Thinking Skills coverage NEW! Brain-based learning and metacognition. Cites research on building intelligence, the science of learning, the changes in the brain that happen when you remember, the cost of switch-tasking, brain development in adolescence and early adulthood, and more. This information builds student metacognition. Successful Intelligence Framework.
Builds a comprehensive set of analytical, creative, practical thinking skills to empower students to strengthen their command of the problem solving process and take practical action. In-chapter exercises focused on analytical, creative, critical thinking, and financial literacy. These exercises give readers a chance to apply a chapter idea or skill to their personal needs and situations in a particular type of thinking.
End-of-chapter exercises, each with a distinctive practical goal. Re-titled and revised, targeted to develop a particular skill to have readers perform a chapter-related task that has specific personal value.
Citations of groundbreaking work on motivation as well as current research on a variety of topics. Citations add to credibility of author voice as they support ideas with research, provide the why behind the what to do, and make the book relevant to today's students.
They also reflect the substance of these topics to readers who may enter the course thinking it is lightweight. Student profile. A profile of a current student shows how the student values a particular chapter-related skill and uses it in the workplace.
Status Check self-assessment. Readers gain more learning from a chapter if they start with an overview of the material; however, few students deliberately skim for that overview. This self-assessment provides a low-stakes way to grasp the scope of the chapter and think about where growth is needed.
New chapter on 'College Life and Resources'. This chapter includes creating a "well-rounded" experience, accessing supportive resources, topics for students living on campus, and details about different ways to get involved and connected to campus. Coverage of teamwork and study groups is included here. Chapter 1. Expanded topics relevant to today's student experience. Topics new to this edition the value of a liberal arts education Chapter 1 , learned optimism Chapter 1 , the distractions of technology Chapter 2 , multi-tasking vs.
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Sign Up Already have an access code? Instructor resource file download The work is protected by local and international copyright laws and is provided solely for the use of instructors in teaching their courses and assessing student learning.
There are links for each chapter in the text. Career Research Use these links to do career research for your class projects. Contact the Author if you have suggestions for improving any of these materials.
Student Resources. Journal Entries The Journal Entries provide a way for students to make personal connections to the material and to apply the concepts learned in the text. Each chapter stands on its own merit. While every subject covered is important, it can be difficult to adequately cover all as thoroughly as necessary. The book allows for customizing, enabling teachers to tailor instruction to individual classes. I found the text easy to follow, with clear divisions of topics.
Chapters are divided into very manageable sections. The user can easily jump from section to section or chapter to chapter. The layout is clear, logical, and easy to follow.
Although there is a link at the the top of each page to return to the table on contents, the inclusion of an index would be beneficial. It is easy to navigate your way through the book.
Links to move back to the table of contents are helpful. In spite of the book's length, it is not difficult it identify and locate individual topics. The book is culturally and gender neutral. It discusses diversity of culture and beliefs and respecting diversity of opinions and is relevant to a diverse college audience. The book compares very well against the expensive text that was previously being used.
The layout is clear, topics are covered thoroughly, and it with the exception of frequently needing to check and update links, it has the staying power to be a credible book for several years. As the Department Chair, I was excited to find alternatives to expensive print textbooks. College Success does an excellent job of presenting the material while eliminating the financial burden of buying a high priced book.
The book is very comprehensive and would be a great resource for traditional college students attending a university for the first time. There is no index or a glossary which would be an advantageous addition to the text. The comprehensiveness of The comprehensiveness of the text can be overwhelming at times since it attempts to address a multitude of issues that students may encounter during their time in college. It may be more effective to cut back on some of the content and reduce the number of pages overall to provide a more concise guide.
The content was accurate and on a variety of important topics including academic strategies as well as personal and financial well-being which tends to be left out of college success style texts. The content is mostly up to date with perhaps a few minor revisions needed. Overall, the topics are general and common and will continue to be applicapable to first time university students. The text is written clearly and is easy to understand.
It is not overwhelmingly technical or convoluted. The book is easy to break into smaller, more readable sections; however, this would be helped with an index. The text tends to be self-referential but not overly so. The text is well-organized and flows through topics in a clear, logical manner. The chapters include learning objectives, self-assessments, key takeways and other exercises to engage the reader and make the content more accessible and applicable.
