Ask Doctoral Advising

A learner recently asked me what he should do with his books after each course: should he keep them or sell them? READ MORE

Preparing for Your Comprehensive Exam from Day One

It is easy to become so focused on each course every quarter that you do not see the forest for the trees. That is to say, you put up a valiant effort to do your work. You read and post and research and write to keep up with the weekly demands and the final assignment. And yet, this is not enough. READ MORE

All Capella learners who are registered for one or more courses are provided free access to Smarthinking.  To being using these services, learners can visit www.capellawritingcenter.org, click on the first link under ‘Resources’ on that page (titled ‘tutoring’), and follow the prompts to make an account. Any one in the general public can use Smarthinking, but the fees can mount quickly, so to avoid being charged fees for the service, Capella learners must make the account using the prompts provided at the location noted above. Once the account is established, learners can use the account with the password and ID that they create.

On that same Writing Center public home page, learners can find new ways to ask for feedback from Smarthinking.  The Writing Feedback Tool (WFT) on the public page (second link under ‘Resources’) provides users with a common language to use when talking about academic writing.  The WFT starts with critical reading (category 1) and moves all the way through 11 categories, including organization, APA format, grammar, mechanics.

Here’s how the WFT can make Smarthinking a more effective tool. READ MORE

This is the last week before the summer quarter begins, so many of my advising colleagues and I have been talking to learners who are about to take their comprehensive exams.

Once again, I am hearing some of the myths that circulate among the learners about to take those dreaded comps. Some insist that they heard these myths from faculty at colloquia. Others admit they heard these myths from other learners. No matter who or what is the source of the myths, I try to do my part to give the learners correct information. READ MORE

Purpose

The purpose of an incomplete is to provide learners who can’t complete a course by the last day of the course due to unforeseen or unavoidable circumstances to complete the course. How do learners receive an incomplete? READ MORE

Recently, my advising colleagues and I developed a new webinar to further discuss “comps preparedness.”  Content ranging from the philosophical and historical foundations of the comprehensive examination down to the nitty-gritty logistics and academic standards of an individualized learner’s situation and preparedness.

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Depending on what stage we are in our lives, we can sometimes feel like we ought to know more about who we are or how to live. We may even berate ourselves for making the same mistakes, or for just not “getting it,” whatever “it” may be. We wonder how our lives would be now, if only we had “known better.” During moments like these, it is important to remember that none of us are born with instruction manuals and that learning lessons is a lifelong journey.

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Running a marathon is all about preparedness. Practicing by running the miles, but also

• trying different foods that won’t upset your system and gives you the energy that is needed over time,
• wearing different shorts and shirts to find the ones that that don’t shift uncomfortably over time and when sweaty,
• reviewing the course map and the elevation map so you have an idea what the course looks like and running parts of it if you can.
• training for the pace, and the walking breaks.

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We would be lost without some kind of structure in our life. Hopefully we don’t take any structure too seriously so it runs us rather than providing boundaries in which to function. I find routine fascinating, especially when tasks become automated because of repetition. Then we get to play the “Did I Really Do That Game” where we float through life on the automaticity wave and don’t always remember if a task was completed. READ MORE