College Student Survival Guide

Attending college provides enormous benefits along with enormous challenges. Attending college online presents its own set of challenges and requires skills that are only minimally needed in the traditional college setting. Distance learning requires dedication, commitment to personal achievement, and the ability to work independently and in groups. Using a distance learning platform also requires extra research into how to use all the options and features of the online learning environment, which are numerous through the Axia college ecampus. Any student considering distance learning for their higher education needs to have a plan in place to facilitate his or her academic success. My student survival guide incorporates many topics that can be used as a functional tool throughout my program completion to develop action plans for high personal and team performance in my courses. Topics covered are 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 to my coursework. The tips described in this student survival guide will be helpful when I am confused about how to complete an assignment, having a hard time understanding any course materials, and feeling overwhelmed with balancing my work and school responsibilities.
Using Axia's Educational Resources
Axia offers course materials in several different formats, so having the necessary hardware and software to access all the course materials is important. The ecampus can be accessed on practically all PC's and Macs, and even some mobile phones. The course forums, library, and many materials are available for viewing online, while some course materials, tutorials, guides, and other Axia resources are available to download on a computer or other compatible device. The most common file types for Axia resources and course materials are Microsoft Office and Adobe files. Having the compatible software to download and view these file types is necessary to do well in any academic course with Axia. Programs to view these file types are available for download for free via the manufacturer's website on the internet.
It may be necessary to change the Microsoft Word file type when saving documents so everyone can access the file. The class instructor may require a certain file type, or you may find that not all the members of your learning team have the same version of Word. Word 2007 automatically saves files with a .docx extension, but allows the user to save the file as a Word 93-2003 compatible document if a user of an older version of Word than the 2007 version needs to view it. If this still does not fix the compatibility issue, you can try saving the file with an .rtf extension (rich text format). This file type usually works with any word processing software.
Axia also offers some resources and course materials in an audio format. Some cell phones, MP3 players, smart phones, and PDA will be able to play these audio files, so you can listen to your assigned readings on the go! Accessing the Axia ecampus on mobile phones is now possible on some mobile smart phones with compatible web browsers, so reading online content or responding to the weekly discussion questions is even easier.
Accessing the Axia library is done by clicking the Library tab towards the top of the ecampus screen. On the library home screen a general search box is available. Simply inputting keywords in the search box and selecting the subject of the search topic search the many databases accessible through the library. After searching, you can refine your search by publication date, author, title, subject, publication journal, and others. The library home screen also has links for The Center for Writing Excellence, The Center for Mathematics Excellence, Element K Tutorials, student labs, grammar and writing guides, a reference and citation generator, and information on APA format.
Axia offers many helpful tutorials and guides for its students. Student workshops are an awesome way to begin the Axia journey, especially the new student orientation workshop, which familiarizes the student with the various Axia resources and course procedures. I like using the Center for Writing Excellence to proofread essays and papers I submit. The CWE checks for spelling errors, grammar errors, and errors in academic writing. You can also check your paper for possible plagiarism against internet and private database content. The Element K Tutorials offer help in business and technology subjects. Student labs offer assistance in accounting, critical thinking, economics, finance, Java programming, marketing, statistics, student success, and writing. The Center for Math Excellence has a "Running Start" program for students to brush up on their mathematics and statistics skills, along with assistance for students suffering from anxiety over mathematics courses.
Upholding Academic Honesty
Reading Axia's Academic Integrity policy located in the Student Code of Conduct is a good start when trying to understand how a commitment to academic honesty is essential in online learning. Axia considers any form of academic honesty a violation, but the policy especially notes the violations for plagiarism. Plagiarism is "intentional or unintentional representation of another's words or ideas as one's own in an academic exercise" (UOP, 2009). Consequences for plagiarism include mandated counseling by Axia staff, loss of academic credit, action plan, suspension, and/or expulsion.
