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CONTENTS OF THE DVD Chapter 1: The On Course Story College and University educators discuss their challenges of teaching today’s students, and Skip Downing tells how these same professional challenges (along with some rough waters in his personal life) sent him on a quest to discover specific strategies for empowering students to achieve greater success in college...and beyond. Handout A: National Retention Rates: Shows the crises of attrition in higher education where as many as one half of first-year students depart before their second year. As a consequence, many academically capable students abandon their dreams of a college degree, educators have fewer upper-level students to teach and counsel, and institutions lose much needed income. Chapter 2: Rethinking Student Success Courses Students and educators identify the obstacles that keep today’s students from achieving their full potential in college, and Skip Downing explains why (re)empowering students to be active, responsible learners is a necessary foundation for improving student academic success and retention. Handout B:The Pyramid of Academic Success: Shows how empowering students to be active responsible learners is the foundation for helping them learn essential study skills, utilize college resources, and maximize their academic success. Handout C: Data from On Course Programs: Shows the dramatic increase in retention of students who participate in a class or program using the On Course text. Chapter 3: The Choices of Successful Students Students and educators discuss how the On Course text contributes to improved academic success, and Skip Downing explains all eight inner qualities that On Course helps students strengthen, empowering them to make wiser choices and therefore achieve greater success in college and in life. Handout D: The Choices of Successful Students: Identifies eight pivotal choices of successful students in the realms of Personal Responsibility, Self-Motivation, Self-Management, Interdependence, Self- Awareness, Lifelong Learning, Emotional Intelligence and Self-Esteem. These are the “soft skills” that On Course helps students develop as a foundation for making wise choices in their academic, professional, and personal lives. Chapter 4: On Course Learner-Centered Resources Educators discuss how they use the extensive resources provided for the On Course text, and Skip Downing explains the benefits of educators using a learner-centered approach. Handout E: On Course Resources: A catalog of the numerous On Course resources for educators. After more than four decades as an educator, Skip Downing, in partnership with Houghton Mifflin Publishers, has created an extensive set of resources that will help any educator empower students to achieve more of their potential in college and in life. Chapter 5: Three Students’ Stories The On Course text contains 16 essays in which college and university students describe how they used On Course strategies to achieve success despite serious obstacles. These obstacles range from academic challenges such as comprehending difficult text books and adapting to challenging teaching styles to personal challenges of binge drinking and abusive relationships. In this section, three of these students tell their stories, exemplifying the complex lives and challenges faced by today’s students. Handout F: Three Students’ Stories: Provides the text of the three students’ stories about how they used On Course strategies to overcome obstacles to their success in college. These essays were all winners in the On Course Student Essay Contest. Any present or former student of an On Course class is invited to submit an essay to this on-going contest. All entrants will receive a Houghton Mifflin student planner, and winners will receive a $100 prize and publication in the next edition of On Course. Chapter 6: Sample On Course Learner-Centered Activity--Language of Responsibility On Course uses a variety of learner-centered approaches for empowering students to achieve their greatest potential—academically, personally, and professionally. The On Course text provides students with short readings about success strategies and follow-up journal entries in which students apply what they have learned to their own lives. The On Course Facilitators Guide and the author’s On Course Site provide hundreds of learner-centered activities for instructors to use during class time; these activities provide reinforcement and deepening of the success strategies that students read and write about as home assignments. Below are the directions and handouts for one of these learner-centered activities: The Language of Responsibility.” This Chapter of the DVD shows a group of educators discussing their experience of using this activity with their students. Handout G: Facilitator’s Notes for “The Language of Responsibility”: Here are step-by-step directions for facilitating a sample learner-centered activity from On Course. This is an ideal activity to give participants an experience of what On Course provides to students. Handout H: Inner Voices: A set up for activity. Product details
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