Academic Skills for Pathways Students | The Teaching & Learning Centre

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by Michelle Gravelle, Manager of the Learning Centre, and Jennifer Peters, Manager of Library Literacies, Instruction and Outreach

Imagine you are a student following a pathway from a diploma program into the fifth semester of a degree program. Consider the difference in academic skills required for the third year of a degree program. Will you have all the academic skills required for this pathway? How do you know? Where could you find out? Well now students have a way to gauge their readiness to transfer. Seneca Libraries and Learning Centres partnered with Academic Pathways to explore student needs for transitioning between programs. The Academic Skills for Pathways Students Program’s objective is to address the unique needs of pathways students in the development of their academic skills by developing and building learning resources for key skills.

Data was gathered through a survey and a number of focus groups with advisors and pathways students. The findings showed that key academic skill areas for pathways students included critical thinking, research, writing and citations, time management, group work, and discipline-specific foundational concepts. To support these areas, a number of learning resources were developed and others were retooled with new insights. This included a series of self assessments for students, new Learn@Seneca course packages, and a new landing page for academic skills. In the Winter semester 2023, the landing page had 318,976 views, which suggests students are navigating to this resource embedded within all course shells.

In addition, a quick guide has been created for Seneca faculty and staff to help them understand the unique needs of pathways students and quickly connect them with the resources to support their students. This guide highlights resources geared specifically towards the unique needs of pathways students, but can also be used for any Seneca student. Resources include guides and tutorials from Seneca Libraries, Seneca Learning Centre, and The Learning Portal.

Through these new and updated resources, we hope to equip faculty with the tools to support students in their programs who may be Academic Pathways students to strengthen their journey towards academic success.

Have some feedback or questions about the Academic Skills for Pathways Students Program? Email pathwaysacademicskills@senecacollege.ca.

^{Photo by Mario Dobelmann on Unsplash}

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