UOS8100PHDBI SECTION 1 Discussion Week 1
Unit 1: Academic Skills
Unit 1 Learning at the Doctoral Level
INTRODUCTION
Learning at the Doctoral Level
Transcript You are bringing a wealth of education and experience that you will draw from as a doctoral learner. Becoming a scholar-practitioner will involve applying knowledge and improving academic skills that you already have, as well as developing new skills. As you progress through your courses, you will use these skills when you are gaining new knowledge and researching in the library, reading scholarly articles, and writing discussion posts and assignments. This unit is designed to help you assess the skills you have, identify gaps, and offer resources on the Campus website to help you. You will also have an opportunity to practice some of the common skills you will need for your program, such as identifying scholarly articles and using the APA style manual and format in your writing. Along the way, you will practice using the courseroom and navigating the Capella Campus website.Click Learning at the Doctoral Level to watch the video introduction for this unit.Exploring all information and resources provided in this unit could take up to 3 or 4 hours. How long you actually spend depends on you. Based on your previous educational experiences, you may spend slightly more or less time.After reading through this introduction, work through the unit studies, discussion, assignment, and quiz.
OBJECTIVES
To successfully complete this learning unit, you will be expected to:
Verify that your system and software meet minimum requirements.
Participate in a discussion and an assignment in the courseroom.
Explain how resources and strategies can be used to help improve academic skills.
Identify differences between scholarly and non-scholarly articles.
Practice using doctoral academic skills.
LEARNING ACTIVITIESCollapse All
Toggle Drawer
[u01s1] Unit 1 Study 1
Checking Your System
To be able to participate in the online courseroom, it is important that your computers system and software meet minimum requirements. The Computer Check-up Tool will identify potential issues and recommend updates to your browser. Run the Computer Check-Up Tool and complete any necessary browser updates to reduce your likelihood of encountering technical obstacles when using the courseroom.Step 1: Review these resources.
Open Sample Computer Check-Up Results to see an example of what your results should look like.
Review the Computer Check-Up FAQ for common questions related to the check-up tool.
Step 2: Run the computer check-up.
Run the Computer Check-Up Tool.
Complete the updates suggested. Contact Learner Technical Support if you have questions.
Courseroom Tip: You should run this check-up on every computer that you anticipate using on a routine basis for your coursework. Reliable access to your courses is expected and is crucial to your success.
Toggle Drawer
[u01s2] Unit 1 Study 2
Studies
Writing papers, participating in written discussions, and conducting research in the online library are a big part of life as a Capella doctoral learner. Assessing your academic skills and identifying ways to develop and strengthen them now, will prepare you for academic success in your program later. While the Capella Campus Web site contains many resources, we will be focusing on only a few in this activity.You will use the information you learn from these activities to complete the discussion, assignment, and quiz in this unit.Courseroom Tip: Your academic courses will contain study activities, which are indicated by an s in the activity code (for example, u01s2). Often, study activities are media pieces or readings from books or articles. These activities introduce you to important concepts and information. You will then be able to demonstrate your understanding through the discussions and assignments that will take your learning to a deeper level.
Campus Tour
As you progress through your degree program, you will often visit Capellas online Campus. Campus is an online student portal where you connect with information, people, and resources that can help make your Capella journey a success.
Click Video: Campus Tour to start getting familiar with the layout of Campus and what it includes.
Learner Tip: While reviewing the Campus Tour, be sure to pay particular attention to the The University > Catalogs, Policies, and Handbooks section. Knowing these policies is your responsibility and will help you avoid potential problems in the future.
Assess Your Academic Skills
Not everyone comes to Capella with the same knowledge or skills. The following Readiness Center modules contain a series of questions to provide you with the resources that will help you the most in developing your academic skills.
Readiness Center: Academic Strategies â This module will focus on your knowledge of graduate writing skills, your research skills, and the learning strategies you use.
Readiness Center: Scholarly Writing â Assess your knowledge of APA, the expectations of an academic community, and your writing skills.
Take a Tour
The Writing Center and the Library offer many resources and services. Knowing what is there and how to find it will give you a head start in your program.
Welcome to the Writing Center.
Library Tour.
Explore the Resources
You will find the following resources particularly helpful in your program. It is worth your time to think about how you might use them when completing discussions and assignments in your courses. As you explore the resources, you will become more familiar with navigating the Capella Campus website. In addition, you will find it efficient to bookmark frequently used resources and keep them in a folder.
Writing Center â The Capella Writing Center has information and hands-on practice to help you improve your writing. Explore the links in the left nav.
Anatomy of a Reference â Use this media piece to practice creating the basic components of referencing sources and including in-text citations in APA style.
Direct Quoting, Paraphrasing, Summarizing â Learn why citations are important, as well as the differences between quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing.
Library â The Library contains databases you can search for books and articles you need for your coursework. It also contains information to help you improve your research skills. You will gain full access to the library databases when you begin your first academic course.
RAILS â Library Research and Information Literacy Skills (RAILS) area of the library will help you learn to locate and evaluate resources. The What Is Scholarly? section and the Anatomy of a Scholarly Article. media piece within that section will be helpful for the assignment in this unit.
Learn About Mindset
This video is a great reminder that we all learn through dedication and hard work. Viewing challenges as opportunities to grow will help you embrace the learning challenges in your courses.
Click Video: Growth Mindset to watch this video to see how working through a challenge is a normal part of the growth and learning process.
