Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863 if you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county's crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Okay, it's 06:00 time again for brain matters, the official radio show, the UA Counseling center. We are broadcasting from the campus of the University of Alabama. Good evening. My name is Doctor BJ Guenther and I'm the host of the show along with my colleague and producer Katherine Howell, who is not here tonight, but hopefully she will be back. She's having some technical difficulties and hopefully she'll be back next week because I really miss her and we haven't seen each other in a while. Since we don't do the show in the summer, I am a little bit rusty. So this is our first show back. In case you don't know, this show is about mental and physical health issues that affect college students and in particular UA students. So you can listen to us each Tuesday night at 06:00 p.m. on 90.7 FM, or you can listen online at wbUA, ua.edu and wbuafm. Excuse me?
Or you can download the My tuner radio app and type in WVUaFM 90.7. You can also listen on Apple.
It'll be posted to our podcast there on Apple. It's just under brain matters and I'll try to remember to announce the email address again and also the website if I can remember. That's what Kathryn really helps me do during the show and I miss her for that.
And if you have ideas, since this is our first show for the semester, we usually do twelve to 13 shows per semester. So if you are listening and you have ideas for upcoming shows, please email those to me at brainmattersradio at wvuafm dot ua.edu so I can consider using your idea. And no show topic really is off limits. We've in this is going on my, I think 11th year doing the show. I started in January 2013 and we've done just about. It feels like every topic with relation to mental health issues, but I feel like it's very important to revisit topics that we've done before, even every year. Sometimes I feel like it's important to touch on low mood or depression every year, or stress management or anxiety, and also sleep problems because I feel like that is ongoing no matter what year you are in school, whether you're a freshman or a senior, and that's something that we can usually talk about. And there's newer trends every year with regards to those topics. This year, I like to start the shows off in the fall with either something to do with adjustment issues, because I do have students coming in here at the counseling center with homesickness and adjustment issues, or with study skills issues because it is a transition, to be honest, going from high school to college. And for some students, you can get behind really quickly, and my guests will probably attest to that and sometimes not be able to bounce back as quickly as you could have in high school and maybe not even know where to get help. Tonight's topic is I thought I knew how to study, but I don't and I'm going to be guilty of that. When I started college, I thought I knew how to study, and quickly it spiraled, and fortunately, I got some help with a tutor that first year. Do you ever feel like your study habits just simply aren't cutting it? And do you wonder what could be done to perform better in class or on exams? And many students realize that their high school study habits, like I just mentioned, aren't very effective in college. And this is understood understandable because college is quite different from high school and the professors are less personally involved. Classes are bigger, exams are worth more, reading is more intense, and classes are much more rigorous, especially the chemistry, organic chemistry. I could name some classes that we talk about. I talk about all the time with students, and maybe we'll touch on that a little bit. You know, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. It just means you need to learn some more effective study skills. Unfortunately, there are many active, effective study strategies that are shown to be effective in college classes. And my guest tonight hopefully will help us kind of muddle through this topic.
Danny, I do not know how to pronounce your last name. Is it Sagers?
[00:04:57] Speaker C: It is. You got it right.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Wow. That's the first one. Danny Sagers and Victoria Clark, both of both of these staff members are academic coach success coaches for UA online academic success. And I want each of you, first of all, thank you for being on the show.
And first of all, I want to ask each of you, what are your credentials and how did you become interested in this topic? And give us a little bit about your background for the listeners.
[00:05:27] Speaker C: Victoria, if you don't mind, I'll go first.
So I'm Danny. I'm Danny fagers. I'm one of the three success coaches here for the University of Alabama online. Victoria is one of my colleagues. So I have a former, or as a former main campus student with the University of Alabama. I also struggled with transitioning from high school study methods to higher education study methods. And so I can relate to a lot of you guys. And as a success coach for non traditional students taking online classes, it's just as critical to understand your strengths and your weaknesses so that you can adapt your study habits in college. But those are the kinds of things that have led me to be passionate about making sure that our students are well prepared for that transition, whether it be on campus or online. And then I will let you go over. Victoria.
[00:06:15] Speaker D: Thank you. I'm Victoria Clark, and like Danny said, I'm also a UA online success coach. I am also a former high school teacher, and I am a UA graduate. So I've done the main campus thing. I made it through.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: Go ahead.
[00:06:34] Speaker D: And I just have that experience of being a UA main campus student, working with high schoolers from freshmen all the way up to 12th graders, preparing, train them for college, and then transitioning from that role to a success coach, where I help our learners who are distant and who are in all different paths of lives. We have students who are 18 years old, fresh out of high school, who are doing online learning all the way through any age you can think of, at any period of their life as well. So we've seen a lot of different students.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: Victoria, you really have some interesting insight. Being a former high school teacher, I had no idea. And what grade did you teach?
[00:07:21] Speaker D: So I taught in a, it was a film and digital arts academy. So it was a career and technical education class. And I was, I actually really enjoyed the fact that I got to teach 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th graders.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: So you got to teach everybody, basically in all grades?
[00:07:39] Speaker D: Yes, I did.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: You know, I've got so many questions right now on top of the ones I've already prepared. But first of all, with high school students, you know, we have a lot of students, whether they're online or on campus, that are very, you know, they function very, at a very high level in high school. And if they come here and they do not do well that first semester, it really affects their self esteem. And that's a lot of the times when we'll see them walk through our doors because they're just lost. Did you have you had former students, Victoria, to contact you because of that? Have you ever seen that?