I would like to see more images including charts, etc. It is text heavy but broken down effectively with sections and sub-headings. The text was not culturally offensive. It addresses diversity of all aspects and encourages personal development and skills that are beneficial when interacting with people across a college campus. The self-reflective surveys at the beginning of each chapter are a great way for students to assess their current mindset and prepare for the readings ahead.
Overall, this is a great comprehensive guide for incoming college freshmen. More comprehensive than many other college success books.
I could not find an index or glossary and the table of contents had hyperlinks to each chapter. The book was accurate as far as I could tell. I could see no inconsistencies with other books. However, there were some exercises that did not have a form to go with it activity in 4.
Most of the information has no time limitation. The information has been applicable in the past and will continue to be applicable in the foreseeable future. While there are clear breaks to the chapters learning objectives, summaries, objectives the book is VERY self-referential. This includes both "discussed in chapter xx" as well as past references. Although there are hyperlinks for these, they do not all work the chapter 1.
I find this very frustrating, especially if the book is printed. I found some of the organization to be out of order. I don't understand why choosing a major would be at the very end of the book? Although I did not test all of the hyperlinks, I did find some that did not work. Additionally, some words are in different colors that are NOT hyperlinks.
Very confusing as to what the purpose of the colored text is. Pictures and charts seem fine unless you print the book out. If that is done, there are no lines on any of the tables. The table of context does not print either.
There are some valuable tools in this book. There are checkpoint exercises, self-assessments, learning objectives, key takeaways and exercises to help reinforce the presented information. The text covers the important areas of college success which are well organized in chapters. The only piece missing is a section on seeking out resources for success and support on campus. The text is clear and written to be understood by the entering college student.
It contains some learning terminology but the terms are defined and explained in context. Text presents a large amount of information. Although I am not positive that every entering student would read the book in its entirety on their own, the text is divided into chapters would be extremely useful as weekly reading material for a first-year orientation course. College Success is a well- organized text containing information that every college freshman should know.
The chapters are arranged logically with each topic helping to build a skill which builds upon the next. Chapter One delves into exploration of personal values, interests and strengths and Chapter Two progresses logically to development of personal goals. The text culminates in exploration of career choices and selecting a major.
In between, each chapter provides skills and tips for academic success including accepting responsibility for learning, time-management, developing study skills and preparation for exams. The text is easy to navigate and the table of contents provides a good overview of chapter topics. Diversity is appropriately addressed throughout the text. It deals with developing a knowledge and appreciation of diversity of culture and beliefs and respecting diversity of opinions.
The text is relevant to the diverse college audience which it targets. The textbook is holistic in its approach and explores social, physical, emotional and financial health as important components of college success. As an educator with 30 years of experience in advising students at Carnegie One Research institution, I would highly recommend this text as a guidebook for first year college students.
The text is comprehensive in that it covers a wide variety of topics, and covers them in a straightforward, appropriate, and unassuming manner. However, there is no index or glossary, which makes it more challenging to look over the topics at a However, there is no index or glossary, which makes it more challenging to look over the topics at a quick glance.
The content is accurate, and I found no errors within it. I feel this text is unbiased, as it is unassuming in its audience. I would consider this text nearly timeless. It covers relevant material, and could be easily updated need be. The material is laid out in such a way that one topic provides the building blocks for another. It also has great follow up at the end of each chapter so the reader can briefly review what concepts were presented in each chapter.
I think it would be accessible to anyone. This text could easily be divided up as the instructor sees fit, such as chapter-by-chapter or by sub-chapters for smaller chunks and concepts. The text does not seem to be overly self-referential, it does reference other chapters, but as a resource for referencing, which I believe would be helpful to a student.
The topics are presented in a logical and clear fashion; like I mentioned previously, each one serves as building blocks for other chapters, without it having to be read strictly sequentially. The text was very easy to interface with; there were no issues accessing images, charges, pictures or links within the text.
