Course Syllabus

---Note: This course code has changed from GS 105 to GE 105. You may occasionally see references to the old course code or title.

Welcome! The overall purpose of this course is to help you develop and maintain life skills and study habits that will, if applied, change your entire future. However, it is up to you. 

“This course requires synchronous meetings. If you are currently registered with the Disability Services Office and need an interpreter or transcriber for these meetings, please contact the deaf and hard of hearing coordinator at (208) 496-9219."

Overview

This course is designed to help you create greater success in college and in life. In the coming weeks, you will learn many proven strategies for creating greater academic, professional, and personal success. We will use guided journal writings to explore these strategies, and as a bonus, you will learn to express yourself more effectively in writing. This course will be a rare opportunity to completely focus on how to create a more personally fulfilling life. We urge you to make the most of this extraordinary opportunity. If you do, you will dramatically change the outcome of your life—for the better!

Requirements

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Required Resources

On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life, Study Skills Plus, 3rd edition, by Skip Downing. ISBN-13: 978-1305397484 Copyright 2017
The Cover of the Textbook

The course materials are available in the Course Materials List.

If you chose to order this book through the BYU-Idaho University Store, you may do so by going to BYU-Idaho University Store and selecting the Textbooks tab and Order Books. You can then purchase either an e-book or a used rental. You can also purchase this textbook online.

Structure

Course Outcomes (CO)

In this course, you will learn how to do the following:

  1. Take charge of your life. You will learn how to take greater personal responsibility, gaining more control over the outcomes and experiences that you create both in college and in life.
  2. Increase self-motivation. You will learn to create greater inner motivation (among other things) by discovering your own meaningful goals and dreams.
  3. Improve personal self-management. You will learn numerous strategies for taking control of your time and energy, allowing you to move more effectively and efficiently toward the accomplishment of your goals and dreams.
  4. Develop interdependence. You will learn how to develop mutually supportive relationships with people who will help you achieve your goals and dreams as you assist them to achieve theirs.
  5. Increase self-awareness. You will learn how to understand and revise your self-defeating patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion as well as your unconscious limiting beliefs.
  6. Maximize your learning. You will learn key research on how the human brain learns. You will apply this knowledge to develop your own learning system, giving you the keys to learning important course content in college as well as becoming a more effective lifelong learner.
  7. Develop emotional intelligence. You will learn effective strategies for managing your emotional life, decreasing stress while increasing your inner sense of well-being.
  8. Raise your self-esteem. You will learn how to develop self-acceptance, self-confidence, self-respect, self-love, and unconditional self-worth.
  9. Improve creative and critical thinking skills. You will learn how to enhance the thinking skills essential for analyzing and solving problems in your academic, professional, and personal lives. 
  10. Master effective study skills. You will learn how to improve your grades in college by improving essential skills such as reading, writing, note-taking, studying, memorizing, and taking tests.

Method: As you read On Course (the textbook), you’ll learn empowering strategies that helped others to have great success. By keeping a guided journal, you’ll make note of the key concepts and main ideas discussed in the readings, as well as discover how to apply these success strategies to achieve your own goals and dreams. By completing Academic Skills Plans (ASP), you’ll design a personalized learning system tol allow you to create deep and everlasting learning, and improve your grades as a result. By participating in weekly Teach One Another activities with family, friends, teachers, and fellow classmates, you will further improve your ability to stay on course to your success. Once you make these new strategies your own through application, you’ll have the ability to dramatically improve the outcome of your life—academically, professionally, and personally.

Course rules for success: To create the very best environment for supporting your success and the success of your classmates, this course has three important rules. The more challenging these rules are for you, the more value you will experience by adopting them. By choosing to follow these three rules, you are choosing to be successful not only in this course but in your life. These rules will support your success in every goal you pursue.

  1. Show up! To support my success, I choose to read or view all content in its entirety.
  2. Do the work! To support my success, I choose to do my very best work in preparing all of my assignments and handing them in on time.
  3. Participate actively! To support my success, I choose to stay focused and involved, offering my best comments, questions, and answers when appropriate.

Major Assignments

The table below is meant to help you see the relevance of each major assignment as it pertains to the course outcomes (CO).

Major Assignment Description CO#
Journals Weekly Journal Activities 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9
Teach One Another

Class meetings in odd weeks

Share and Discuss in even weeks

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8
Academic Skills Plans

Activities to increase academic skills

#10

Weekly Patterns

The table below displays typical weekly activities, due dates, and activity descriptions. 

Due Date* Learning Model Activity Title Description
Midweek Prove Quiz Assess understanding of the content reading.
Midweek Ponder and Prove  Academic Skills Plans or Reports  Complete a personal plan or report on the given academic skill.
Midweek Teach One Another

Class Meeting (odd weeks)

Share and Discuss (even weeks)

Teach others content from the week.
End of Week Ponder and Prove Journals  Reflective journal activities

*Set your time zone within user preferences so the dates and times for course activities will display correctly for your time zone.