[00:08:22] Speaker D: I have had students who would ask me about how in preparation, they knew they were going to college. They'd made the decision and they had started getting nervous at the beginning of, they're like, can you tell me what to expect? What should I be doing? What am I not doing? I've had a lot of that from students, but I think that it really is, and I tell them this, every experience is different for every college student. I think in high school it's a lot more stable in the fact that everyone's kind of on the same path. You're doing the same thing. College is where you can't just look at the person beside you and know that that gauge, that that's what you're supposed to be doing.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And two, there's so many more transitions going on in college at home, you know, you've got got, you know, most people are used to being in their own home. They've grown up with some of these kids who are their friends. But here there's a lot of different things going on at one time, not just with academics. You know, Danny, with regards to online studies, I feel like some of the students I've seen who take a mix, a hybrid of on campus classes and online classes, I think they are under the false impression that online classes are going to be easier and that throws them for a loop. Do y'all hear that a lot?
[00:09:46] Speaker C: We don't hear it a lot, but it's obvious a lot of the times. I also, when I was attending main campus for my undergrad, I did a little hybrid there. I took some online classes. Much later on, I was a senior and I think a junior the first time I did it. But even I went into it thinking, oh, this is going to be a breeze. And it's not. It's actually more time commitment and a lot more responsibility on the student, even as compared to the main campus students in college.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: I think so, too. I think unless you're incredibly good at organization, time management, that's what gets them sometimes is it just gets out of hand. And then the next thing you know, I'm hearing students saying, I've got ten chapters to read tonight. You know, they put it off because they thought it was going to be easy.
What are some reasons students are transitioning?
Who are transitioning, you know, from, to college, from high school, what are some of their issues with studying? And they struggle with it. What do you think they are?
[00:10:50] Speaker C: So I think the reasons are going to vary. Like Victoria mentioned, each student's experience is going to be different. But I do often see our students, especially online, but even in my own experience, I see students struggle with studying because as Victoria mentioned, expectations are not clearly laid out either in their later years of high school or even in their first couple of semesters in a higher education institution. And that could be that their parents didn't prepare them, their teachers didn't prepare them, even their instructors in the college classes aren't necessarily laying things out very clearly. And so you've got some instructors that do a really, really good job mentioning that time commitment that's going to be required outside of the classroom and then what kind of expectations they're going to have for passing their course while others don't. And ultimately, either way, it's up to the students to prioritize their coursework in college and that's going to make sure that's going to lead to a good transition, knowing that you have to do that.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: This is a controversial question, so here it comes. But do you hear students? I do. I hear students complain about their high schools that they come from. They complain, you know, or they blame it, I'll say it like that. They blame it on their high schools. And, and, you know, for me, I don't know if maybe they weren't doing that good of a job, really studying. Maybe things came easier to them and they didn't really have to study, but they blame it a lot of times. Oh, I didn't come from a good high school or something like that. And I have to explain, you know, you're here now, you're here now, you're past high school. Let's start over. You might have to relearn how to study or you might have to learn how to study, period, because you've never really learned that it's come too easy for you.
[00:12:33] Speaker C: And I would tend to agree that I would assume that a lot of students make that assumption, that it's all because of their high school. But that's just the nature of high school education. And any k through twelve program, they don't necessarily focus on preparing you for college. That is up to your counselor, maybe, or your parents and your peers, but not necessarily your teachers and the academic structure in high school. And Victoria might be able to touch on that a little bit more because.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Of being a former husband.
[00:13:05] Speaker D: So I've always, I try to explain to my students that K twelve is giving you building blocks to get to college, to get to a career. And to be successful with things like, there's a reason we have bells. It's to help you with sticking to a schedule and time management, and there's due dates, because that's preparing you for college, and you're gonna have a job where things are due at a certain time. It's setting you up for those things. Then when you get to college, where hopefully my students that struggled with high school, I tell them, in college, you have more of a say. So hopefully you can pick a major, you can pick a passion, almost something that you care about that will create that buy in for the student. Because at the end of the day, a teacher and instructor can teach you, they can give you information, but the student has to engage actively with their own education. There has to be that level of buy in on the students.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: That's exactly right. And if they are not used to that, or if they have a personality, like an introvert, possibly, who just, it doesn't come easy for them. Those are the ones who really struggle here. I've seen that, you know, I was.
[00:14:19] Speaker C: One of those students.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh, it's so hard. You know, especially when you're in a large class, just asking a question for some students is really anxiety provoking. We're going to take a break, and I meant to mention this to you. At the beginning of the show, we'll try to do three breaks every 15 minutes or so. So we'll take a break right now. When we come back, let's take an email question, if you don't mind, just kind of off the cuff spontaneous and see how we can answer that together. But right now you're listening to brain matters on 90. The capstone will be right back.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Wvuafm TUScaloOsA this show is not a substitute for professional counseling, and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863 if you are not a UA student, please contact your respective Counties Crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: We're back. You're listening to 90.7, the Capstone. This is brain matters. I'm Doctor BJ Guenther, and we're talking tonight basically about study skills, thinking that you know how to study when you get here at UA and you really find out quickly, maybe you don't have great study skills. What do you need to do about that? My guests are Danny, I have totally messed up your last name again. Sagers.