Toggle Drawer
[u01d1] Unit 1 Discussion 1
Strengthening Academic Skills
As you begin your doctoral program at Capella, you may be new to online learning, returning to school after a long break, or transitioning directly from a masters program. No matter where your starting point is, you are coming to Capella with skills and experience that will be an asset to you in your program. However, it is important to keep in mind that improving and growing is a part of every doctoral program. In this discussion, you will reflect on the skills you will need as a doctoral learner and the strategies and resources you will use to support you.For this discussion, complete the following:
Watch the Doctoral Learning video, linked in the Resources, to learn more about academic skills and doctoral learning.
Reflect on the following questions and then write and post two to three paragraphs, addressing all of the questions.
How do you think your doctoral program will be different than other academic programs you have completed?
What skills will you need to develop as a doctoral learner?
Which resources or strategies could you use to support you? How will you use them?
How might your mindset help you overcome challenges?
To create a discussion post, click u01d1 Unit 1, Discussion 1, and click Create Thread. Write a response to the questions as your initial post. Refer to How to Join a Discussion in the Resources for step-by-step instructions.Courseroom Tip: Discussions are a part of most, if not all, of your courses and are an important part of your learning and your course grades. Because discussions can be complex, you may find it helpful to write your post in a Word document and then copy and paste it into the discussion.
Response Guidelines
Read other learners posts and respond to at least one. This is an opportunity for you and your fellow learners to share strategies. As you continue your doctoral work at Capella, your learning colleagues can be a great resource of support, accountability, and inspiration to achieve your goals. You can start building that part of your support network right now.
Resources
Doctoral Learning. | Transcript.
Online Etiquette.
Introduction to the Courseroom: Join a Discussion. | Transcript.
Toggle Drawer
[u01a1] Unit 1 Assignment 1
Writing and Research
Assignments are part of every Capella course. This first orientation assignment lets you practice attaching documents and submitting an assignment.The purpose of this assignment is to help you begin to understand the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly articles and to practice your writing skills.Library research and academic writing will be integral to all aspects of your doctoral program, starting with your very first course. You will be writing research papers, action plans, literature reviews, and your independent research project. Knowing how to write clearly and effectively and find appropriate scholarly resources in the library are keys to your success.Note: This assignment does not require you to conduct any research using the Capella library databases. As an orientation learner you have access to the library web site on Campus in order to become familiar with its resources. You will gain full access to the library database when you begin your first academic course.It is also important to know how to use and cite sources. Providing citations is important so your readers can locate your sources. It is also the way you give proper credit to those on whose ideas you have based your own. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) is the style guide adopted by Capella for use in its programs. (American Psychological Association, 2010)
Assignment Instructions
Step 1: Review the Resources associated with this assignment.Resources, located at end of the Assignment Instructions, are available to help you complete each assignment. These may be Web resources, guides, templates, worksheets, or other tools and aids.Step 2: Check the scoring guide.Open the Writing and Research Scoring Guide in the Resources to see how this assignment will be graded.Step 3: Complete the assignment.For this assignment, imagine that you are conducting research for paper you are writing on growth mindset. In your research, you found an article from the New York Times and another one from the CHI 14 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Both articles are linked in the Resources list below. Note: These articles were chosen to provide examples of scholarly and non-scholarly articles and may not be in your field of study.
Read Rae-Duprees 2008 newspaper article, If Youre Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow from the New York Times.
Skim ORourke, Haimovitz, Ballweber, Dweck, and Popovics 2014 article, Brain Points: A Growth Mindset Incentive Structure Boosts Persistence in an Educational Game from the CHI 14 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Open the Writing and Research Worksheet in the Resources. Using the Writing and Research Worksheet, write two paragraphs answering the following questions: What type of information is included in the scholarly article but not in the newspaper article that provides you with a deeper understanding of the topic? How could the scholarly article be more helpful to you when supporting the arguments?
Using APA style, cite each article at least once in your response and include a reference citation for the New York Times article at the end. Note: The resources located in [u01s2] Unit 1 Study 2 will help you complete this assignment.
Save your completed assignment as a Word document to your computer using the following title: u01a1_Your Name.
Step 4: Submit your assignment.Attach your Word document to this assignment and submit it. To do that, complete the following:
Click the u01a1 Unit 1 Assignment 1 heading.
In the assignment area, click Browse My Computer to locate and attach your document to this assignment.
Click Submit.
Step 5: Review your feedback.You will see an alert in your Course Updates when your assignment has been graded. To see your grade and instructor feedback, complete the following:
Click My Grades.
Click the Graded tab.
Click on the assignment and then open the scoring guide.
Courseroom Tip: As you continue taking courses at Capella, it is important that you review instructor feedback on all assignments and discussions. This is a necessary part of every Capella learners academic growth.
Resources
Writing and Research Scoring Guide.
If Youre Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow.
Brain Points.
Introduction to the Courseroom: Submit an Assignment | Transcript.
Introduction to the Courseroom: Finding Grades and Feedback. | Transcript.
Writing and Research Worksheet.
Toggle Drawer
[u01q1] Unit 1 Quiz 1
Check Your Understanding
This quiz gives you an opportunity to evaluate your understanding of what you have learned so far in this orientation seminar.
There is no time limit on the quiz.
After you answer all questions, submit the quiz. It is automatically scored, and you will receive feedback immediately.
To pass this quiz, you must achieve a score of 80 percent or higher.
You may retake the quiz as many times as you want. Only the highest score achieved is recorded in the course gradebook.
If you have questions about the quiz, contact your facilitator.
Click the linked quiz title to access the quiz.
