A. Skills Development

The following section focuses on providing you with some necessary skills to make your learning journey in UCC one for the books. This section can really assist you in developing new skills and to learn the UCC language, if you take the time and energy to properly work through it.

Scaffolding Your Learning

What is Scaffolding?

Scaffolding is a method of teaching through which a lecturer or course facilitator provides supports for you as a student to enhance your learning and aid in the mastery of tasks and knowledge acquisition. The supports provided are gradually reduced until completely removed as your understanding of the topic increase. In the traditional classroom, scaffolding will assist in addressing certain concerns or areas with which you might be struggling.

Scaffolding serves a variety of purposes during learning which will help you as a student in eventually taking ownership of your own learning and to perform independently. Scaffolding allows the lecturer to:

- Provide support.
- Model skills.
- Share knowledge.
- Ask questions.
- Adjust pace.
- Teach strategies.

Why do I need to Scaffold?

Whatever course you are studying, it is very likely that there will be students with diverse learning needs. The use of scaffolding to address the gaps between what students can do with the assistance of the lecturer and what students can do without any assistance, increases the likelihood and opportunity for you and all your peers to succeed in the course and master the learning objectives. Through scaffolding, you will also have the opportunity to practice more self-directed learning.

One specific focus of scaffolding is active participation from you as a student and a greater degree of control over your learning, making your learning much more effective and guiding you in your cognitive development. One of the main benefits of scaffolding is that it provides for a supportive and conducive learning environment to all students in your course. In a scaffolding learning environment, you are encouraged to ask questions, provide feedback, support one another in learning new material and make yourselves more responsible and accountable towards your learning duties. This, in turn, will allow you and all your peers to move beyond your current skills and knowledge levels.

Learning To Learn Online

Online learning and studying

There might be times in your course, where blended learning is applicable. This means that some parts of the course will be online and other parts of the course will be face-to-face in class. In order for you to successfully approach this learning in the virtual university classroom, you need to read through this section and ensure that you understand the elements of online learning used in UCC. Online learning is a little bit different to what you may be used to in school or your previous college experience and the study and learning skills you will need in an online classroom are similar but slightly different to those in a traditional classroom.

For example, you will have to become a mostly self-directed learner and schedule your study time more effectively. Unlike the face-to-face classes you are used to, there may not always be immediate responses to emerging questions because your professors, lecturers, peers and yourself may not always be simultaneously present or work on the same task at the same time.

This Graduates Attribute page Links to an external site. serves as some tips on how to keep well while learning, studying or working from home.

Learning with The Success Zone and Canvas

While you may already be familiar with Canvas and frequently use your phone, tablet and laptop in your private life, being a student in an online learning environment has its own challenges. As a UCC Student, you will be enrolled in a Success Zone course that includes comprehensive information on useful tools you will need during your time as a student in UCC, including the Canvas platform. Additional to the, The Skills Centre Links to an external site. also delivers workshops and training on how to be successful in your online learning. The poster below serves as a guide on how the Skills Centre can assist you in your online learning. Click on the poster to book as session.

Tips - Effective Online Learning

Below are ten essential tips that serve as a guide to assist you in successfully learning online during your time in UCC.

Access to Resources and Assessment: Make sure you have what you need to access content online from reliable internet and a reliable desktop or laptop.
Dedicated Study Space: Create a study space with minimal distractions.
Dedicated Study Time and Routine: Create a study plan that works for you and your life. Routine is critical to study success.
Keep Informed & Communicate: Communication is the number one thing that will make online learning a positive experience.
Connecting: It is also important to stay in contact with your peers and friends. You are a huge resource to each other.
Your Role - Stay Motivated: Try not to view the online experience as an obstacle, but rather a new and exciting way to learn.
Prepare for Assessments: Familiarise yourself with what the current expectations are of you to complete your assessments online.
Digital Citizenship: Be kind and respectful to your online classmates and lecturer.
Mental Health & Wellbeing: Mind yourself. Be kind to yourself. If you feel frustrated or confused at any stage, remember this is absolutely normal. Take a break. Speak with someone you trust. Get some fresh air.
Positivity Focus: Online learning is an opportunity to manage your own time and work in the way that suits you best.

Effective Time Management

It seems that there is never enough time in the day. But, since everyone gets the same 24 hours in a day, why is it that some people achieve so much more with their time than others? The answer lies in effective time management. Effective time management requires an important shift in focus from activities to results: being busy isn’t the same as being effective. Spending your day in a frenzy of activity often achieves less, because you’re dividing your attention between so many different tasks. Effective time management lets you work smarter, not harder – as the saying goes.

Time Management

Effective Time Management

- What is effective time management?

Time management is regarded as the process of organising and planning how to divide your time between various specific activities. Failing to manage your time effectively, impacts your overall effectiveness which causes unnecessary stress. It may seem counter-intuitive to dedicate precious time to learn about time management, instead of using it to get on with your life, but the benefits are enormous:

1. Greater productivity and efficiency.
2. Less stress.
3. Increased opportunities for personal and academic growth.
4. Greater opportunities to achieve important life and learning goals.