[00:16:10] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: And Victoria Clark. I just. I think about it too hard. And I told Danny and Victoria, this is our first show back. We don't do shows in the summer, so I am rusty. I apologize to y'all, but we're talking about study skills. Victoria is a former high school teacher and is now an academic success coach, along with Danny at UA Online, which. How many students do you have registered? I mean, do you separate the ones that are hybrid or do they, do you count them all together, the ones who are, like, not here on campus?
[00:16:45] Speaker C: So we traditionally don't have very many hybrid programs that are offered through the University of Alabama online. There are some that require in person visits, like engineering, of course, has labs that people have to attend. And College of Education has a lot of in person cast class meetings that they do, like once a month kind of thing. But for our overall enrollment, which includes both undergrad and graduate programs, we had close to Victoria. You may be able to correct me if I'm wrong. We had close to 8000 students, if not more, that enrolled for fall 2024.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Wow.
And there's three of you guys who are the academic success coaches. How often are you contacted about online students? Let's just talk about online students struggling and needing help often.
[00:17:40] Speaker C: I don't know about Victoria, but I have at least ten appointments a week. Some of them are recurring appointments where I meet with one student multiple times a week. And a lot of the conversations are on how do I study better because I'm not retaining the information I need to retain and I'm not managing my time well.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: Well. And speaking of retaining, I mean, that's the whole point of everything, really, is to retain students so that they don't quit and give up when it gets hard, because this is only the beginning, is what I tell them, you know, if you can create and develop some good study skills right now, then you're gonna be okay, you know? But some really get frustrated. And we'll talk about that in a little bit. In a little bit. But I wanna take an email question first. We may have already talked about it, but let me look. What would you say to a student who is making good grades but has heard so many different ways to study and is now questioning and judging their own ways of studying not being good enough?
[00:18:41] Speaker C: So I definitely, I want to point out again that every student's experience is different and what someone else is doing may not work for you. And so doing that comparing and that self criticism isn't going to help. Now, self evaluating and kind of reflecting on your own study habits, adapting them is a good way to improve what you think you need to improve on. Instead of thinking, what I'm doing is not good enough.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, and I think some people wait too long. They just try to muddle through or just, you know, they just try to use the only thing they know to do. And then they panic when they realize maybe mid October, mid semester, when those grades are coming back after that first or second test, and they realize, oh, my gosh, I might not be able to pull this up by the end of the semester, they panic.
You know, even though a student did well academically in high school, there's no guarantee, you know, that they're going to do well here. What are some tips? I mean, I know this is what people want to hear. What are some tips to be better able to prepare? You know, Victoria already shared a little bit of what she tells, what she told her students in high school when they would come and ask how to prepare for college. But when they get here, what are some tips that work?
[00:19:58] Speaker C: First off, I think recognizing that college is different is half the battle. And honestly, if you come into it knowing that things might need to be adapted a little bit, you're already off to a good start. Yes, because you do have to consider things like Victoria mentioned that you're no longer living under your parents roof in most cases, and no one's going to be breathing down your neck to ensure you're doing your homework. And then you're not going to have, you know, your college educated instructors and professors are not going to chase you down for missing assignments. So although being proactive, I've had students.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: Parents to call me and ask me if I would call and wake up their child. No, we don't do that here in the counseling center. That's what alarm clocks are for. That's what your phone's for.
[00:20:38] Speaker C: Right? And time management and learning that time management is a key part of successful study skills. And just being successful in all things, not just your academics, is definitely one way to better prepare yourself for success in college, success in your careers. Even if you're doing a technical degree or something, time management is going to be a big part of your study skills.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: Any suggestions, Victoria, anything else you could add?
[00:21:05] Speaker D: I will say for main campus students that there's a lot going on, not just academic wise, when you're making that transition to college. And while a lot of the other things that are available are fun and they're exciting and it's just so much going on. You can bite off too much more than you can chew. You don't need to join every single club. You don't need to go out every single time your friends ask you to go out because at the end of the day, you're in college because you're trying to get a degree. The priority does need to be the classes in your education.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: It's hard to juggle it all, isn't it? It's exhausting.
[00:21:45] Speaker C: It's hard for us as adults to juggle it online because I'm taking two classes a semester online and a master's degree, and I am still learning lessons on organization and making sure that I'm prioritizing things.
[00:21:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, it takes skills. If you've ever seen Napoleon dynamite, that's an old movie. I'm aging myself. What are some study strategies that aren't as effective that you see people doing that just, you know, do not work? I mean, procrastination, you know, I call it the mother of all excuses, waiting till the last minute because they think they'll, if they learn it faster, then it'll be fresh like the next day.
[00:22:28] Speaker C: I'm glad you pointed that out because we. I don't know about Victoria again, but I am constantly having to remind our students online that studying for 8 hours one day right before an exam is not the best way to go about it. And the first thing that comes to my mind based on, you know, coming right out of high school and into college is simply relying on listening to your instructors and taking minimal notes. In a high school setting, you would see the same instructor every day of the week for multiple hours, and information.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Is needed a lot.
