Welcome!
Section outline
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Welcome to Foundational Skills for College and Beyond!
Course Introduction
The goal of this course is to equip you with essential skills for success in college and in your life beyond the classroom. You will explore five core areas—financial literacy, digital skills, communication skills, time management, and goal setting—through practical, applied activities. Throughout the course, you will learn concrete strategies and techniques you can immediately integrate into your daily routines to improve your academic performance, personal decision-making, and long-term planning.Course Learning Objectives
Expand each section to see course learning objectives:
Accordion lists organize the course objectives from the document into collapsible sections by topic, making them easy to navigate.Click to expand Digital Literacy objectives
- Define key digital literacy concepts by explaining the components of information, media, and technological literacy. (Remember/Understand)
- Categorize digital skills into relevant types such as information evaluation, online communication, and data analysis. (Analyze)
- Create a self-assessment to identify personal strengths and weaknesses in digital literacy. (Create)
- Explain AI applications in academia e.g., research tools, plagiarism detection, online learning. (Understand)
- Evaluate AI's impact on academic integrity by weighing potential benefits and challenges. (Evaluate)
- Develop strategies for using AI responsibly in academic work. (Create)
- Compare online communication platforms e.g., email, video conferencing, forums for academic effectiveness. (Analyze)
- Demonstrate effective communication techniques through role-play and written practice. (Apply)
- Develop digital communication guidelines for personal academic use. (Create)
- Differentiate credible from untrustworthy sources using criteria such as authority, expertise, and bias. (Analyze)
- Apply advanced research techniques in databases and online resources. (Apply)
- Produce accurate citations of online sources using a required style guide. (Apply)
Click to expand Time Management objectives
- Analyze time demands of coursework by auditing syllabi and weekly workload. (Analyze)
- Identify high-demand courses and rank them by expected effort. (Analyze)
- Apply time management techniques e.g., Pomodoro, Pareto analysis to personal schedules. (Apply)
- Evaluate the effectiveness of chosen techniques through reflection logs. (Evaluate)
- Identify personal distractions and rank their impact on study time. (Analyze)
- Develop a distraction management plan to reduce barriers to productivity. (Create)
- Track and refine strategies by monitoring distraction management over time. (Evaluate)
- Explain group collaboration techniques e.g., role delegation, communication tools. (Understand)
- Create a group management plan for collaborative projects. (Create)
- Demonstrate teamwork and conflict resolution through role-play exercises. (Apply)
Click to expand Financial Literacy objectives
- Create a personal budget that tracks income and expenses over one month. (Create)
- Analyze spending habits to identify areas of overspending and needed adjustments. (Analyze)
- Evaluate the effectiveness of personal budgeting over a set period. (Evaluate)
- Compare financial aid options e.g., grants, loans, scholarships. (Analyze)
- Develop a financing plan for education based on aid options and costs. (Create)
- Differentiate between good and bad debt with examples. (Understand/Analyze)
- Design a debt repayment strategy for managing existing obligations. (Create)
- Recommend techniques to avoid excessive debt in the future. (Evaluate)
Click to expand Communication Skills objectives
- Define key communication concepts e.g., active listening, nonverbal communication. (Remember/Understand)
- Analyze communication strategies in case studies to identify strengths/weaknesses. (Analyze)
- Develop a communication portfolio with reflections, presentations, or role-play evidence. (Create)
- Demonstrate active listening skills in structured role-play scenarios. (Apply)
- Deliver clear presentations that demonstrate effective verbal and nonverbal communication. (Apply)
- Adapt communication style to suit diverse audiences. (Apply/Evaluate)
- Identify conflict resolution strategies negotiation, compromise, mediation. (Remember/Understand)
- Role-play conflict scenarios to apply learned strategies. (Apply)
- Design a personal conflict management plan for academic and professional settings. (Create)
Click to expand Goal Setting objectives
- Define SMART and SMARTER goals and explain their elements. (Remember/Understand)
- Develop a SMART goal framework for academics, career, and personal growth. (Create)
- Apply the framework to set short-, mid-, and long-term goals. (Apply)
- Differentiate between needs and wants in personal goal setting. (Analyze)
- Evaluate personal goals to ensure alignment with needs before wants. (Evaluate)
- Revise goals to reflect essential needs as priorities. (Create)
Structure of the Course
Each module of the course is organized around five key competencies that support students’ success in college and beyond. Each unit blends explanation, practice, and reflection so that students not only understand concepts but apply them in authentic academic and personal contexts.
21st Century Digital Skills
Digital skills are integrated throughout this course so you can confidently navigate technology in both academic and everyday settings. You will practice using learning platforms, online communication tools, and productivity apps, while also building skills in evaluating websites, searching scholarly databases, and citing digital sources. Across activities, you will develop habits for ethical technology and AI use, professional online communication, and effective digital collaboration, reinforcing your skills in every major unit.
The following digital skills are assessed integrated into the course modules:
- Using email, discussion boards, and video conferencing tools for professional academic communication
- Evaluating websites and online articles for credibility, bias, and authority before using them in assignments
- Applying advanced search strategies in scholarly databases to locate high‑quality academic sources
- Creating properly formatted citations for online and multimedia sources using a chosen style (e.g., APA, MLA)
Navigating the Course
Adopting institution should provide learners information on how to navigate the course. Consider adding an introductory navigation video. Text description could include, for example:This course is set up in Modules covering various topics which may be accessed from the course navigation menu on the left or by scrolling below. Modules may be collapsed in the menu and it the body of the course to minimize scrolling. Each module includes the relevant chapters followed by various activities, which may include discussion forums, listening activities and quizzes, practice quizzes, module tests, and other relevant activities as appropriate for each module. Many items are required and may be marked as completed automatically when the activity has been submitted (the broken check box), but others will marked as done by the student (the solid check box).Please move through the items below and continue through the Learner Support and Getting Started modules before moving on to Module 1. Be sure to check for announcements and due dates to stay on track.
This course and its contents are developed by Dr. Nick Taylor, Dr. Wynde Jones, Dr. Veronica McEachin, Paul Haddican, Sarina Lirette, and David Williams and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network, except where otherwise noted. Adopting instructors should edit the About Your Instructor and Office Hours Information pages in this Module.
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