host of links for writing up Your assignments

or presentations.

http://www.tlc.murdoch.edu.au/slearn/resource/TipSheets.html

Murdoch University Handout on Paraphrasing and Referencing

http://www.tlc.murdoch.edu.au/slearn/resource/pdf/paraphrasing_referencing.pdf

OmniGraffle: Diagrams, laYouts and graphics can be created here for a professional

presentation.

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/

OmniGraphSketcher: Create graphs with class.

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraphsketcher/

Sparknotes: Take a study break, visit test prep blogs and fun spark tests. There is even an advice

column.

http://www.sparknotes.com/

Sparknotes Study Twists: Used with a Nokia phone, tips and tricks for the student that wants to

review on the go!

http://www.sparknotes.com/studytwists

Study Guides & Strategies: Time mangement and learning strategies.

http://www.studygs.net/

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The Owl at Purdue: Writing and study aids.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

SearchEdu.com: Dictionaries, calculators and other education resources.

http://www.searchedu.com/

Twitblocker Allows You to block out twitter chatter when You need to focus on particular

tweets, such as interviews about a topic You’re studying or participate in a study group.

http://www.tangerineworks.com/twitblocker/

Twitter Guide Book A barebones guide to usign Twitter. Many good tips about using hashtags

and the value of re-tweeting to support Your studies.

http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/

Twply: Means You can forward Your @replies to Your inbox.

http://www.twply.com/

Zotero: A Firefox application so that You can cite Your research as You find them online.

Choices of automatic formatting style.

http://www.zotero.org/

Academic Search Engines

Academic Index: http://www.academicindex.net/

African Journals Online: http://ajol.info/

Airiti: http://portal.airiti.com/modules/tinyd0/

All Academic: http://www.allacademic.com/one/www/research/

Arts and Humanities Citation Index: http://www.thomsonscientific.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jloptions.cgi?PC=H

arXiv.org: http://arxiv.org/

Babieca: http://www.babieca.com/

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE): http://base.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/en/index.php

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

CiteSeerX: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/

EBSCO: http://www.ebscohost.com/

EMBASE: http://www.embase.com/

GENESIS: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/genesis/

Gold Rush: http://goldrush.coalliance.org/index.cfm?inst_code=NONE

Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/

Highbeam: http://www.highbeam.com/

IntegentaConnect: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/;jsessionid=1rg5u09afu9r2.alice

Informaworld: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/1231878851-81054667/home~db=all

InterScience: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/home?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/?cookieSet=1

Journal Finder: http://journalfinder.wtcox.com/uncg/

JournalSeek: http://journalseek.net/

National Diet Library: http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/index.html

National Library of Medicine: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/

National Science Digital Library: http://nsdl.org/

National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov/

Nature.com: http://www.nature.com/

OJOSE: http://www.ojose.com/

Open Archives Initiative: http://www.openarchives.org/

OpenJ-Gate: http://www.openj-gate.com/Search/QuickSearch.aspx

Original Sources: http://www.originalsources.com/loginos.htm

PhilPapers: http://philpapers.org/

Project MUSE: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/

PubMed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

Questia: http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp

ResearchChannel: http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/

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RefSeek: http://www.refseek.com/

Science/AAAS: http://sciencemag.org/

ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com/

Scientific Commons: http://www.scientificcommons.org/

SciNet: http://www.scinet.cc/

Scirus: http://www.scirus.com/

Scopus http://info.scopus.com/

SpringerLink: http://springerlink.com/home/main.mpx

SSRN eLibrary: http://ssrn.com/

The National Academies: http://www.nationalacademies.org/publications/

UESCO: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/

Vadlo: http://vadlo.com/

WebSEEk: http://persia.ee.columbia.edu:8008/

Whitney Medical Library: http://cushing.med.yale.edu/electronic/

The Sociable Student

A New Ingredient for Student Succes: Social Networks

http://www.bobpearlman.org/Articles/Student_Success.htm

30+ More Ways to Create Twitter Groups: This guide will show You how to make the most

of Twitter groups.

Alley Dog: Excellent social networking site for psychology students.

http://alleydog.ning.com/

College-Cram: An educational social networking site.

http://www.college-cram.com/

Facebook: A popular social networking site where You can set up private groups and fanpages

or run surveys.

http://www.facebook.com

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Green College Network: For the student who adopts a green lifestyle as part of the work-study-

life balance.

http://greencollegenetwork.ning.com/

GroupTweet: Set up private communication with group members using this tool. are files —

including videos and images — with TweetCube.