[00:22:57] Speaker C: But in college, you only meet maybe two to three times a week for an hour or two. And you're required to be more responsible with when you set a time for reading and when you set a time for studying and actually sticking to it. So that's definitely one of the first things that comes to mind as far as being an ineffective way of taking notes is just doing the bare minimum in class and then not thinking about.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: It afterwards, kind of riding it out. One of the articles, I try to do a little bit of research before the show just with some background for some background on the topic. And one of the articles I read, the first thing they mention in the article is reading is not studying because I think, and that's kind of a little bit. What you're talking about, like rereading leads to quick forgetting. I'm actually reading it from the article, only doing the readings for class. That is not studying.
[00:23:53] Speaker D: I would agree with that. And neither is highlighting the whole entire textbook. That's another one I hear a lot.
They're like, I just highlight everything. I was like, okay, well, that's not affecting. That's, you don't need to know the textbook word for word, but also when it comes to lectures. Well, my instructor, I'm just typing out every single thing the instructor says.
Also not an effective way to do it. And another big thing that I am, I try to explain this to my high school students. I explain this to students now, mindlessly typing every single thing an instructor says is not helping you at all.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: Yes, and I think they do. What do you, why do you think they do that? I think they do it just to keep from getting bored.
[00:24:38] Speaker D: So typing has become such a basic thing for us. We all can do it so mindlessly now. I don't, I don't think they think it's quick and they think it's effective, but it's not actually helping them learn. I know for me personally, when I was in college, I would hand write all the notes during the lecture. And then after class I would go and I would type out the notes because my handwriting isn't the best. And it helped me. One review, what we learned in class, have it all in an organized manner, saved in my computer. And that also was helpful for other people in the class who I might need to share notes with. Compare and contrast. It was easier to do that once I had typed everything out.
[00:25:26] Speaker C: I did the same thing as a student, and it was the only way I succeeded in college was just that constant, like typing handwriting. Typing handwriting. And I will say, just to add on to the fact that we end up mindlessly typing, we do have a lot of students that take better notes if they're just typing from the get go, because this younger generation was so, so heavily influenced by technology. But one of the things I think that we can kind of guide them to is the focus modes or the do not disturb modes because they get distracted by notifications or social media or shopping online when they have.
[00:26:01] Speaker B: That's one of the things that was mentioned in the article is you've got, you've got to have the discipline to cut off all this stuff that's going to cause you distraction.
[00:26:11] Speaker C: It's just hard to focus on that's in class. And when you're doing your studying outside of class because I for one have a bad habit of picking up my phone if it makes a sound at all when I shouldn't.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: Oh no, we're all guilty of that, you know, what about when does memorization help? When is it effective?
[00:26:33] Speaker C: I find it. And Victoria, you can definitely chime in on this because it may be different for different subject matters, but I find that memorization is really helpful when you're doing things like history exams and trying to memorize formulas and how to apply them and vocabulary. Again, reputation is key in those cases, but I don't find it super beneficial if I'm trying to do any kind of critical thinking or problem solving.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what the article said also. And one thing it mentioned, and I wanted to see if you heard, if you've heard of the study cycle. Do you know what that is?
[00:27:08] Speaker C: So it may be a variation of a couple of things that we've heard, but there's definitely what we call spaced repetition or spaced study schedules. And it's a way to specifically plan out, hey, you know what? If classes on this Tuesday, I'm going to go back and I'm going to review the lecture the very next day and then I'm going to plan to continue reviewing my other things from that source every couple of weeks leading up to the exam so that I'm not just cramming it all in at the very end.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Yeah. It prevents procrastination.
That is so hard.
I was watching a video of someone giving some tips, you know, like another student giving some, a graduate student giving some tips that work for him. And one of the things he talked about, the whole video premise was what if you have absolutely no motivation? And I have students who come in that they feel like, I guess maybe they're burned out. I don't know. But it will get to this point in the semester, trust me, in, like I said about October, November, where they just don't think they can do any more studying, what do you think is the problem with that? Do you think they've done what you've talked about and they've crammed for like 8 hours or, you know, and they didn't work for them, so they don't know what else to do. What could, what could students do to prevent the lack of motivation?
[00:28:30] Speaker C: That's a hard one.
That one's a hard one. And definitely something that we deal with a lot in our online students as well as the main campus students. It's very, very hard to juggle, you know, social life and family responsibilities and everything like that. And so one of the ways that I kind of encourage students to maybe not get burnt out is to space things out a little bit more. And instead of spending 8 hours, two days during the weekend, which is, you know, your only time that you don't have to go to class or the only time you don't have to work during the week, instead of doing that, spending like an hour or two every day after your lecture to kind of review, or again, if you're online, just spending an hour or two every day.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: Looking at your course materials, that goes back to having, building up some discipline, I guess.
[00:29:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: To, you know, this kind of might be an odd question, but I got to thinking about, have y'all seen where some students who perform well in high school and not being as prepared in college?
Does it matter what region or state they come from? Have you all thought about that or even done any studies on that?
[00:29:38] Speaker D: So I'll speak to that.
Education is primarily like, that's handled by the state and local responsibility in the US. So it's not like every student in California and a student in Georgia got the same exact education. And you can even go through the fact that did you go to a public school, a charter school, a private school, and then when you're in that school, were you taking college prep classes, which are just your general level course? Were you in honors classes? Did you take advanced placement AP courses?
