study groups

Passing It On: The Life of a Tutor

A major emphasis in the Student Success Center is our peer tutoring program. This week on our blog we are privileged to hear first-hand about that process. Ashton Cheatham, one of our College of Pharmacy tutors talks about his own experience as a tutor: his basic approach, what he has learned as he taught, and how engagement with those he tutors has enriched his own life.

Teach It to Learn It

What if I told you that one of the best ways to receive encouragement for yourself was to encourage someone else? It seems paradoxical at first, but outward encouragement can be, as the common aphorism states, a rising tide that lifts all ships. The same principle applies with the conferment of knowledge, specifically in the form of tutoring. I am a firm believer that one of the best ways to learn something to the fullest extent is to teach it, and one of the best ways to strengthen your own knowledge is to pass it on to someone else. Becoming a tutor allowed to me to practice that belief. As a tutor, I was placed in a position for my words to hold weight in someone else’s learning and to lead a student in the direction of a better understanding. Much prestige came with this opportunity, but along with it also came its own due pressure.

Be with the Person to Teach the Person

Before my very first tutoring session, my main objective was preparation. I figured that I needed to have all my ducks in a row in order to be the best tutor I could be. This meant re-studying material, coming up with mnemonics, creating supplemental graphics, etc. I remember thinking to myself, “I can never be too prepared. What if the student asks me a question that I don’t know the answer to? What if the way I explain the material only makes sense in my head? What if I go to the white board to write something and my dry-erase marker is…well…just dry?” I took a deep breath. I was making this situation too much about me. Sure, preparation was good, but I realized that I didn’t need to be perfect; I just needed to be present. I didn’t need to talk at the student; I needed to talk with the student and give them the benefits of a one-on-one encounter that are not available in a lecture hall. Now, with the right mindset, I too could learn, and the fruit thereof quickly started to show itself in my own academic well-being. I found myself revisiting certain subjects and observing them from a fresh, new perspective. Dots were being connected, and gaps were being filled.

Improve Another to Improve Myself

I liken tutoring to helping a student build a house. For certain topics, my house had already been built; I had already established a foundation and formed a primary structure that could then be added onto as I encountered more complex topics. For my students, however, it was possible that some of them did not that initial foundation, and I knew that without it, there could be no structure. In response, I was challenged to go back and see why I built my foundation the way I did, correct any faults or cracks, and then, through my instruction, move forward with my students to a state of stronger academic stability. Out of that stability came growth and expansion on all sides: the students’ grades started improving and they began to affirm me in my leadership and teaching abilities. Their encouragement strengthened my overall confidence, a much-needed reassurance as I became closer to entering a workforce waiting with its own expectations.

A Final Word

In short, if you desire to reinforce your knowledge base, you enjoy interacting with others, and you feel joy from pouring into people for the better, consider becoming a tutor. It is an all-around unique experience, and the benefits it offers surpass what words can describe. Not to mention, the wonderful staff at the Academic Success Center represent their department in excellence and are there to help tutors and students in the best way possible. They will provide you the necessary tools to start you on your way to becoming a successful tutor.

Contributing Author: Ashton Cheatham, College of Pharmacy

Building Your Learning Community

Are there people you’re connecting with during your time here at UAMS? Who makes up your pack, your crowd, your network, your peeps? Are you including the people you collaborate, study, and work with as part of your coursework? What about the instructors and practitioners who serve as mentors and advisers? Don’t forget the students and faculty from your IPE groups. These are some of the people you have in your learning community.

What is a Learning Community

A learning community is a group of people who share common academic goals and meet together to collaborate on coursework and increase their learning. They can be formal structured communities like the academic houses in the Colleges of Medicine and Nursing. They can also be informal groups of the people you go to for exam reviews, group projects, and collaborative research papers.

Benefits of a Learning Community

There are a number of good reasons for building/participating in a learning community.

Study Partners. Being part of a community means you always have a stable group of people working together to make the learning more effective. The students share resources that that can make learning easier. Therefore, they feel more prepared for exams by quizzing one another and explaining difficult information.