My favorite part about this book is that it is not corny like some other college success books. This book realizes that the reader may be fresh out of high school, or returning after many years, which I feel is not a common theme and it should be!
It is a long book pages , however it wouldn't have to be used in its entirety. In fact, this is a text I could use for two of the courses I teach, because it covers so much. This book was extremely comprehensive in covering the broad topic of "Student Success". As far as I could tell, the book was accurate, unbiased, and mostly error-free I think I might have noticed one minor typo.
I found the book extremely relevant. The book is very clear and easy to understand. Additionally, the writing style is very conversational and, thus, accessible to college students. As far as I could tell, the book is consistent throughout, in terms of framework and terminology.
The book's modularity was appropriate, however, it seems to be missing a table of contents. That made it difficult to go back and review specific sections, especially when viewing the book electronically. It made sense to me in that topics more relevant to the beginning of the semester were covered first, and so on. The pictures in the text were often placed oddly. Often the caption would appear after a page break, and the pictures themselves seemed to disrupt the formatting of the text. Additionally, as mentioned above, I would have like a table of contents.
I thought it was comprehensive and encouraged students to reflect deeply on the content with the embedded reading quizzes and activities. I really appreciated the tone of the book; it was relaxed and conversational, while still maintaining a "professional" air.
That message is critical, but it often gets lost in college success books because they are trying to provide easy solutions, when the reality is that college is hard. My one bit of criticism is that the book is roughly pages, which would make it difficult to get the freshmen in my First Year Experience course to read the entire book.
This book is comprehensive in most ways. It covers a wide-range of topics which I think would be useful to most beginning college students including staying organized, preparing for exams, interacting with instructors, etc.
I felt the style of I felt the style of writing could retain student interest, and included many practical tips which would be helpful. I felt most of this text was thorough, maybe so much that this reading would be difficult to incorporate into a 1-credit hour seminar or course. This text would likely be more appropriate for a 2 or 3-credit course.
In addition, I think the section on the financial aspects of higher education could have been expanded. In my experience, students are very concerned about how higher education will impact their financial future, but are unsure of the complex financial aid system.
The book addresses things like loans vs. For example, I was hoping for a chart indicating how certain levels of debt may require certain amounts of monthly repayment. I understand this could be complicated to address, however, could be done more thoroughly.
The content seemed up-to-date. The modules within the book were useful, and this type of modularity would likely be crucial for students taking this course who would not yet be used to collegiate readings or who might be at-risk academically. Most of the interface seemed to be useful. I only ran into a couple issues, which I think would be difficult to avoid.
The interactive style of the textbook charts, take-aways, chapter reviews could be useful for the majority of the audience taking a student success course, however could also alienate readers by making them feel patronized. I think within a college success course this is always a dilemma: students will enter the course with such different needs and preferences.
Overall the textbook is informative,clear, and well-written. I found the College Success text to be comprehensive. It covers all of the typical areas that college success textbooks cover. I found the information in each chapter covered the subject effectively.
The organization of the text is clear and The organization of the text is clear and consistent. Each chapter is broken down into sub parts of the subject, this allows the student to see what is covered and focus on the areas that meet the individual students need. The content in the text was accurate for the time that it was written. There have been technological advances that could be addressed or updated. The chapters that address actual student skills were mostly accurate.
The chapters that cover more of the life skills could use some updating and expansion to meet the needs of non traditional students. There are parts of College Success that do not change much, such as test taking skills. Since technology is advancing so quickly there are areas that may need some updating. Education and student technical knowledge is being effected by this advancement and will eventual require updating to the text.
The arrangement of the text will allow for easy updates. The language of the text is accessible to students. There is not excessive jargon or technical language used. This makes reading the text closer to the language that the student know and use. One of the strong points of the College Success text is its consistency.
All of the chapters follow the same format. This is especially helpful to online students as they quickly learn how to use the text efficiently.
Each chapter is broken down into parts and there is consistent use of objectives and outcomes so that the students know what is expected of them. Modularity is another strength of the text. The format of the text is consistently divided into well defined parts of the subject. Each area is clearly marked with its particular topic.