So even within your high school, you could have differed, your education could have differed from another student in the school. And there's also now we're seeing a transition to a lot of high schools becoming specialty high schools where you're on in a technical program or you're at a STEM school, or you're at a fine arts school where your focus is a little different compared to someone who's in a traditional style?
[00:30:44] Speaker B: School makes a difference, doesn't it?
[00:30:46] Speaker D: It does. And I think another thing for high schoolers transitioning to college is it depends on what type of high school schedule you had. Did your school operate on quarters? Did your school operate on semesters?
[00:30:59] Speaker B: Uh huh.
[00:31:00] Speaker D: And then even on a day to day basis, were you at a school that did eight periods that were 50 minutes apiece? Or did you go to a school that did block scheduling, which is you're spending an hour and a half in four classes every other day.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Do you see those students who were on the block schedule, in your opinion, Victoria, do you think they're more disciplined or focused? Can you compare them from a high school perspective?
[00:31:28] Speaker D: Because I have talked to students who did one or the other, both or whatever, it's usually. And I actually taught at a school that made the transition from going to 50 minutes periods. The next year, we decided to go to block.
And it was a very contentious thing for teachers and for students.
[00:31:50] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:31:52] Speaker D: Because 50 minutes, you can, you can be engaged with 50 minutes of class.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:31:57] Speaker D: An hour and a half, you might lose that attention span. And I, as a teacher, ended up having to put in those breaks. Right. I had to like, okay, we're going to work on this for 25 minutes. We're going to take a ten minute break and focus on something else. Do a little brain break and then go back or move them around into different types of activities just because that is a lot for, say, a 14 year old to an 18 year old to just sit down and do an assignment.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: Well, I hear it here, you know, with the students who have Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes, they're 50 minutes, and then they're Tuesday and Thursday. A lot of times they complain and, you know, talk about, oh, it's an hour and 15 minutes. I hate that class. You know, that kind of talk. So, hey, let's take another break. I forgot to take one a few minutes ago. We get on a roll, so let's take another break. And when we come back, let's take another email question and just keep talking about study skills. And you're listening to brain matters on 90.7 the capstone.
[00:33:04] Speaker A: Wvuafm tuscaloosa. This show is not a substitute for professional counseling, and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA counseling center at 348-3863 if you are nothing, if you're not a UA student, please contact your respective county's crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: You're back listening to brain matters on 93 the Capstone and BJ Gunther, and we're talking tonight with Danny Sagers and Victoria Clark about study skills. Basically, because I feel like this is the first show of the fall semester, we need to talk about something that is going to affect many of our students who may be listening and study skills. Like I mentioned at the beginning of the show, if you feel lost, you need to start reaching out and asking for help, either from us at the counseling center or success coaches like Danny and Victoria, who are used to, I feel like y'all are used to really helping. This is part of your job, to really help students find their niche here and find a way to be successful on campus and off campus, because UA online is where Danny and Victoria spend most of their time talking to online students. What about, you know, what do you tell students? Do you have students who really get frustrated with just not being able to get it to catch on to the material? What do you tell them for the ones who are just frustrated?
[00:34:58] Speaker C: I will definitely say, I hear a lot of our engineering students say that because there's so many math based classes and it's just, it's really hard to learn math sometimes. I would have failed miserably in an engineering program, and most of them were.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: Very good at math. Like, you know, they think that they're very good at math, and then it just keeps getting hard, you know?
[00:35:16] Speaker C: Right. And so my suggestion in any cases like that is to either reach out to a classmate that might be able to help guide you in your own study methods or how they're helping process the information.
Always be, well, sorry. Be prepared to reach out to your instructors. And I know that can be daunting and it can be intimidating. And you sometimes might feel like they don't want to hear from you outside of class hours, but they do. They have office hours for a reason, they have contact information for a reason, and they are always a great resource to get a better grasp on the concepts that they're teaching and don't give up.
[00:35:50] Speaker B: You know, if you don't reach them one time, keep reaching out. A lot of times I hear students, oh, they tried to email them one time and they didn't get a response. You know, they take it personally sometimes.
Let's take another email question as far as, since you guys are online, that you really gear more towards online students. I don't know. Are all online students eligible to request a meeting for study skills help? And I would assume they are, you know, if they're registered.
[00:36:19] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:36:19] Speaker C: And there are resources for the main campus students to do the same thing.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: What do, what are the, what's the process for getting an appointment?
[00:36:28] Speaker C: So if they are, if they're an online student with the University of Alabama, we actually have a really easy website URL that they can type in. They can go to online ua.edu success, and they see a calendar that has all three coaches availability and they don't have to meet with the coach that's assigned to their college. So, for instance, I cover college of Engineering, College of Education, and College of Arts and Sciences. But any student in those programs could also schedule with Victoria. And then for the main campus students, it's very similar. There's a website they can go to to request appointment through the Capstone center for student Success.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: How soon can students get appointments?
[00:37:07] Speaker C: As soon as they're admitted? Honestly, we have students that aren't even registered for classes yet that want to reach out and just kind of talk through what their experience might look like and what their nervous about.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: So there's no waiting, waiting list or anything? Like if I want, if I looked today at the calendar you're talking about, I could get an appointment. Is like this week sometime even possibly?
