Study Smart launches

New Part 1 and Foundation students coming to study at Reading will receive their invitation to take our successful online course, Study Smart, this week. This valuable online transition to university course, has been developed exclusively for our students by the Study Advice and Online Courses team, and is now in its fifth year.

We need your support in promoting this more strongly to new students. Due to the disruption caused to young people’s learning from the pandemic, this course is likely to prove of even greater value than usual to students in supporting their transition to university. From our research, we know:

• New students have a number of anxieties about the transition to university level study
• Many lack confidence generally in how to approach their university studies
• Many are concerned about potential weaknesses in their study skills

The course will include advice on:

• Engaging in webinars
• Getting the most out of online course material
• Organising their study time.

As in previous runs, the course includes videos, quizzes and resources on academic integrity, communicating at university and independent learning. These activities and resources have been designed to help students with the transition to university level study and, once enrolled, students retain access to these resources for their entire time with us.

Feedback shows Study Smart is most successful when there is strong staff endorsement, so please do encourage your new Foundation and Part 1 students to enrol on the course (enrolments remain open until the end of Week 6).

A new online toolkit, developed by the SAT working group, to help colleagues support student academic transitions will be available from Monday 6 September on the Academic Transitions website (coming soon).

For more information about Study Smart, see the staff-facing Tutors’ Guide or email Dr Sonia Hood.