Arts and sciences: overview and relationship

Online Ed Outlines

Introduction and Online Communication

New activities -- or revisited old ones -- are often intimidating. Trust in and utilize your core values to help with a smooth term

It is easy to get carried away with online anonymity. Remember that there is a diverse group of people communicating online; be respectful, clear, and earnest in the things you say online.

The world is a diverse and shrinking place, and the online college environment provides an excellent way to introduce/familiarize oneself with effective communication techniques across verbal and even linguistic differences

Values and Career Goals

You will never know what you want until you have a better understanding of who you are. Identifying and exemplifying your values will help you to determine effective goals.

Values can also help to explain your past actions, leading to an understanding of where you are in life at this moment, and providing a general idea of how things are likely to continue. Change can always be made if we are willing to recognize the need for it -- which leads us back to values!

Education and learning are values held by most people who decide to go to college (and the rest are likely pretty miserable!). These are very likely the result of deeper values, which is important to remember s you persevere through your academic training.

Unit 3: Personal Management

Identifying your own style of management is as important as identifying your values, and is in fact an extension of values. Knowing your priorities will help you use your time and energy effectively.

Organizing your time and life will not only help you to avoid stress, but will also help you in dealing with stress when it does occur (and it always does). The better you know yourself and your personal management style, the less you will encounter stress as a significant barrier.

Do things the way you do them best -- from learning to working, everyone has their own way to perform most effectively.

Unit 4: Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is essential to success, especially in college, and depends upon the consistent use of logic and reasoning. We use logic everyday without realizing it, but making critical thinking skills conscious has enormous benefits.

When combined with prioritization based on values, critical thinking is an essential step in problem solving, and will help you tackle issues large and small. From going to college to planning dinner, these skills are priceless.

Unit 5: Career Paths

Defining your interests is another step in discovering who you truly are and what you want out of life, which will help to develop effective paths and goals.

You have to know where you want to go and how to get there to lead an effective and fulfilling life -- plan now for the future, starting with your college career

Unit 6: Reading Comprehension

Reading is one of the major ways in which we learn today, in all aspects of our lives. In college, reading requires high degree of critical thinking in order to analyze information as it is being processed, and comparing it with previous knowledge.

Understanding what you are reading on multiple levels -- what the author is saying, why they might be saying it, the tone in which it is said, etc. -- will help you in writing critical and analytical responses to readings in college.

Developing a note taking system that fits with your learning style is essential to continued success in your college and future career.

Unit 7: The Writing Process

Just as reading is one way of taking in information, writing is a way of communicating our information with others. All writing requires a topic, tone, and organization, even if we are not conscious of them.

The clearer your writing is, the better you can communicate with others and the more effective you will be in getting your point across and listened to.

Writing makes up a large part of the workload during college, and perfecting these skills early will help immensely later on.

Final Project Outline

Introduction

College is a direct preparation for your career later in life

The skills you have developed in high school will continue to be useful in college and beyond, but they must continue to be honed and investigated in order to bring them -- and you -- to your full potential

The learning experience is wonderfully enriching on its own, and should be engaged in for the present as much as for the future

Self-Discovery: Overview

This time of your life will continue to be one of great self-discovery. Engaging in this discovery consciously and with an open mind will help you make the most of your college experience.

It is impossible to know what you want without knowing who you are; examine your values and your desires and use these to shape the choices you make for today and the path you will follow tomorrow

Self-Discovery: Examples

Though there are many values held in common by all or most people in our society, each individual has their own set of core values -- values that are the most important to them. If you value happiness over success, acknowledge this and set a plan that will help you truly achieve happiness in your academic and professional career

Knowing and acknowledging who you are will always lead to make choices that will lead towards a successful life

The College Experience: Overview

As much as college is about self-discovery, it is also about learning and developing effective work habits. First discover how you learn best, then apply this knowledge to your studies in a consistent and disciplined plan

Just as everyone has different values, everyone has a different way of learning. Develop your own plan, and stick to it. The most important thing is to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses and develop a plan that works with them, not against them

The College Experience: Examples

I found that with my work schedule during college, I could not set aside a certain time each day to devote to school work. Instead, I would sit down at the start of each week and plan my schoolwork around my work schedule, with specific readings and assignments scheduled for certain days and times.

One of my weaknesses procrastination, but organization is a great strength of mine. By using my strength to overcome my weakness, I was able to succeed at work and in school.

The Job Search: Overview

The variety of jobs available in the Arts and Sciences field means that almost any individual would have no trouble finding an occupation and career that suited their particular personality, strengths, and weaknesses.

It is essential to find a job -- both an occupation and the specific setting where you engage in your work -- that aligns with your values. Working in an environment with different values would be counterproductive to you and the company.

The Job Search: Example

In my current work as a writer in the Arts and Sciences field, I have had to schedule my time much in the same way that I did during college. My job requires a lot of self-motivation and careful planning; without having developed and improved these skills in college, I could never have the career that I have now.

At the same time, this job is very much aligned wit my life-long values, which emphasize freedom and creativity. I have found a job that enables me to use my skills and my values, and college helped me to get there.

Being Prepared: Overview

You might have heard people say that "the world is shrinking." While this is not, of course, physically true, it is true that faster communication and increased global interconnectedness has increased the pace of the world, and the diversity of the people we encounter on a daily basis.