[00:37:27] Speaker C: Absolutely. For our office, I'm not sure if the Capstone center for Student Success for main campus does the same thing, but for our office, we have, you know, meetings up to the next week and a half out. Normally, I think Victoria and I even have the whole month of September listed out of and so as long as they schedule within 24 hours, they can get an appointment.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: Is there anything teachers and parents can do?
[00:37:51] Speaker C: So I want to touch on this a little bit and then pass it over to Victoria kind of for the teachers aspect of things, because I will say teachers, counselors, and even their classmates in high school can offer perspectives on the students strengths and areas for improvement. But parents also can help with that. But they play a bigger role in preparing their kids for college by encouraging them to be more responsible and maybe putting more expectation on them. Not a whole lot, but, you know, chores and things like that that hold them responsible for that kind of theme and for time management skills and study habits while they're in high school. And not just letting them rely on the easy kind of like, oh, let me take notes in class, which I did. Unfortunately, I was one of those students that only took notes in class, never had to study in high school. And then I got to college and that, that bit me in the rear. Everything changed. So parents can help in that way.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:46] Speaker C: And then I'm not, like I said, I'm not sure what suggestions I could give for teachers to help students better prepare, but Victoria might be able to touch on that a little bit.
[00:38:56] Speaker D: I think for teachers it really is. And from the perspective of being a student, what? You get annoyed by your high school teacher who kind of is giving you a level of freedom for an assignment. A lot of times students will be like, can you just tell me what to do? And I'm like, no, it's open ended.
[00:39:13] Speaker B: I hear it all the time. You're right.
[00:39:17] Speaker D: They want, step by step, just tell me what to do. They don't want to actually really engage with it almost. Right. They don't want anything that's open ended. They don't want that level of creative freedom. And college is so much of free thinking element that they're not necessarily used to in college in high school.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: Good point. Yes.
[00:39:38] Speaker D: So that's a really hard transition for a lot of high school students to college is that level of rigor, but it's also that level of rethinking that they're given. It's intimidating.
[00:39:49] Speaker B: It's intimidating. And, you know, I try to talk to students when they are struggling with study skills about, like Danny said early on in the show, why are you really here? You know, you're really here. Are you really in what you need to be in? I mean, I've even had hard talks with students about, are you really, do you really want to go to college? You know, because it's just so common. Like, I think I don't have high school. You know, I don't have children in high school. But I, it's just, I think it's just assumed that you're going to go to college and not necessarily everybody is meant to go to college, and that's where I'll have to have that talk sometimes with students, you know, like, what is your goal? What's your passion?
[00:40:40] Speaker C: Right.
[00:40:40] Speaker D: I think that that also is almost, I wouldn't say a failure, but it is misleading.
[00:40:45] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:40:45] Speaker D: For high school students, they think if they do get to college, that that.
[00:40:50] Speaker B: Was the hard part.
[00:40:50] Speaker C: Right.
[00:40:51] Speaker D: Just getting into college and getting there, there's not a lot of assistance put into, like, hey, this is what you actually need to do once you've gotten in. Like, this is going to be transition. There's going to be changes. There's kind of a gap there, especially for a freshman student. And once they get to UA, we try our hardest to support them as much as we can and give them all of these resources. But that does come down to the student being willing to engage with those resources. Resources and not suffer in silence. That's a big thing for our online students is please don't suffer in silence. Please utilize all of these resources that we have available to help you and to assist you.
[00:41:34] Speaker B: It is nothing to be embarrassed about or ashamed about. Other people are struggling, too. You just don't really talk about it because it's so competitive. Everybody isn't. You know, all the students are a lot of students are in competition. That's what we talk about a lot. Lot of times, you know? So what about one of the article, the same article I keep mentioning mentions changing. How do I articulate this? Changing the places where you're studying, changing that often? Because a lot. I mean, is that a good thing or should you have one particular spot? I have students who always go to, like, a certain place in the library to study. That's their study spot. But this article mentioned maybe it's a good idea to switch it.
[00:42:17] Speaker C: So I think that is also going to vary based on their personality. Some people do better with routine and being in the same exact spot and knowing exactly what to expect, while others might benefit from doing. Studying, maybe studying English in the library and then going to Starbucks or having something a little bit more chaotic to facilitate a different, like, background noise.
So it's definitely, it's not bad advice, but it's also nothing 100% across the board good advice.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: What do you think? You mentioned engineering, and I certainly agree with that. What do you think are some of the tough subjects here at UA that you hear people struggle, students struggling with over and over again that are having to utilize help with study skills.
[00:43:06] Speaker C: So definitely those math classes. I hear math from the very basic, most, you know, generic zero zero five is the course number all the way up to Cal three because it's required for a lot of those engineering programs. But I will. I can agree that asking for tutoring resources should never be embarrassing, and it's never too soon to do it either. If you know that you're going to be in a Cal class in an upcoming semester, you can schedule a tutoring session in that very first week of classes. As long as you know what you can take to the session and kind of go over that with the tutoring.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Victoria, you got any input?