Axia makes avoiding plagiarism in academic exercises easy. Along with detailed information on how to cite almost any source imaginable, the Center for Writing Excellence allows students to submit documents to its Plagiarism Checker, which compares the document to internet sources, the Turnitin database, the GaleSearch database, some research publishing groups, and papers submitted by previous students. Using the Plagiarism Checker with every written assignment can eliminate inadvertent plagiarism and provide the student the source of the original work so it may be correctly cited. According to Carter, Bishop, and Kravitz (2007), avoiding plagiarism can be achieved by making source and content notes as your assignment progresses, knowing the difference between a quotation and a paraphrase, using a citation even with an acceptable paraphrase, understanding that it is unacceptable to submit any work that is made up primarily of quotations, and understanding that even internet information must be cited.
Setting and Achieving Goals
You should start by setting long term, broad scope goals first. Long term goals may be open ended, or have a set time frame for completion. When setting long term goals you should consider your personal values, such as your rules for life, the skills and abilities you want to develop, and the career path you want to take. These values should be strengthened each time a long term goal makes progress or is completed. Once long term goals are set, short term goals that help complete these long term goals can be developed. Breaking down the steps it will take to complete each long term goal can help identify what short term goals must be set to achieve success. The time frame for completion of short term goals can vary greatly, from as short as 15 minutes or as long as 10 months. All short and long term goals will inevitably be linked together. The next step is to prioritize these goals depending on how important you view each of your personal values, your current situation, and your time commitments (Carter, Bishop, & Kravitz, 2007). When working towards academic success, your studies should be high priority. Carter, Bishop, & Kravitz (2007) suggest prioritizing school responsibilities in the same manner as you would your work responsibilities to be effective.
Working to achieve goals is an ongoing process, so following a set procedure for goal fulfillment is recommended. Steps in achieving goals may be identifying the goal, deciding on a goal-achievement strategy, setting a timetable, monitor your progress, stay dedicated and remain responsible for making achievement progress, and anticipate any problems or obstacles before they occur so you will be ready to tackle them in a planned out and educated manner. According to Carter, Bishop, & Kravitz (2007), the more specific the goal-achievement plan, the more likely that progress will be made toward goal achievement.
Receiving my Axia degree is related to many of my personal goals. I have long term goals of being able to financially support my family, owning my own business, and improving my business skills. Achieving academic success at Axia and earning a degree will help me make progress towards each of these long term goals. Each day I spend participating in Axia courses strengthens by business, communication, and interpersonal skills. When I receive my degree I will qualify for more highly skilled, higher paying jobs, increasing the likelihood of me being able to financially support my little girl and myself. Once I acquire a more executive position in my field of interest and learn the ins and outs of the field, opening and operating my own business will be even more attainable.
Managing Time Wisely
Balancing school, work, and personal responsibilities can be especially challenging for the distance learning student. All Axia students should learn to manage their time effectively in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed, anxious, tired, or stressed. The first step to effectively managing time is to identify personal time related needs and preferences (Carter, Bishop, & Kravitz, 2007). Analyzing what times of the day you are the most productive, whether you can work for long periods of time straight or need regular breaks, and how your habits affect your academic success is important. If you find that you made excellent grades during a week when you were well rested, but had lower marks during a week when you worked many overtime hours, you can infer that getting enough sleep is essential to your academic success.
Setting a schedule for completing Axia schoolwork can also help you balance your time between coursework. If you wake up each morning at 6am, work from 8a-5p with a one hour lunch, return home at 5:30p, and go to bed by 9:30p, the most logical time to schedule for studying would be between 6p-9p. Adding family responsibilities to your daily schedule, such as children's extracurricular activities, can make setting a schedule even more complex. Detailed planning of your busy and free time can help streamline your daily tasks, reduce anxiety from uncertainty, and even provide you more free time than you thought you had! Using a planner or other scheduling device can help you stay organized and reduce the risk of forgetting an important assignment or event. As with goals, prioritizing planned events is important when in a time crunch. If you find yourself stuck between two conflicting events scheduled at the same time, prioritizing will help you decide which event or assignment must be postponed. For example, if you had scheduled some research time for a paper due next week, but really needed to finish up an assignment due tonight, prioritizing would help you see that the research time needs to be postponed in order not to have points deducted on the assignment due tonight for being submitted late.
While scheduling downtime is important, avoiding time wasters are equally important. Learning to be firm and say no when you do not have time to help with an extracurricular project, decreasing the amount of time you spend socializing, and delegating responsibilities when feeling overwhelmed are all ways to avoid wasting time that could be spend effectively.
