Does Social Media Make You a Better Student?

As students enrolled in an online education program, you’re all probably aware of how many online resources there are for students. What more and more students and educators are discovering, however, is that some of the same resources you use to socialize on the internet can be invaluable to your classes and overall education.

A study by MastersInEducation.org set out to determine the correlation between the grades of students and their use of social media, and many educators may have been surprised to find that grades were actually higher among students who were highly active on social media sites.

Among the most popular sites for students are Facebook.com, YouTube.com, Twitter.com and blogs – ironically, these are some of the very same sites that professors and students have identified as procrastination tools and educational distractions.

Do you use social media sites for reasons other than socializing with friends and family? Have you interacted with classmates on Facebook or Twitter? Have you searched for videos on YouTube that broaden your understanding of a particular subject or class?

UMUC Gives Back This Holiday Season

This holiday season, UMUC faculty and staff worked tirelessly to give back to the families in their community with hopes of spreading a little holiday cheer. Through a partnership with the Salvation Army, UMUC’s Adelphi Staff Advisory Council (ASAC) participated in the annual Angel Tree Program, one of the Salvation Army’s most popular end-of-year campaigns.

“This program is by far ASAC’s biggest and most important project. It takes months of planning, along with the participation of many staff members and their willingness to help families in need in our community,” says Meredith Levesque, ASAC member and co-chair of the Special Projects and Programs Committee, which coordinated UMUC’s participation in the program.

The Angel Tree Program was established by the Salvation Army to help provide gifts to individuals and families in local communities who would otherwise receive little to no gifts during the holidays. Every year in late fall, the Salvation Army distributes gift wish lists for children, or “angels,” and these lists are then distributed to UMUC staff and faculty members who volunteer their time and money to purchase many of the items on their designated “angel’s” list. Each list provides information about the child’s age, gender, clothing and shoe sizes, as well as a special wish list of toys or other items the child would like to receive.

In UMUC’s sixteenth year of involvement in the Angel Tree Program, nearly 500 “angels,” all of whom reside in the local Princes George’s County area, received gifts from the university community. The total number of “angels” receiving gifts this year increased by roughly 30 percent over last year—this has proven to be one of the most successful years to date.

“The community does so much to support UMUC and our students by providing scholarships and donations. So this is our way to give back to the community in a big way. Having the opportunity to give children a Christmas which they might not have had otherwise gives us a feeling like no other,” says Levesque.

The Salvation Army recognized the university’s exceptional efforts by presenting a Certificate of Appreciation to UMUC President Susan C. Aldridge at the 2011 Service and Achievement Awards. The hard work and dedication of so many individuals throughout UMUC—including the ASAC members, Angel Tree team captains, and volunteers—will surely help to make this holiday season a little brighter for many families in our community.

Easy Ways to Improve a Paper

So you’ve been assigned a paper in one of your classes. No matter if the paper is supposed to be five pages long or 25, it’s sometimes overwhelming just thinking about how to get started with your writing, especially if you’re coming back from taking a few years off from school. And once you’ve written a draft, it’s tempting to simply turn it in and never look at it again.

If you take the following steps after you finish writing, however, you can potentially turn a mediocre paper into a great one.

1. Proofread. If you haven’t proofread your finished paper, you can almost guarantee that there are at least one or two errors—whether they’re grammatical errors, unclear sentences or even typos, your professor will most likely catch these mistakes and attribute them to carelessness. Even better, have a friend or mentor proofread your paper to catch errors you may have missed.


2. Highlight your main argument, thesis statement or hypothesis. Can’t find it? Go back and add a sentence or two clearly articulating the primary argument you’ll be making in your paper. Then, highlight the topic sentences and main points of each section or body paragraph. If you can’t identify your main points, your teacher won’t be able to either.


3. Check for style consistency. Some professors strictly adhere to one style method, whether it’s APA Style, MLA, Chicago, etc. Double check with your professor if you aren’t sure about which to use, and then make sure that your reference notes, punctuation, and paper organization fall in line with the accepted style.


4. Read over your paper and check for repeated words or phrases. Replace words that you use frequently with synonyms to make your sentences flow better. If you don’t have a thesaurus, go to http://thesaurus.com to find an alternate word.

Time Management Tips

You’re a student, but you might also be an employee, parent, spouse, friend or volunteer. Part of going back to school means learning how to juggle classes with relationships, jobs and everything else happening in your life. Fulfilling all of these different roles can be challenging, but with a little organization and preparation, you can effectively manage your time in a way that allows you to successfully navigate each of them.

Make a To-Do list. Keep an updated to-do list every day. Note which tasks are the most important, and cross off each task that you finish.

Create a schedule. Using either a paper calendar, planner, or online schedule, create an organized schedule. Include everything from “Class at 11 a.m.” to “Go to the grocery store” to “Tennis Practice at 3 p.m.” Compare your to-do list to your schedule and determine which tasks you’ll have time for each day. You may find that you can only get one or two things done today, but that your schedule is more open than anticipated for the rest of the week.

Be flexible. Of course there will be many times when unexpected things pop up during your day. It may not be ideal, but be prepared to roll with the punches and modify your schedule accordingly. Be careful to not get caught up in being upset about the day’s changes as you will only waste time and exaggerate your issue.

Focus on the task at hand. Even when you have the most hectic of days, it’s important to focus on what you need to be completing at that specific moment and not what you need to do later. Allowing your mind to go other places will only detract from what you’re doing at the moment, and as a result the task will most likely take longer or mean you’ll have to revise it later.

Make others aware of your schedule. Just because you’re on a schedule with a serious timeline in doesn’t mean those around you are. Communicate with friends, family and roommates to ensure that you don’t have to pick up the slack for anyone else on a particularly busy day. It’s also easy to feel left out when you have a tight schedule, so make plans with friends and loved ones in advance so that you can still fit fun into your hectic week.