Gen 105 Final - Axia College

As a new student to Axia College and a distance learning program, I have learned much in the last nine weeks that will be invaluable during my college experience. I have compiled the following information as a student survival guide; it will serve as a resource during my educational program. In it the following topics are covered: using Axia’s educational resources, upholding academic honesty, setting and achieving goals, managing time wisely, fostering reading comprehension and retention and applying personality and learning styles.

Axia College has many online educational resources available to students. Three resources that I believe to be incredibly valuable are the availability to down load and save files in multiple formats, the University Library and the ability to identify key information within articles. All course material is available for download in multiple formats. The material can be saved on a computer or audio files can be saved to a portable device for use at a later time. Being able to download information to an mp3 or IPod allows the student to get the information and listen to it at their own convenience from their own portable device. The University Library is another educational resource available online. Students have access to thousands of books, articles, magazines and journals; an online library can save countless hours in research and has all of the benefits of a traditional library. At Axia there are three databases to choose from: Ebscohost, ProQuest, and Thomson Gale PowerSearch. The search results that these databases yield are geared toward students, as opposed to a traditional search engine. Many of the resources at the University Library are peer and scholarly-reviewed articles to ensure verifiable information. Another benefit of the Library is that searching for specific information can be done using an advanced search. Using an advanced search allows a student to find specific words and information within articles, making the search process even easier.

Survival Guide 3

Upholding academic honesty while enrolled at Axia or any other University is imperative to success. Axia has a strict policy in regards to plagiarism and academic honesty; it ensures that students be honest when writing academic papers. It is up to the individual to uphold academic honesty and submit their own work and thoughts when responding to questions or writing papers. Students must avoid plagiarism and cite references from original works; when quoting direct information from a book or article it is important to use quotations. It is acceptable to paraphrase so long as it is in the students own words at not close to the original quote. The purpose of college is to learn, so it does not benefit any student to plagiarize material. There are tools available in the Center for Writing Excellence (CWE) that can be utilized to minimize plagiarism, such as the plagiarism checker.

Setting goals, both long and short term, is an important part of being successful in any educational program. The key to achieving looming, long term goals is to break them down into several short term, attainable goals. Another key is to plan ahead for any obstacles that may present themselves. Once students have planned for them, any obstacle that does appear can be easily managed and overcome.

One way to obtain goals is through time management. An advantage of taking classes at Axia is the online environment; there are not any set times when a student must attend class. This allows for a flexible class schedule, letting the student prioritize what work must be done. The best way to manage the workload of school and daily life is to make a list of items that need to be accomplished. List them as items that have to be done, priority 1, items that need should be done, priority 2 and items that would be nice to get around to,