Instructor's Guide

Quizzes, Reflective Questions and Activities

The following are the assignments embedded in the Time Management tutorial:

 

Relationship to Other iStudy Tutorials

This tutorial is related to other tutorials on personal effectiveness, including note taking, active reading, active listening, and plannig your time.

Therefore, it is recommended that instructors introduce these tutorials to students in conjunction with other personal effectiveness tutorials.

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Suggested In-class Methods of Presentation

Long-term Goals Activity

If possible, refer students back to the Writing and the College Experience iStudy Tutorial. Ask them to think about how they might change those goals in light of their college experience up to this point. To review, the autobiography asked the student to reflect upon:

If students are having trouble with determining goals, the instructor may want to help them by providing examples of possible goals.

Break the students up into small (four-five people) groups. Have each individual discuss his or her long-term goals with the group. The other group members should provide constructive feedback to the individual. Instructors can prompt the groups when needed, referring to the Key Points section as needed.

Individuals can present their findings to the class and be prepared to discuss them. Instructors can assess students' understanding of setting long-term goals at this point by observing how each individual presents his or her findings and responds to questioning.

Note : This is an excellent opportunity to use and reinforce the cooperative learning techniques found in the Cooperative Learning Tutorial. Also, this activity may be completed asynchronously; instructors do not need to be face-to-face with the students. After receiving the initial assignment, students can use electronic resources to complete the assignment.

 

 

Identifying and Overcoming Obstacles Activity

Small Group Activity

Have students share their goals in small groups. As a group, students could brainstorm possible obstacles for each group member's goals. See Long-term Goals Activity above for details on how to structure this activity.

 

Master Calendar Activity

After having the students use this iStudy tutorial on creating a master calendar, the instructor should require students to attend an in-class session to discuss the tutorial exercise and construct a personal master calendar for the semester.

Provide students with blank monthly master calendar sheets that have a space to put in the name of the month, and have blank boxes where students can fill in the dates for the month. Have the students fill in the month and date information for the current semester on each sheet.

Starting with the current date, have students transfer dates onto their personal calendar. Note to students that while it may seem obvious, consolidation of calendars is crucial to effectively planning their time.

Similar items should use the same color pencil - for example, all holidays should be written using a colored pencil. Have students add dates from:

 

Weekly Timetable Activity

Have students transfer any items which occur on a weekly basis onto the blank weekly timetable sheets. This will involve charting:

After completion of the weekly timetable, have students pair together to discuss and critique both their master calendars and their weekly timetables. Ask them to think about what they have not included, and to determine possible problems which can be seen from analyzing their calendars and timetables.

 

Daily "To-Do" List Activity

Have students create a list of daily activities and responsibilities on a sheet of note book paper (or some other sheet of paper). Make it clear to the students that the list can be general or detailed, but that the important thing is that they have a list.

 

Important points to make about writing to-do lists:

Have students create a to-do list for the next few days (perhaps the next seven days) and share these with one another in pairs. Ask students to critique each to-do list and identify missing items or possible problems.

After completing the activity, remind students to use their to-do lists over the next seven days. Students should reflect in their journals on how accurate the list was, and how helpful they found it to be in using their time effectively.

 

Avoiding Pitfalls/Study Tips Activity

This activity is designed to help students to see how they procrastinate, how to avoid and overcome procrastination, and how to effectively use their study time.

The instructor may want to begin by saying something like:

The instructor should have the class brainstorm ways to procrastinate. Have students write down their favorite ways to procrastinate, and then create a class list of top procrastination techniques

Next, have the class brainstorm ways to avoid each of the procrastination techniques.

Some ways to avoid procrastination are:

Finally, generate tips for studying with the class:

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Key Points

These points are covered in this iStudy tutorial, but should be emphasized in any discussions.

Instructors may want to emphasize the total study time one should spend just on class work:

On average you should spend two to three hours outside of class for every hour in class. This means you would spend forty-five hours per week on your classes if you had a fifteen-credit semester. In addition, you will have other demands for your time, such as a part-time job, family responsibilities, extra-curricular activities, and so on.

Share with the students six steps which can help develop time management skills:

 

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Assessment Criteria

Through observing both the group's and the individual's activity, the instructor may assess student performance. Assessment criteria are as follows (Instructors supply the percentage weights):

 

Assessment Criteria

Where

Domain

Activities

%

iStudy Tutorial

Knowledge

The student can identify common mistakes and pitfalls when managing time by listing them. The student can lay out timetable for a given period of time.

 

iStudy Tutorial

Comprehension

The student can determine goals by relating to a given period of time.

 

In-class

Application

The student can develop a timetable and "To Do" list for a semester or several months.

 

iStudy Tutorial

Analysis

The student can prioritize his or her time by breaking it down into weekly and daily tasks.

 

 

 

 

100%

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