[00:43:41] Speaker D: Accounting. Accounting is hard. I support business, nursing and CNIS students. So my business students, bless them, they go through a lot. They go through a lot hard. And it's not always the easiest for them to. Business students want things quickly and they just kind of want to get to the point. So when they. They get stuck, they get easily frustrated. I will say I have noticed that with them, and it's just trying to really emphasize, hey, if you need help, let's try to find that help early. Let's not wait until the day before the test. Let's not say that you're like, oh, I can't get this. And you've not reached out to an instructor, you've not checked any of our resource page tutoring options. Like, what have you done since you felt this way, other than be upset about it internally?
[00:44:36] Speaker B: Panic. They panic.
For me, I'm going to say specific classes that I hear about organic chemistry, diff EQ for engineering, statics for engineering, accounting. There's like. For the business, there's like 400 level.
Help me, Victoria. Is it mis or 200?
[00:45:02] Speaker D: Is om 300 as well?
[00:45:06] Speaker B: I hear that. I hear that. You know what? I don't hear as much. And when I first started working here at the counseling center, I've been here a while, I heard a lot of problems with writing. And, you know, I don't hear as much. I don't know what's changed. I don't know if they're really utilizing the writing center more often, but I just don't. And the minute I say that, I'm going to have a deluge of students come in here with writing issues, but I don't see that much anymore. I hadn't thought about that until just now.
[00:45:36] Speaker C: I definitely think the writing center does a fantastic job of kind of putting their name out there and making sure that students know that they can help with everything from beginning to end for anything academic. But I also think that students are.
How do I put this delicately? They're much more accustomed to doing research online and using artificial intelligence and things like that to kind of assist with their writing.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: Who knows how bad it's gotten, right?
[00:46:03] Speaker C: Yeah. So ethically, they may be doing everything right, but they've still got a little bit more help on the back end that we didn't have as students, as main campus students ten years ago.
[00:46:12] Speaker D: The way you worded that, Danny, was great, because I agree. I was gonna say. I was gonna be blunt. I think they're using AI chat GP.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: They have a lot of other.
[00:46:21] Speaker D: They have the resources, and I think that they use them, and they're just going on about, you know what?
[00:46:27] Speaker B: Who can blame them, really, honestly, if you. If it's out there and unless there's like, somehow they. There's stringent rules or ways to enforce or not enforce it, then how can you stop it? I don't know. Well, that's a whole nother show.
There's an idea for a show right there. Listen, another quick break, and then we come back. Let's talk a little bit more about resources, other resources that y'all know of. So we'll be right back. You're listening to brain matters on 19.7. The Capstone.
[00:47:09] Speaker A: WVuaFM, Tuscaloosa. This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863 if you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county's crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:47:50] Speaker B: Hey, you're back, listening to brain matters on 19.7 the Capstone. We're talking tonight about study skills. I'm Doctor BJ Gunther and my guests are UA online academic success coaches, which are a wonderful tool that a lot of students may not be aware of that they have access to. Easy to get an appointment. We talked about that in the last segment. Danny and Victoria are my guests tonight, and we, we just finished up talking about some of the tough subject matters, some of the tough subjects here on the UA campus that we hear about often. I think math will always be tough for a lot of people. Some people are just, you know, they learn math easily and they don't really catch on to English or vice versa. It's just how the brain works, you know? So one of the things I read about in doing research too, for this show is acting, studying. Is that different from anything we've talked about yet?
[00:48:50] Speaker C: Not necessarily, but it could be. I think it's definitely the case that every student has a learning style that they prefer. And what's important to kind of figure out if active studying is right for them is evaluating their study habits so they can apply a learning style that works for them, whether that be active or nothing, and asking questions like, well, how do I learn best and when am I most focused and that kind of thing?
[00:49:17] Speaker B: Well, that kind of transition to my next question is, what if you have a professor who doesn't fit your learning style? Would you recommend, have you ever recommended a student drop a class or try to drop an ad? Another professor who is more in line with their studies, you know, their learning skill, their learning style?
[00:49:38] Speaker C: I don't. Victoria can speak to her own experiences, but as a coach, I don't normally make recommendations about dropping a class because I don't, I've never taken it. I can't attest to what the teacher's learning style is, but I have actually developed a workshop in our office that talks about learning styles and how to adapt, especially in an online setting where you don't get that face to face interaction with the instructor, but how to adapt to the resources they do provide in a way that works for your learning style. So, for instance, if you have somebody that does really well with visuals and does not do well with reading, they may be able to bring in a certain type of note taking style that where they create their own visuals based on lectures and stuff like that. And then, of course, you've got people that might listen to audiobooks instead of reading and that content.
[00:50:28] Speaker B: Victoria, anything.
[00:50:29] Speaker D: So I actually am lucky. I'm very happy that I support our CNIS students because I was a CNIS student and I actually do meet with students who are in classes that I've taken before. So I do sometimes have a little bit of insight.
[00:50:45] Speaker B: You can speak to that? Yes, I do.
[00:50:48] Speaker D: Try to tell them, use resources like rate my professor, read through those beforehand, and you can maybe save yourself the trouble of even getting into a class that's not gonna fit your style.
[00:51:03] Speaker B: That's good suggestion. See how many peppers there are. Is that. What? Is that the one that uses peppers?
[00:51:08] Speaker D: Yes, they have the peppers. For online student, that's a big thing is they might not have the connections with other students to be able to hear about instructors. Whereas main campus, you can kind of hear rumblings around. You might have friends, you might hear other students who are like, oh, don't take that. Don't take that in the spring. Don't take that with that. Like, there are. Sometimes you don't want to stack courses on top of each other, right? If you are our instructors here, but if you can avoid a situation, try to avoid a situation. Sometimes there's only one instructor that teaches the course, and you just gotta power through the best you can.