There are some self-referential parts but they are clear and not frequent. This modularity should allow the student to stop and start again with little confusion about where they left off and what the current topic is. The organization, structure and flow of the text is logical and clear. The consistency of the structure contributes to the great flow of the text.
Within each chapter the information flows smoothly from one part of the subject to the next without interference. The pause between subjects that require self-reflection is a great way to move into a new area. I found the text easy to move around in. The graphics were appropriate and well placed.
There were not many graphics so the students were not overwhelmed by them. The graphics were applicable to the subject and appropriately placed. I did find any grammguical errors. Nor have any been pointed out to me by my students. The language is fairly neutral and does not use slang. Cultural relevance is an area that needs some work.
The text is mainly written for recent high school graduates. There is mention of non traditional students but not much information relevant to them. My students range in age from high school to older adults. Often the older students felt that they already knew the information and that questions asked were to personal.
It is hard to know the cultures of the students in an online class unless they speak out. Diversity was covered well in its specific area. I have used the College Success text in my classes for a year, both face to face and online. I have not had any real problems outside of the fact that I do not teach the class in the order of the text. This has caused a little trouble with self-referencing. I have found that the text meets my needs in most areas. I find it to be comprehensive and relevant to the various subjects.
Some students do have trouble reading the text online and have to print it out so that option is a benefit as well. I was very excited to find an OER this complete and easy to access. It saved much time in creating the class as I did not have to find each area individually and create the units.
The other topics such as diversity, The other topics such as diversity, communication and health seem to be included to match some of the leading college success books which is a plus.
It is difficult to determine whether some of the self-assessment tools are valid or reliable since they lack references although they seem to assess what they purport to assess. Most chapters contain information that most successful students may already know but this information is good to revisit. Most of the information is timeless and has been around as part of college success textbooks.
Chapters may become outdated more quickly than the other chapters. The books is written clearly and concisely and is very easy to read. However, some parts are written so simply that they may lack depth. I didn't see any issues with consistency in this book. The topics are well defined and organized. The chapters are easily realigned to fit any curriculum. The instructor will need to keep this in mind to avoid confusion as to what has been covered and what hasn't.
The organization and structure are fine but I would probably go over the chapters in a different order to improve the flow and to better fit the needs of the populations that are being served. It is very easy to navigate this book. I didn't find any interface issues. This book seems to be easier to use than traditional e-textbooks. The text covers diversity fairly well and appears to be culturally relevant.
This is an area that is ever-changing so the text may need to be updated every so often to provide more inclusive information. The text provided excellent comprehensiveness, ranging from academic success suggestions, personal and interpersonal advice, over-all college success advice, to managing time and money.
It was extremely well thought out by beginning each chapter It was extremely well thought out by beginning each chapter with Learning Objectives and ending each chapter with key Takeaways and interesting exercises to continue the learning.
The index and glossary inclusion were very helpful as well as the inclusion on on-line opportunities to further explore chapter topics. I thought the accuracy was very well demonstrated by the well-rounded nature of subjects: something for everyone despite what you already think you know. The only bias was to encourage student success, which is the whole point of the text! There were occasional relevance to research on the variety of topics presented but these would be relatively easy to update as time goes on and new research occurs.
I thought the chapters were well thought out, to the point and easy to expand on beyond reading the book. I did not find most of the pictures relevant and actually found them a bit dull and boring. They did not add to the text and felt like space fillers more than beneficial. The photos were not engaging, stock type photos that wasted space, for the most part.
They did not do justice to the richness of the information and navigation of the text. This textbook covers all the areas of college success that we cover at our community college. The information on social world, finances, and your health are very comprehensive. Published in I really appreciated the information on the different kinds of students and thought it was very current.
Textbooks was written in jargon student's could learn to understand. Appreciate the highlighted words being defined as you rolled over them with the mouse. I appreciated the consistency of this textbook the most. Each chapter begins with the student surveying themselves about where they are at, where they want to be and ways to get there. The activities, key take aways, checkpoint exercises, chapter reviews and outside the books are included in each chapter and are ones students would do.
