Category: Education

Finding the ideal college for your son or daughter isn’t as easy as it may sound. Most children find themselves in the wrong college just because their parents fancied them, they know someone who attended them and succeeded, or they are basically big name colleges.

While such a criterion is valid when looking for a college, it isn’t the best. The right research will help you find a college that is a good fit. This article is a simple guide on how to research colleges.

Why Is Researching Colleges Important?

Every learner is different. The learning community that your child grows in determines their future. When preparing for college it is not enough to choose a college based on its past or popularity. Carrying out extensive research will help you find a college that has what it takes to grow your child to what they want to become in the future.

The United States of America has more than 5,000 colleges. Such a large number implies that regardless of the number of colleges you hear about, visit, or even read from college rankings, the chances are high you will still miss some prominent colleges. While asking family members, mentors, and friends about the best college for your child is a great strategy, you need to put more effort behind the search.

Factors to Consider When Researching Colleges

It takes a combination of many elements for you to find the most suitable college for your children. From determining the learner’s goals to deciding on the college budget. If this sounds confusing, here are a few factors that will help you settle for the right college.

1. Learner Resources

The access to different campus resources is an important aspect to consider when looking for the right college. Does the college you are about to settle for have an extensive research library, computer and IT resources, or a diverse students’ community? Every learner has a need that their college should meet. So, make sure that your college of interest today or in the future has all the necessary student resources.

2. Academics

Most colleges admit learners who have a certain average grade. As you begin the search for the best college for your children, ascertain whether their test scores match those of the students in the college of your choice. This strategy helps you rule out colleges whose selectivity and admission criteria is higher than what your child has.

Also, review the academic performance of the college. No parent would wish to enroll their children in a college because it has the resources and it is affordable. You need to think about the value the child will get from the college academically. Therefore, research and compare the performance of various colleges. Is it pleasing and consistent?

3. Cost

Finances play a substantial role in most decisions about the best college to join. Start with evaluating the amount of income available for college education. Also, weigh in aid packages and scholarships available for each of the colleges you intend to consider. This consideration will help you focus on the colleges that you can afford without much strain.

4. Programs Offered

The ultimate goal of any learner when joining any higher education institution is to get prepared for the future. The program that your child intends to pursue should inform your choice of the colleges? Are the majors he or she is interested in offered at your preferred college. The best strategy here will be to focus on the long term goals, then work backwards to establish the college that offers programs that can help them achieve such future goals.

5. Security Risk

The number of cybercrimes is rising nowadays, and according to the New York Times, institutions of higher learning are highly targeted. it is your duty to ensure your child’s security. This extends to the college they are joining. For example, how does the college manage permissions and access to student records?  According to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), colleges ought to have the right policies on privacy, security, and access to learners’ personal data.

In addition, the standard policy laws, such as the GDPR, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, and HIPAA, apply to all persons in a college’s database. Your ideal college should comply with FERPA’s access restrictions and privacy protections on the students’ data. You wouldn’t want to enroll in a college where the personal data of everyone in their database, including yours, is not protected in any way.

Start Your College Research Today

With the rise in the number of colleges available nowadays, taking enough time to research can help you find the most suitable college. The ideal college for your child should not be necessarily the best there is in your area. It only needs to have the right resources, be affordable, secure, and offer programs that your child aspires to pursue. Following the above tips will increase your chances of finding a college that will guarantee your child the best.

The Ultimate University Guide for Parents

Your mind is amongst the most powerful resources you have, and there’s nothing like a jack of all trades. Dabbling into a little bit of this, and a little bit of that can even shape you into a more flexible person. Knowing this, it’s important for children to be taught lifelong learning skills in preparation for their future. This way, they can learn to do anything – fast.

Furthermore, lifelong learning can help your child develop a positive outlook on life – helping them build confidence and make amazing self-improvements. In times of unanticipated change, such as a job loss or technological advances, the cards will always be in the favor of a lifelong learner.  It begins when teachers and parents help kids develop effective learning habits, which in turn gives them a passion for learning.

Learning Driven by Interests

This is not to be underestimated: 88% of Americans have pursued learning about an interest to make their life fuller. Even more, our brains love it! Every time we learn something new, our brain chemistry changes – stimulating our neurons to create new connections. The more comfortably we know something, the easier it is for our brain to do the task. By introducing lifelong learning to your child, you can prepare them for a bright future.

On the other hand, it’s also important to teach your child the benefits of failure. For example, ask them to try completing a difficult task without any assistance or instruction. According to Singapore’s National Institute of Education, people who try to solve math problems alone don’t come up with the right answer. However, the process generates ideas about the nature of potential solutions. This leads to a better ability to solve similar problems in the future.