Spending a little time learning about time-management techniques will have huge benefits now, as well as throughout your time in UCC and beyond.

- How can effective time management assist me in my studies?

Additional to the above benefits of time management, it will also assist you in:

1. Feeling in control of your time.
2. Integrating your academic life with your real life.
3. Getting all your assignments completed.
4. Having time for guilt-free fun and relaxation.
5. Becoming more efficient and avoiding time wasting.

Scheduling & Time Blocking / Chunking

Another aspect of effective time management refers to scheduling. Scheduling is where you map out your main tasks for the week. This shows how much time is taken up by merely a small amount of weekly tasks. Here is an example of what a schedule could look like.

Additional to scheduling, there is also Time Blocking or Chunking. Time blocking is the practice of planning out every moment of your day in advance and the dedicating specific time 'blocks' for specific tasks and responsibilities. While a standard to-do list will tell you what you need to do, time blocking tells you when you are going to do it. For example, if you know that you need to study for a test a few hours each day, your 'study' block indicates the specific hours that you will spend actually studying for that test. Now consider this, below is an example of what time blocking looks like.

Time Management Checklist

To further guide you towards achieving effective time management, you can consider the following time management checklist.

1. Requirements / Priorities / Responsibilities: Consider what tasks will take up the most of your time, what are the things you must do each semester, how you are to responsibly prepare for your specific course and what your priorities are in terms of your academic course.
2. Enjoyability: This doesn't mean you will enjoy each specific task on your calendar, but that you will enjoy your overall time allocation and that you will reward yourself with fun activities to compensate the less fun activities.
3. Sustainability: Consider whether you are comfortable to stick to the schedule that you have drawn up for yourself. Don't set yourself up for exhaustion and burnout.
4. Well-roundedness: Consider whether you see your academic work as an integral part or separate from your 'real life.' It is crucial that you make to for sleep (8 hours), good nutrition (cooking), exercise / movement, community (friends / clubs), rest as well as joy / fun / me-time.
5. Big-picture Thinking: Consider why you are doing what you are doing. Is it for short-term or long-term benefit? Think about what your time and schedule create for you in practical terms.
6. Honesty / Realism: You should be honest with yourself in terms of the things you NEED to do and the things that you WANT to do. Further consider your capacity to realistically achieve your schedule in terms of your personality, interests, and personal preferences.
7. Discipline vs Procrastination: Consider whether you are honestly practicing discipline around your time and think about your strengths and weaknesses, and how these affect your schedule and time management.
8. Review: Consider whether you need to review some of the elements in your schedule because it takes away from the focus or are not sustainable.

Time Management Exercise

Now that you have the necessary tools and time management tips, you can try do draw up your own schedule and see how you can slot this into your own time blocks. You can download the below Time sheet. This is an empty time schedule which you can use as a base to start from.

Draw up your own scedule.pdf Download Draw up your own scedule.pdf

Important: If you struggle - remember this is just for practice, there is no 'right' or 'wrong' answer. This is NOT FOR MARKS.

Employability Skills

What are employability skills?

Employability skills are those things that make you 'stand out from the crowd.' It refers to those non-negotiable skills, personal qualities and values that make you, not just succeed, but thrive in any workplace. These are also sometimes referred to as ‘enterprise skills’, 'communication skills' or ‘workplace skills'.

Employability skills include things like:

Effective communication
Motivation and initiative
Leadership
Reliability/dependability
Following instructions
Teamwork
Patience
Adaptability
Emotional control
Resilience

There are various ways in which you can build your employability skills including through paid work, unpaid work and volunteering, sport, and other hobbies as well as community or other group activities.

Get Noticed

All these skills are highly valued and appreciated by employers. These skills will also take time to accomplish and build up. It is for this very reason that it is essential to start thinking about and working on these skills as a student already. When it comes to applying for jobs, you should highlight examples of when and where you applied these skills in your job application. Getting involved in UCC can help you develop and practice these skills for the workplace.

An example could include that you might outline how you pride yourself on your effective time management and organisational skills. You could explain that this means that all your college work is delivered on time and completed to a high standard. You can also demonstrate your employability to employers through how you conduct your job search. Here are some examples of your employability skills in action:

When you contact employers about jobs you are demonstrating your communication skills and showing initiative and motivation.
When you show up to an interview prepared and on time it demonstrates your reliability and ability to follow instructions.

Your Network Audit & Action Plan

The following exercise is an opportunity to reflect on your current network and to identify ways to develop into the kind of network you need to maximise your ability to find and create career opportunities. Network_Audit_Exercise.pdf Download Network_Audit_Exercise.pdf

This next exercise is completing a Networking Action Plan that will help you reflect on how you will move forward. Your Networking Action Plan.pdf Download Your Networking Action Plan.pdf

It is essential that you start focusing on maximising your career network and start building on your Curriculum Vitae (CV) for one day. For further, detailed information and guidelines on maximising your network, CV writing, job interviews and more, you can follow this link to join the UCC Careers Services Learning Hub on Canvas.

Skills Development