[00:51:45] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. That's hard. That's hard when there's only one instructor, because that is usually my first question is like, can you change professors? You know, is that an option for you? No, this is the only one who teaches this. And then I know it's going to be a long semester, you know, you all know that, too. Hey, before we wrap up, do you have any resources? Do you have any books that would help? Any apps that would help? Any websites?
[00:52:10] Speaker C: Anything I will touch on. I think coaching is one of the best resources for any student, whether they're online or main campus, because our job is to ask you the kinds of questions that make you evaluate how you're approaching things academically. And it kind of loops in professional and social relationships as well. So we make it a very well rounded conversation.
We don't put anybody on the spot. It's very helpful as far as making action plans that are going to help you succeed in your academics. But it also, like I said, loops in goals and things like that that you may have for yourself in the future that your academics feed into. So all those conversations are. I just think they're such a good resource for students. And if I had known about it when I was a student, I probably would have been one of those that was too shy to actually do it. But seeing how it has benefited my students that are shy has made me kind of push it a little bit more.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: I can't believe you were ever shy, Danny, doing what you do.
[00:53:09] Speaker C: You know, you should have seen me when I interviewed for this job. I was a hot mess during my presentation. Cause I was so shy. But this job has also kind of brought me out of my shell a little bit.
[00:53:18] Speaker B: It does. It does. It's kind of thrown you to the wolves. You have to sink or swim, don't you? I get it. I totally get it. Victoria, do you have anything to add with regards to resources, apps even, or anything you've heard about out?
[00:53:29] Speaker D: So this is kind of a tip for students, especially transitioning from high school. One thing I noticed about high schoolers now is that they really like the buddy system. They don't really. They're not really alone. They usually always kind of have someone with them. They travel in groups.
[00:53:45] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:53:46] Speaker D: You can do that in college if you need that support friend. Like Danny mentioned, if you're that shy student and it's hard for you to do things on your own, try to get that one friend who can be there for you and be like, hey, let's go over to the tutoring center. Believe me, the tutor. Two of y'all at the same time. They're not strict. Get that one person who's kind of like your safety support person, maybe, and talk to your friend about that. Like, hey, you know, I'm shy. I kind of struggle. I need this help. Is there any way that you'd be willing to go to the tutoring center with me?
Yeah. And I've never seen an instruction who's turned down having multiple students coming for help or anything, any of our resources in that regard. So you don't have to do anything alone, and it just don't suffer in silence. We have so many resources available on campus. We have the Capstone center for student success that offers tutoring. We have the math center that offers math tutoring. We have the writing center. You have counseling center for services like that. And then you have your college, you have your instructors, you have, you can build these relationships. It's intimidating being in a class with 300 students. But if you're able to build a relationship with an instructor, reach out to them and tell them, hey, I might need help with this. Is there a ta, is there a grad assistant? Is there someone that you know in the college that maybe I could get a smaller, more intimate setting of support?
[00:55:18] Speaker B: Yes. And don't wait too late. That's what I tell them. Like, don't wait too late, please. Because there does come a point where it is too late sometimes in the semester. Y'all know that. I do, too. Thank you so much for being on the show. This went by so fast. I say that to everybody, but there's just always so much to talk about. I think with study skills and helping students succeed and seeing what might be going wrong for some students, and it just isn't. It's a good feeling when you have helped a student and they build that confidence and they do so much better than they were doing.
Thank you so much. Let me make a few announcements before we go. Don't forget, as I mentioned earlier, our shows are recorded and podcasted to audioboom.com, to Apple podcasts to voices ua.edu. you just type in brain matters. My logo is a hot pink brain. If you're looking to subscribe and you'll find some of our past shows, most of our past shows are on all of those platforms. There's also a link to voices ua.edu on the counselingcenter website at counseling ua.edu. and I always like to thank a few people who've made the show possible. As always, I want to thank our executive director, doctor Greg Vanderwal at the counseling center, my producer, Katherine Howell, who's not here tonight, but she should be back next week. My colleagues at the counseling center, Katherine Ratchford, she's on staff with WVUA and edits my shows. I appreciate her. And of course, my guest tonight, Danny and Victoria. Danny Sakers and Victoria Clark. If you want to get in touch with them, you'll have to rewind the show and listen to that. But it sounds pretty easy to get in touch with them. And don't forget, we're on next week also with another show. It's interesting show how music can boost your mood. I can't wait to talk about, because I talk to students all the time about this and it's interesting. It's very fascinating. We've got a UA professor over in the music school, the School of Music, who is going to be on the show. So join us next week. Thanks again for listening and have a good night.
[00:57:35] Speaker A: This show was not intended as a substitute for professional counseling. Further, the views, opinions and conclusions expressed by the show hosts or their guests are their own and not necessarily those of the University of Alabama, its officers or trustees. Any views, opinions or conclusions shared on the show do not create a relationship between the host or any guest and any listener, and such a relationship should never be inferred. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, please contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863 if you are not a UA student, please contact your respective Counties Crisis Service hotline or their local mental health agency or.