The textbook is divided into sections that can be assigned for a variety of class period chunks. Usually 10 chapters are what we cover in a term class, but I really liked that chapters on finance, health, and social world were included. The topics are presented in a logical, organized and clear fashion with a pattern in each chapter that students would find helpful. Enjoyed the interface and the navigation of this text. Easy to go from one section to the next or back to the table of contents.
This textbook is one that I would consider for a college success class and would use chapters of it in my study skills class. The textbook covers a wide variety of topics for college success. There are 12 chapters in all.
The textbook is very lengthy, yet there is no index or glossary included. The self assessments at the beginning of each chapter are a good component, The self assessments at the beginning of each chapter are a good component, as well as the follow-up exercises at the end of each chapter.
Since this book is nearly six years old, I wonder about it inclusiveness to more pertinent up-to-date material especially technology. I have taught College Success courses for over 20 years and I felt as though this textbook had some good straight-forward information for students. I did not detect any content-specific errors, but there were hints of bias with regards to the text written more towards a recent high school grad audience rather than written for all the types of students. The content was accurate for the most part.
A majority of the content is fine because it is not necessarily time sensitive. However, I was not very pleased with some of the web links or links to supplemental materials e. The text is written in a very practical sense. Many different topic areas are covered in a simple, yet sensible manner. The textbook does have some specialized vocabulary, but it is defined within the text nicely.
The framework on each chapter follows a easy-to-follow pattern such as: where are you now assessment, chapter learning objectives, key take aways, checkpoint exercises, chapter review, outside the book, and make an action list. I thought these were all laid out well and engaging for the student. Each chapter has many sub sections which breaks the text into palatable reading, especially for freshman students or novice textbook readers.
Each chapter and sub section seemed to flow well together. The sub sections of reading are followed by reflective exercises, which provide the student a chance to absorb and retain the material in manageable chunks. I am concerned with how this textbook appears formatting, etc.
I used an iPad and it was good because I was able to go back and forth to the Table of Contents and bookmark sections. However, the PDF version seemed very long and overwhelming to read. The organization of the book flowed very well. It mirrors the sequence of many similar College Success textbooks.
The chapters transitioned very well and throughout the textbook, there is cross-reference to various chapters noted. Instructors still have the ability to use the textbook chapters in the order they chose to teach them in.
Each chapter does offer engaging activities for the student. These activities are for the most part, very clear and straight forward. A downside is the textbook is very lengthy and navigating in and between the chapters was a bit tedious.
The images, photos, and graphics are fine, although there was a lack of robust illustrations throughout the textbook. The book is very text-heavy, which can be a barrier for novice college learners. Additionally, some of the web links were outdated. The textbook presented and described the various types of students typically found on college campuses today. However, there seemed to be more of a high school grad audience appeal throughout the text rather than to a broader audience of students.
The book also thoroughly explains the diversity in learning styles, which is very important for novice college learners to be aware of. There were no blatant examples of cultural insensitivity that I noted. Chapter 9 provides a nice scoop of topics that include: getting along with others, living with diversity, and campus groups. These are very important topics that students will experience within the social world of college. Overall, the textbook has very good merit.
Personally, it would need to have some of my aforementioned edits and revisions before I would consider adopting it fully. I would more than likely use the textbook as a supplement to my College Success courses in its current form. For example, I would use some of the assessments and chapter activities for in-class or online discussions.
I would also use some of the "outside the book" activities that are at the end of each chapter. In summary, many of the textbook ideas and topics presented are valuable "habits of the mind" for today's college students. I look forward to the updated version of this textbook in the future, one, that I can fully adopt. The textbook is expansive in the breadth of topics studied, yet detailed in key areas relating to the first year college experience.
That being said, the voluminous nature of certain chapters, particularly the first few, may be too much That being said, the voluminous nature of certain chapters, particularly the first few, may be too much information in too dense of a format for the students to whom this text is geared. I am in my 15th year teaching community college and non-traditional students, and experience shows many individuals will tune out rather than read the copious text of those chapters.
However, there is a wealth of information on a wide-ranging set of topics germane to an introduction to the college experience. The material relating to academic skills is thorough, with the inclusion of career, financial and social issues bringing an effective balance to the needs of a modern college student.