Success Journals

During the semester, you will submit journal activities. Your Success Journal provides an opportunity to capture the key concepts and main ideas from the readings, as well as explore your thoughts and feelings as you experiment with the success strategies presented in On Course. By carefully examining each strategy in your journal, you will discover which ones will assist you to create a rich, personally fulfilling life. As you write your journals, please do so for yourself, not for your instructor. Your instructor will look through your journal entries to check the accuracy of your answers and to give credit for a job well done. If you want a comment on a specific journal entry, please let your instructor know with a note in the comment area of the assignment submission.

Journal Points: A journal entry will be awarded the maximum of 10 points if it fulfills the criteria on the rubrics and the two following criteria:

  • The entry is complete (respond to all steps in the directions and refer to the rubric).
  • The entry is written with high standards (an obvious attempt has been made to dive deep).

Academic Skills Plans

You will complete a personal Academic Skills Plan for the following seven topics:

  • Reading
  • Taking notes
  • Taking tests
  • Writing
  • Organizing study materials
  • Speech and presentation

The creation of each Academic Skills Plan will provide an opportunity for you to apply an effective problem-solving model to determine the most effective way for you to deepen your learning in college and beyond. In addition to improving your learning skills and grades, these activities will help you learn how to approach and solve virtually any problem you encounter, whether academic, personal, or professional.

You will implement each Academic Skills Plan for a seven-day period and then prior to learning a new study skills area, you will be given the opportunity to evaluate the study strategies you adopted, and your application of these strategies. 

Weekly Teach One Another Activities 

Most weeks, you will participate in activities to allow you to teach your learning to family, friends, teachers, and fellow classmates. These Teach One Another activities will take place in online Virtual Meetings and Share and Discuss activities which you will hold with trusted confidants in your life.

Academic Honesty

GE105 is about your personal experiences. AI can write a definition for you, such as the definition of time management. But AI can not tell you how you spend your time. Your journal assignments in this course are your personal reflections. AI is powerful but can not write a personal reflection.

If you use AI to write your assignments, you will receive a 0 on that assignment. If you use AI twice, you will be reported to the Honor Code Office.

Learning Model

You are encouraged to learn by study and also by faith (D&C 88:118). The three processes of the Learning Model will help you deepen your learning experience.

In this course, the Prepare phase of the Learning Model is delivered through the study material (textbook and other reading materials). The Teach One Another phase is facilitated through group work. The Ponder and Prove phase is measured through the weekly application assignment.

The Five Principles of the learning model are where you, the student, can take personal responsibility and invite the spirit to be part of your study strategies and learning process.

Expectations

Communication

You can expect to receive grades and feedback within 7 days of the due date for all assignments. You can expect to receive weekly announcements from your instructor. To find feedback quicker and to have announcements come to your contact method of choice, add your contact methods in Canvas so you can receive notifications. This contact methods tutorial will show you how to add contacts. This Canvas tutorial on Canvas notifications will show you how to set up your notification preferences. 

Workload

The BYU-Idaho standard for the student workload in courses is about 3–4 hours per week per credit hour (for example, this 2-credit course would require approximately 6–9 hours of work per week). Set time aside in your daily schedule to work on the course.

Group Work

Most weeks, you will participate in activities to allow you to teach your learning to family, friends, teachers, and fellow classmates. These Teach One Another activities will take place in discussion boards, online Virtual Meetings, and Share and Discuss activities which you will hold with trusted confidants in your life.

Late Work

As a sign of professionalism and respect, complete your work on time. Late work is not accepted.

Grading Scale

Letter Grade Percentage Range
A 100–93
A- 92–90
B+ 89–87
B 86–83
B- 82–80
C+ 79–77
C 76–73
C- 72–70
D+ 69–67
D 66–63
D- 62–60
F >60

Course Projects:

Points
Icebreaker discussion board, Syllabus Quiz, Google 20
12 weekly reading quizzes 120
15 Success Journals (10 points each) 150
12 Academic Skills Plans and Reports (10 points for each plan and 10 points for each report. 120
12 Teach One Another activities 170
1 Final Essay 30
Total Possible Points 550

University Policies

Students with Disabilities

Brigham Young University-Idaho is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere that accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. If you have a disability and require accommodations, please contact the Disability Services Office at (208) 496-9210 or visit their website and follow the Steps for Receiving Accommodations. Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have qualified documented disabilities. Services are coordinated with students and instructors by the Disability Services Office.

This course may require synchronous meetings. If you are currently registered with the Disability Services Office and need an interpreter or transcriber for these meetings, please contact the deaf and hard of hearing coordinator at (208) 496-9219.

Other University Policies

Student Honor and Other Policies

Please read through the document called University Policies. It gives important information about the following topics:

  • Student Honor
    • Academic Honesty
    • Student Conduct
      • Sexual Harassment
  • Student with Disabilities
  • Complaints and Grievances
  • Copyright Notice

Go to the Student Resources module to review further resources and information.

Course Summary:

Date Details Due