Fostering Reading Comprehension and Retention
Reading comprehension is a crucial part of academic success at Axia. While some course materials are available in an audio format, most require the student to read, analyze, and comprehend the information correctly. General tips for increasing reading comprehension are to read unfamiliar content slower, build on your vocabulary by breaking down unfamiliar words or using a dictionary and thesaurus, try to recognize the organization of the content being read, and thinking critically and positively while reading. Many reading comprehension techniques exist for successful reading, including the SQ3R reading technique. SQ3R stands for survey, question, read, recite, and review (Carter, Bishop, & Kravitz, 2007). In a survey of reading content, you should skim the content for headings, terms in bold or italics, chapter titles, section titles, and other important content markers. After surveying and gaining a general idea of what the content is about, you should question yourself about your current knowledge on the topic and write questions next to headers about questions you have. The question stage essentially requires you to critically think about each section of the reading content. After identifying previous knowledge and anticipated questions, you should read the content word for word. While reading you should focus on information related to content headers and the questions you came up with in the previous stage. Making notes as you read can help you answer your previous questions and any new ones that emerge. Placing physical markers on areas of the reading material that contain important points will help you refer back to that material easily as well. After reading the material you should recite the questions you came up with in the Q step along with any new questions. Saying the answers to these questions aloud or writing down comprehensive answers for each question reinforces reading comprehension. The last step of SQ3R is review. Reviewing the main ideas and questions you answered during the SQ3R steps keeps the information fresh in your mind for use with future assignments.
Applying Personality and Learning Styles
Using the Multiple Pathways to Learning assessment tool for determining multiple intelligence strengths and weaknesses, I found that I have strong multiple intelligence in the musical and interpersonal categories, moderate strength in the verbal-linguistic, visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, and intrapersonal categories, and low strength in the bodily-kinesthetic and naturalistic categories. These results indicate that I have good abilities in sensing tonal qualities, creating and enjoying melodies and rhythms, being sensitive to sounds and rhythms, using "schemas" to hear music, understanding the structure of music, seeing things from other's perspectives, cooperating within a group, communicating verbally and nonverbally, and creating and maintaining relationships (Carter, Bishop, & Kravitz, 2007). To work on my underdeveloped areas (bodily-kinesthetic and naturalistic), Carter, Bishop, & Kravitz (2007) suggest acting act scripts of material, designing games to facilitate studying, moving fingers under words while reading, forming study groups of people with like interests, and connecting with nature as much as possible.
Based on my multiple intelligence strengths, course materials in audio formats would most likely be my best option for studying and learning. I also have more strengths working on teams and in groups than working individually, so the teamwork environment of the Axia ecampus is perfect for my outgoing, expressive nature. Since verbal and nonverbal communication and seeing things from other's perspectives are two of my strengths, relating to others who have different personality types and intelligences is a challenge I welcome. I prefer expressing my opinions openly and receiving open, expressive feedback from others, I feel naturally suited to lead discussions and projects. The open discussion forum style that Axia uses lets me express my thoughts and opinions and receive frequent, relevant feedback from experts in the field. I would only anticipate problems with more introverted students who have a hard time expressing their thoughts and ideas. Working on my communication skills by exploring other techniques that are easier for the less expressive individual to use could help me relate to their multiple intelligence strengths.
Conclusion
Surviving the traditional college scenario is stressful enough, but distance learning has its own unique challenges and obstacles to overcome. This survival guide addresses the major areas of distance learning and provides suggestions for how to overcome obstacles along the way to degree completion. Using Axia's educational resources, upholding academic integrity, setting and achieving goals, effective time management, comprehending and retaining reading material, and applying my own personality and learning style to increase my academic success are issues involved in distance learning that all students need to become familiar with. I can use this survival guide as a tool in my program completion to overcome some of the most common challenges of distance learning.

References
University of Phoenix. (2007). Student code of conduct. Retrieved from Axia College, GEN/105 '" Skills for Learning in an Info Age website.
Carter, C., Bishop, J., & Kravitz, S.L. (2007). Keys to college studying: Becoming an active thinker (2nd ed.). Available from the Axia eBook Collection database.