Background

These online materials are intended to assist students to enhance their perspective and approaches towards post-secondary learning. The materials are being developed for first year engineering students at the University of British Columbia, but are being shared through this site for anyone who would like to use them. This is a work in progress - click here for more information.

Screencast Access

There are nine screencasts (videos) in the series. They build off each other and are meant to be completed more or less in the order shown.

Access for UBC students, faculty, and staff: click a screencast title or image below to view that screencast. A CWL is required.
Access for non-UBC individuals: click the "Public Link" in the right column to access a version of the screencast that works without UBC log-in credentials.

1: Mindset and Grit

This screencast discusses how our perspective towards our ability to change our brain, coupled with our passion and perseverance towards a topic, matter more than almost anything else. Complete the questionnaire in the screencast to learn about your current mindset and level of grit.

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2: Learning Perspectives

Two frameworks from educational psychologists are presented in this screencast. Bloom's Taxonomy of learning levels and Perry's Scheme of intellectual development help put university learning in perspective. Complete the questionnaire in the screencast to find out your current stage of intellectual development.

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3: How Learning Works (Part 1 - Neuroscience)

This screencast presents the neuroscience of learning, and, specifically, how your brain stores information and what makes for more robust, longer-lasting learning. The screencast also touches on why cramming doesn't work and why sleep is essential for learning.

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4: How Learning Works (Part 2 - Memory)

This screencast builds on the previous one to view learning from the perspective of memory: how we take in information, store it in short- and long-term memory, and how we retrieve it. Also covered is how we forget, and what we can do to minimize this. Test to see how well you perform in the memory game in this screencast.

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5: How Learning Works (Part 3 - Focus)

This third and final screencast in the How Learning Works series builds on the previous two and discusses why focus and attention are so important for learning. In this screencast we discuss the myth of multitasking, and you have a chance to see how good a multitasker you are in the multitasking game. (Music credit: “Dubstep," Benjamin Tissot)

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6: Healthy Body, Healthy Brain

In this screencast, research-based best practices relating to sleep, diet, and exercise to improve learning for university students are presented. Complete the questionnaire in this screencast for a sense of how conducive your current exercise, diet, and sleep practices are to your learning.

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7: Managing Stress

Stress is unavoidable at university, but it is not necessarily a bad thing - in fact it is essential. This screencast describes where stress comes from and it presents some strategies for managing it when it becomes too much. In the screencast, you can complete an optional questionnaire to determine how your current stress level compares with other university students.

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8: Metacognition

Metacognition is often described as "thinking about thinking." It involves being aware of and regulating how we learn. Those with a high degree of metacognition tend to do better in university. This screencast summarizes many topics from previous screencasts from this perspective. You can also check to see your level of metacognition with a questionnaire in this screencast.

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9: Implementation

This screencast ties together the ideas from the entire series, implementing the various ideas into a set of evidence-based learning strategies. Included are an approach to time management for studying, and a game to challenge your learning.

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Further Information

To learn more, or if you have questions, please see the details page or contact

Dr. Peter Ostafichuk
Professor of Teaching, Chair of First Year Engineering
University of British Columbia
ostafichuk@mech.ubc.ca