Out-of-Class Experiences. Whether it’s service learning, volunteer opportunities, or interprofessional projects, connecting with others in a community will make learning more meaningful, authentic, and interprofessional.

Connections to Instructors and Mentors. Building relationships through service learning and volunteer opportunities with instructors and practitioners will help you know where you will want to go in your profession after you have graduated.

Lasting Friendships and Professional Relationships. The people you connect with today will be the people you will work with as you build your professional career, and move your profession forward in providing the best possible health care experience.

Chances are you have already gathered people both from inside and outside your program into a learning community. They are the people you go to regularly for study sessions and labor with on group projects. Enjoy these relationships. They make your learning better and increase your satisfaction with your time here at UAMS.

3-Step Study Groups

Have you ever seen those products that advertise a “quick, new way” to get something done? Maybe it’s a new cooking tool or lawn care item. It seems life-changing in the ad, but when you get it home it’s a lot of random parts and some vague diagrams. Good luck putting it together! Study groups can be the same way. It’s easy for someone on the outside to say, “Just make a study group”, when (in reality) study groups can be a little messy when you’re trying to figure out how to put everything together.

There are some good reasons to form a study group. First, explaining a concept to other students tells you how well you understand the material. If you can share it in your own words, you understand it pretty well. Second, when you study in a group, you benefit from the viewpoints of the other members, making sure you aren’t missing any vital information. Finally, reviewing with others gives you the opportunity to test one another without using your notes.

Fortunately, creating study groups doesn’t have to be complicated. Just follow these three steps.

Step 1: Talk to your Classmates

Look for the students who seem dependable, whether it’s through posting thoughtful answers to online discussion questions, or paying attention in class. Ask them if they’d like to study together sometime. There, it’s done! You’ve completed Step 1.

Step 2: Prepare for the Study Group

This is the step that many people overlook, but it can help the group work well. As soon as you decide to study together, also take some time to decide the following:

When and where your group will meet,
What each person will come prepared to talk about,
How much time you’ll spend total.

Setting expectations upfront takes the guesswork out of forming a study group, and clear expectations are a great way to avoid frustrations later.

Step 3: Meet with the Group

Follow through with the plan that you made in Step 2. If someone decides not to show up, work with the people who do show up. Cover the topics that you discussed in your plan, and use any extra time to cover new topics or review something complicated.

These three steps move forming study groups from being complicated and messy to being clear and helpful for everyone. Find more detailed ideas about how to form in-person or online study groups, here at Creating Study Groups You also can make an appointment using the Academic Coaching Request to meet with a Learning Specialist who will be happy to talk to you about study skills and forming study groups.

Step Up Your Study Skills

Good study skills are a requirement for student success. Even if you’ve never had to study much before, you will need strong study habits to meet the rigorous requirements at UAMS. Don’t wait until you are falling behind to step up your study skills. Take control and start now.

Step Up Your Preparation

Stepping up begins before a class session. Students with the best study skills prepare for their class meetings. Review your class syllabus and schedule so that you know what the instructor plans to cover during the class session. Before each class, skim materials like your textbook to get an overview of the content. Read the learning objectives, headings and subheadings, and pay attention to charts and graphs. You will be ready for the explanations, details, and facts from your instructor if you have a general idea of how the content is connected. Your notes from the class sessions will be more meaningful if you take the time to prepare.

Step Up your Participation

Stepping up your participation means you are completely engaged in your learning. Start with active listening. Don’t sit passively and let information drift over you. Take notes and ask questions. Use short phrases and abbreviations but be careful that what you write is meaningful, because you will need to understand it later when you review. If you ask a question, make sure you can restate the answer in your notes so that you fully understand it. If you took the time to preview the material for the class session, you will already understand the general outline and organization of the material which should make note-taking more efficient.

Step Up Your Review Process

Step up by including multiple opportunities for reviewing your notes and materials. Plan to review your notes within 24 hours of your class session. This will allow you to check that you understood the material presented, and that your notes are clear and complete. Mark anything in your notes that you don’t understand and then go back and find the information you missed.