Setting Goals to Learn Skills

With that being said, here’s how your child – and you – can learn any skill fast. Set a goal, then break it down. After this, use the D.I.S.S. Method. The “D” is for ‘Deconstruction,’ i.e., “How can I break down what I need to know?” The “I” is for ‘Selection,’ i.e., “Which steps should I focus on first in order to get the ideal outcome?” The first “S” is for ‘Sequencing,’ i.e., “In what order will it be easiest to learn these steps?” The last “S” is for ‘Stakes,’ i.e., “What are the consequences if I am not able to complete my task?” Finally, practice this method while visualizing success.

87% of learners feel their new skills make them more well-rounded and capable. Perhaps this is why 73% of American adults consider themselves to be lifelong learners. Teaching your child lifelong learning skills in their early years will set them up for an easier future.

Infographic: Learn Any Skill

For a far more specific breakdown on lifelong learning, read the infographic below.

Discover ways to improve your child’s leaning skills outside school.

There are better ways to refine your Google research for any topic you may be seeking.  Google is a powerful search tool but most web surfers (kids and adults alike) do not know how to properly refine their search results to quickly find exactly what we’re looking for.

We all know there is a ton of information online.  There are plenty of reputable websites that can help you research a myriad of topics for an essay or an assignment.  Of course, there is a ton of misinformation as well on the internet.  Good research is all about testing your sources against that we know to be reputable.  Those sources can be found in your local or school library in something we call books.  Yes, books Jerry! Books!

So, while we can’t believe everything we read online.  We don’t want to discard this wonderful worldwide encyclopedia of knowledge either.  Wikipedia and Simple Wikipedia for Kids is an open editable resource with a lot of good information, students need to fact check the details.  In addition to your library, Google is also a great place to find other good sources, such as a government site ending in the the domain .gov.  Or an reputable educational site ending in .edu.

Refining Search Results for Research

For students doing research, not knowing how to search Google effectively can lead kids and teens of any age down a convoluted rabbit hole. Let’s be honest, search engines are designed to do more than find trivial information.  Proper research on Google means digging deep to find the best information, not only the most popular.

Sure, if you want to find information about a celebrity you just “Google It”, but think about all the other information on the web that we don’t even know is there. Important information that can fuel research on many interesting topics.

While the early days of the internet didn’t even have highly developed search engines, it didn’t take long for developers to see the need for much more sophisticated search technology.  Today, there are billions of articles and the goal of every student should be focus their Google search to find the most relevant and valuable information possible.

As you’ll see in this infographic below, Google research is much more than just entering a few keywords.

Review this Step by Step Guide to streamline your Research Results on Google!

Although it wasn’t the first search engine in existence, Google spent a lot of time and money creating a better way to access quickly the expanding world wide web. The more mouse clicks a person has to make in order to find what they are looking for, the higher the risk of landing on a website with inappropriate content… not to mention the time wasted and confusion causes when attempting to compile information.

Google was launched September 4, 1998. That’s over 20 years ago. Since that day there is a lot more information to be found online. Some of this information exists on reputable websites. It has properly researched and verified. On the other hand, much information is down right false.

It has never been more important to learn how to focus search results search engines like Google. These techniques were created to help you dig deep for information in a safe manner by filtering out unrelated websites.  Learn about Instant Answers for faster Google search results.

Evaluating Information While Researching

It’s one thing to access a wealth of information online.  Now, the challenge is to ensure that the information you find is reliable.  Watch this video to learn how to ‘think like an editor’ as your sift through articles, facts, data and information that may not be trustworthy. 

Many public schools and universities around the world have shifted from campus to distance learning. Even though online learning is a mostly-foreign concept to our kids, some seem to be loving it. Other’s struggle with the lack of personal connection from friends, as well as teachers and professors.

Still, the advancements in online education have led more students to become interested in obtaining their college degree through virtual means. Get this: 60% of eLearners believe that online classes help them improve their soft skills such as writing, paying closer attention to detail, perfecting their oral communication, engaging in teamwork, developing time management skills, and helping them with critical thinking/problem-solving.

Still, there are a bit of challenges that arise with learning online – primarily, technology access. 44% of students in low-income families don’t own a computer, and nearly 18% of school-age children don’t have at-home Internet access.

Read how to making sure kids stay happy and healthy during online classes

You’ll be happy to know that a computer may not be exactly essential to your child’s educational journey. Today, most eLearning programs are smartphone and tablet-compatible, providing students with a wider range of options to receive their new content. However, the 30 million school children relying on free/reduced lunches remain in a tough spot. 

As if the world weren’t fast-paced enough, current circumstances are changing every corner of the world as we know it. The last thing we need during times like these is for our childrens’ education to be put at risk. Luckily, eLearning has a solution.

Check out the infographic below for the full scoop on the future of distance learning.