Library Thing: Booklover resources and groups.

http://www.librarything.com/

Ping.fm: Ping.fm is another tool for syncing FB, Twitter, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM

and more to get the most of collaborating.

http://ping.fm/

Share videos and photos: For school projects and presentations, share videos and photos via

Twitter.

Twitter: Microblogging at its best. Great for study groups, research and networking.

http://www.twitter.com

Wikispaces: A collaborative space which is easy to use and edit.

http://www.wikispaces.com/

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Cultivate Reflection

Blogger: Create a blog as a part of a project or just to stay in touch with friends and family in an

easy way.

http://www.blogger.com/features

Creativity Prompts: Picture and thought prompts to get Your creatice juices flowing.

http://www.creativity-portal.com/howto/writing/writing.prompts.html

Live Journal: A popular journaling platform.

http://www.livejournal.com/

Online Diary: This online journal also has a weekly email subscription.

http://www.my-diary.org/

Reflective Writing at UNSW: Read about the reflective writing process and access releated

resources.

http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/reflect.html

Wordpress: Another popular blogging platform.

http://wordpress.com/

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Be Constructive~

A Google search on the topic of contsructivism as a learning approach reveals the topic is broad

in nature and application.

The theory of constuctivism has become popular in the West as a means of learning and

teaching;

“Constructivism is now one of the dominant pedagogies used in education” (Paurelle, 2003, p.

1).

Students are facilitated in developing their own knowledge base on a topic, drawing on their

personal experiences and application of learnt knowledge in their day-to-day environments.

Constructive theory is about the nature of knowledge and how it can be applied to understand

how we learn. It is a learning approach that does not view knowledge as a tangible thing existing

in the external world. Rather, each of us interprets the physical world through the process of

perception, which draws on past experiences and knowledge. In this way we construct our own

personal understading of the world.

You, the student, are better able to construct the academic reality You require to excel, with a

better understanding of how You learn as a person. As well as the physical environment, there is

a social aspect to the context. Besides Your peers, the learning facilitator (lecturer, tutor, mentor

etc) contributes to the social environment, and their personlity will influence the learning

experience. Finally, You, as the student of focus, brings to the setting Your previous cognitions

and interpretations of experiences within similar settings.

In any learning environment, learners must contend with the environment (social), their previous

knowledge (cognitive) and the influence of the instructors’ personality (instructional presences).

Thus, context aids construction of meaningful knowledge. Maybe that is why we tend to learn

more when we are having fun!

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And as we are social creatures, our social environments contribute to the learning process,

because they create opportunities for meaningful interactions.

Thus, constructivism views learning as a social experience. You, as the student is encouraged to

explore and discover the unique ways in which you learn, which includes Your interactions with

others, rather than waiting to “be taught”.

The e-learning environment is an ideal medium for promoting a constructivest learning

approach. As Paurelle (2009) notes, online interactions provide more opportunities for self-

pacing, self-learning and increases student learning choices. You (Student) become the hub of

your study support endeavors when you use the Internet to complement your academic activities.

As social, health and business scientists in training, You would do well to be aware of how to

bridge theory into action. This Handbook aims to aid You in the construction of an

understanding of our brave new technological world, and its links to Your learning and

professional development.

The greatest advantage of a constructivist approach to You the student, is that drawing on your

own experiences allows you to embody new knowledge. Embodiement of knowledge occurs

through engagement and reflection on experiences. The process creates links between present

and prior experiences, allowing You to generalise and apply knowledgte across contexts (DeLay,

1999).

Thus, Your needs and expectations as a student in relation to the topic You are learning about

indicate how material is best delivered (pedagogy).

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References

Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E., & Ecclestone, K. (2009). Should we be using learning

styles? Retrieved January 17, 2009, from

https://crm.lsnlearning.org.uk/user/order.aspx?code=041540

DeLay, R. B. (1999). Forming knowledge: Constructivist learning and experiential education.

Retrieved January 20, 2009 from http://www.rongen.com/artikelen/construct.htm

Felder, R.M. & Spurlin, J. (2005). Applications, reliability and validity of the Index of Learning

Styles. Retrievedn January 18, 2009 from

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/ILS_Validation(IJEE).pd

f

Paurelle, S. (2003). E-learning and constructivism. Retrieved January 20, 2009 from

http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/Support/learning-teaching-enhancement-

unit/Resources/Documents/BriefingNotes/ConstructivistPedagogy.pdf

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