The authors skillfully combine tried and true academic concepts with activities and quizzes to reinforce the topic being studied. Examples include active reading, listening, note-taking and basic study skills. I saw no substantive errors or overt bias, however the Checkpoint Exercise questions in Section The issues addressed in this textbook are time-worn yet ongoing, hence the core learning material will be relevant for the foreseeable future.
Naturally some of the links, particularly to YouTube and other such sites, will become inaccessible. Nonetheless, the authors could easily provide substitutes in any revision, and of course the instructor can always do the same. Although the text is overly lengthy, the prose is accessible, particularly to the target student base. Technical terms are used sparingly and then defined in an effective way. The language used is generally appropriate and effective in conveying the intended meaning. Instructors may wish to assign sections rather than whole chapters to facilitate students actually reading in an active manner.
The writing style, terminology, objectives and activities are consistent from chapter to chapter, which flow together well in a logical and effective format.
The authors successfully combined materials into a consistent format for each chapter, which are then broken into sections based upon the learning objectives. These sections can be readily assigned in an a la carte fashion. Instructors can then assign smaller amounts of reading, which would allow the material to be less daunting. This process was the most conducive to student learning and personal application. These can be helpful to reinforce content and to provide resources to study from prior to an exam.
The PDF version of the textbook does not have a table of contents nor do the first few pages of the chapters include page numbers. The textbook, and thus many of the examples, are geared to the traditional, residential student. That being said, I commend the authors for including examples of students from diverse backgrounds, life experiences and academic pursuits. In particular, the focus on differing learning styles brought the uniqueness of each student to the fore.
The balance is difficult and in this instance believe the authors mostly got it right. I do recommend that the instructor read and dissect each chapter and seriously consider assigning certain sections and activities rather than the chapter as a whole. The strong points of the textbook are the substantive material, especially relating to traditional academic topics like reading, note-taking, test tips and the like. The learning objectives are topical and most activities are functional and effective in reinforcing that content.
My students this semester advised me to use this textbook again. However, they recommended that I cut down on the amount of the reading and focus in detail on certain subjects, especially active reading and listening as well budgeting and managing the finances of college. They also remarked many times their appreciation of its being free. In that I concur!
This textbooks covers many different subject areas that can help first time college students gain success. I did not see a index or glossy but the is a good review at the end of each chapter. I do think there may be too much information that may I do think there may be too much information that may overwhelm a college student. The content is very accurate and sometimes redundant. I did not notice any errors and I do not believe it is biased. I think this textbook is up to date and students will still get use out of the book in the future.
Being an open textbook updates should be relatively easy. Other than sometimes repetitive the book is really simple and would be easy to follow for college students, especially freshman. The authors use very simple language for students to understand. The book is very consistent on the topics that are covered. With so many different authors the terminology and framework are very similar. The book is broke down to really divide topics for your course. An instructor can go in order or are able to skip chapters and the students would not miss too much except for the subject that the teacher decides to skip.
You would have to do this book over one or two semesters to be able to cover all of the subject matter. I really liked the checkpoint exercises throughout the book that the students can fill out. I feel this will help the student understand the subject better and give them a better understanding of the topic. I think the charts are appropriate to the subject matter and are very helpful.
I do not think the display features will distract or confuse the reader. I feel the textbook is not insensitive or offensive in any way. I really like the social chapter Chapter 9 in dealing with the social aspect of college. I think the book has a lot more positives than negatives but I feel it would be information overload for students who would use this book.
I feel it is very long. Although the subject matter is very good and it does have a lot of ways that students can have success in college i am leery on how many college students will actually read the book. I have actually used portions of this book with my wellness class this semester. This is something I will look at using in the future with different classes that i teach, and recommend to peers in the teaching field.
The books acknowledge a wide range of questions which are important for students. It has intrinsic information about various titles with analysis and examples. There are lots of links in each chapter but aren't structured well. I would like to see more practical life examples instead of theoretical assumptions to make it more logical and incorporate global scenario.
It is a great resource for a long time period.
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