Do you want to improve your writing, reading and presentation skills? UCW has a lot of online learning resources to help students, one of which is Open Workshops.

What are Open Workshops?

Open Workshops are free online resources for students. Attending them is an excellent way to develop your writing, reading and presentation skills. They allow you to learn from other students, build your ideas and get feedback on your work.

Some workshop topics include:

  • Presentation skills
  • Business writing skills
  • Avoiding plagiarism
  • Paraphrasing effectively
  • Active participation
  • Strategies for collaboration and group work
  • Writing introductions and abstracts
  • Exam strategies

Through the workshops, you get to be part of a community where you and your peers can support each other. Not only do you learn valuable skills to do well academically, but it prepares you for the workplace, too. Plus, at the end of the workshops, you will receive a badge that you can add to your LinkedIn profile.

My Experience

I learned about Open Workshops after we finished the Learning for Success workshops that were required during the first term. The excellent facilitators encouraged us to book them if we wanted to improve our skills further. The topics of academic reading, active participation and academic writing interested me because I wanted to do well in my academics — so I decided to attend these open workshops and learned so much.

Active Participation and Academic Reading

I had courses such as Talent Management and Leadership that required a lot of reading. I love reading, but each week we had to read two to three chapters, along with other requirements, and it was hard to manage my time to finish everything. Every week, our professor expected us to participate in class.

Helpful tip: Your professor doesn’t expect you to read the whole book, but you should have read it enough to be able to participate in class. You can go through the chapter’s main points and know enough about it to participate.

This was a great tip and saved me a lot of time in my academic readings. Another thing I learned is the importance of active participation. In the Canadian workplace, this is expected. Coming from my background, the expectation is to agree and listen more in meetings, but here in Canada, you should be ready to speak up and contribute your ideas.

Paraphrasing and Avoiding Plagiarism

Given the number of research papers required in different subjects, it was essential to learn how to cite sources well. This workshop is very helpful in reducing the amount of similarity on Turnitin. I learned how to paraphrase, cite correctly and know what is considered a similarity or not.

Helpful tip: Understand the idea behind the paragraph. After that, do not read while trying to paraphrase. In fact, cover the section and explain it in your own words.

Because I learned to paraphrase in the open workshop, I could apply this and make my life easier. It was a skill I could use every time I had to write an academic paper, which helped me score good marks and make the most out of my learnings.

These open workshops online resources for students helped me a lot. Learning these skills from the start helped make reading and writing academically easier for me. It helped me not only achieve better grades, but it caused me to learn more from my courses. Moreover, I can apply these skills in the workplace and help achieve success.

How to Join the Open Workshops

It’s very easy. Just go to the calendar for Open Workshops on the MyUCW Student Portal. Go to Learning Success and click on Open Workshops. You will see the list of open workshops, date and time, and the link to the workshops.

https://www.myucwest.ca/cms/?p=1275

See you there!

Written by UCW MBA Alumna Patricia D.

Published on October 29, 2022.