Some first-year college students who enjoyed academic success in high school suddenly experience difficulties when faced with college academic work. The reasons for this may vary; however, many of these students say their high school study habits were ill-suited to the rigorous demands of college coursework.
A large-scale effort to help such students bridge the gap from high school to college began last year, and continues this fall. "Transitions," a series of ten 30-minute satellite programs offered via the PeachStar Satellite Network, starts up in September, and will focus on independent learning strategies that Georgia's high school students need to succeed in a college environment.
"Transitions" also provides a Web page, a student activities packet, and an Instructor's Guide to reinforce the concepts and strategies presented in the programs. The series is geared to help college-bound high school students and their teachers and administrators to recognize problems and to devise strategies to ameliorate them. Billed as "fast-paced and playful," "Transitions" features a style and a format designed to engage the students and their teachers.
The series is funded by Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB; Education Services Division), and is a cooperative effort of GPB, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, and the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
The primary goal of "Transitions" is to provide students with essential tools for becoming as successful in their first year of college as they were in their last year of high school. The series will help students become independent, self-regulated learners, investigating ways college-bound students can perform well academically in college. Specifically, study strategies and other practical methods for creating a climate for academic success in college will be presented.
The ability to study and comprehend information is not innate; rather, students must be taught how to think about and understand information in ways other than through memorization. Students can be taught to be self-regulated learners, which means they possess a repertoire of strategies from which they can select. They learn monitoring and metacognitive skills that enable them to know when their understanding is breaking down and what they can do to gain the level of understanding they need. The creators of "Transitions" are putting together a series that entertains as it instructs. The series' major participants are students, not professors. The humor, the situations, the questions--all will reflect real students and real experiences.
The Georgia Center and UGA's Division of Academic Assistance worked together to create "Transitions." The curriculum was developed by Sherrie L. Nist, professor with the division and by Lee Davis, a writer/producer/director from LaGrange, Georgia. Andrew J. Permar and James F. Shehane, of the Department of Television Services at the Georgia Center, are in charge of production.
The 10 topics for the series are:
Air dates and registration information will be announced in the near future. For additional information about "Transitions," contact Andrew J. Permar or James F. Shehane, Department of Television Services, Georgia Center for Continuing Education, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-3603, 706-542-1226, Fax: 706-542-6720, e-mail:permara@gactr.uga.edu orshehanej@gactr.uga.edu.
Web administrator: webmaster@gactr.uga.edu All contents copyright © 1998 University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education. All rights reserved. Last revised: Wed, Jun 17, 1998, 3:21:27 PM URL: http://www.gactr.uga.edu/gcwin98/transitions.html