Student Skills Workshops

Explore ACC’s free online workshops using the tabs below. These workshops will give advice about common topics like note-taking, testing, and managing your time and stress to support you on your path to success in college.

Developing Critical Reading Skills

Objectives

This course will explain:

  • Reading for understanding
  • Recognizing arguments
  • Understanding an author’s main idea (or position) and supporting details (or evidence)
  • Evaluating an author’s use of evidence to support a position
  • Determining the reliability of sources.

Goals

After completing this course, you will be able to:

  • Identify an author’s position in a piece of writing
  • Recognize the author’s use of evidence to support the position
  • Understand the difference between major supporting details and minor supporting details
  • Evaluate the strength of the author’s use of evidence to support a position
  • Evaluate the credibility of sources you consult.

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Developing Effective Paragraphs

Objectives

This course will explain:

  • Writing and recognizing topic sentences
  • Planning and writing paragraphs for unity and coherence
  • Developing ideas inside paragraphs
  • Using patterns of organization

Goals

After completing this course, you will be able to:

  • Develop and place topic sentences to organize paragraphs effectively
  • Write paragraphs that reflect unity and coherence
  • Develop ideas fully in paragraphs
  • Apply patterns of organization to allow reader to follow paragraph ideas

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Taking Effective Notes

Objectives

This course will explain:

  • The purpose and benefits of effective notetaking
  • The skills of active listening
  • Two notetaking systems
  • Strategies before, during, and after taking notes

Goals

After completing this course, you will be able to:

  • Explain the purpose of note taking
  • Demonstrate active listening strategies
  • Practice two approaches for systematic notetaking
  • Apply two notetaking systems
  • Assess your current listening and notetaking skills and plan strategies for improvement

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Writing an Effective Thesis Statement

Objectives

This course will explain the following:

  • the definition of a thesis statement
  • the placement of a thesis statement
  • the purpose of a thesis statement
  • the development of a thesis statement

Goals

After completing the course, the student will be able to

  • write a thesis that communicates the focus of the subject matter
  • write a thesis that indicates the purpose of the subject matter
  • write a thesis that sets forth the organizational pattern of the subject matter

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Goal Setting and Time Management

Contact: Stewart Sachers, Counselor, csachers@austincc.edu

Time management refers to a range of skills, tools, and techniques utilized to accomplish specific tasks, projects and goals. Workshop participants will learn tips for managing time and setting some realistic goals to achieve balance in their lives.

  • Determine which things you do are important and which can be dropped
  • Use your time in the most effective way possible
  • Control distractions that waste time
  • Give yourself more quality time to relax and enjoy life

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Stress Management

Contact: Daisy Diaz-Alemany, Counselor, ddiazale@austincc.edu

Stress is a fact of life. Everyone has ups and downs! While college students cannot eliminate stress and tension from their lives, they can learn to handle stress more effectively. Workshop participants learn what causes stress, what stress does to their bodies and their lives, and strategies to deal with stress.

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