Schedule study sessions on the days your classes don’t meet, and if possible, schedule some review time with other students in your classes. Review your notes, re-read portions of your textbooks, summarize information in your own words, and test yourself by creating practice questions. Explain the material to another student to check how well you understand what you learned.

Step Up Your Support

The Student Success Center’s website has resources to help you improve your study skills, including information on how you learn and retain information, reading strategies, study strategies, and test taking skills. For more information, visit the Learning Support page. If you want more personalized help, use the Academic Coaching Request to make an appointment with a Learning Specialist to find the strategies that will work best for you.

You need good study skills to be successful at UAMS. Stepping up your preparation, participation, and review process will help make the hours you spend studying more productive and increase your academic achievement.

Conquer Compressed Courses

Taking a course during the summer is a good way to catch up on prerequisite classes or to move closer to completing your program. There are a number of advantages to summer courses. For example, they often have fewer students, meaning you have more opportunity to connect with your instructor and peers.

Compressed Courses

Summer courses are compressed. They don’t last as long as a full semester, so they may meet more often during the week or have longer class sessions. They tend to be more intense, in order to cover all the material they present in a full semester. This means that students have a heavier class workload over a shorter period of time. Maximizing your success in compressed courses requires a particular set of strategies. Here are four tips to help you successfully complete your compressed course work this summer.

Focus on the goal. Why are you taking a summer course? Is it is prerequisite that you need to complete for your degree? Are you trying to raise your GPA? Are you trying to finish your program early? Focusing on your goal will help you stay motivated and improve your success.
Manage your time carefully. Compressed courses offer unique time management challenges. Because the course length is shorter, you need to dedicate more time daily for class work and personal study. Create a realistic study schedule and stick to it. Consider minimizing other time commitments during the course. Compressed courses are shorter, so your intense study schedule won’t last forever.
Try to stay ahead of the deadlines. Compressed courses don’t allow time for procrastination. Try to complete assignments and projects early, so you don’t get caught when life gets crazy. Remember, the course will be over soon, so stay on task.
Connect with your peers in the course. Your classmates are in this with you! Form a study group and review the material together. You will learn from one another and get support in your study sessions. Online students can meet in groups too, using free tools like Stoodle or Google Hangouts.

There are a lot of advantages to taking compressed courses during the summer. Focusing your goals, managing your time, staying ahead of deadlines, and connecting with your peers will help you maximize your success in your compressed courses this summer.

Tech-Wise Test Preparation

Most of the programs at UAMS have at least one board/certification exam, and scheduling some group review time is an effective test preparation strategy. Trying to explain a concept to someone else tells you just how well you understand the material. However, some students attend their classes online, and aren’t able to come to campus to meet with their peers. Using a tool like Google Hangouts is a great way to meet online to answer questions and review content. You can share your screen in a video call, which makes group test preparation sessions much easier to facilitate.

Up to 9 people can join your Hangout, which will accommodate most study groups. But, what if you wanted to host a larger review session? Maybe you wanted to combine with several study groups for a comprehensive test preparation session, or to share information about the exam. Is there a tool that could broadcast your session and allow more people to participate?

Test Preparation for a Bigger Audience

I recently learned about live reviews for AP exams in US History, European History, and Government hosted by Keith Hughes and Tom Richey using Hangouts on Air. The two teachers broadcast their discussion of AP exam topics through their YouTube channel. Students from all over the country joined the hangout, submitting their questions through Twitter and Instagram. The teachers had their students monitor the Twitter and Snapchat feeds, identifying questions for the teachers to answer. In addition, they were able to guide students to their video resources for more information about topics they should review before the exam. Using a platform like Twitter or Instagram as a backchannel for questions, comments, and suggestions allows more people to participate directly.

Google provides plenty of resources to help you get started with your own Hangout on Air. You can get started with step-by-step instructions on Google Help or by visiting the Google Help YouTube channel.

Whether you are a distance student or just looking for alternative ways to host group study sessions, Hangouts on Air can offer you options for large group test preparation.