What is the Own it! Program All About?
One of the most crucial decisions you’ll make when starting your college career is quite literally, where to start. This can be incredibly overwhelming for high school students, trying to pick from hundreds of college majors and thousands of potential careers.
How do you know you’re on the right path, without wasting valuable time and money?
At ASU Prep Digital, there are several pre-college training programs that help students think through their interests and strengths. This early exposure to courses will help students assess what college majors and career paths would be the right fit for them. One of these tools is the Own It! Program, a 10 unit mini-course that prepares students to own their learning with a personal profile to help them guide through their college and career choices.
When students enroll at ASU Prep Digital, they are assigned a personal Learning Success Coach who works with them throughout the semester. The coaches host a week-long orientation course to help students gain confidence and recognize the level of responsibility required to own their learning in an online environment. Students learn skills in taking initiative, adapting to various real-life situations, and learn how to affect outcomes based on their thought processes.
The key concept of the Own It! Program is mindset readiness. Mindset readiness is the primary non-cognitive or “soft” skill needed for a student to successfully transition from high school to college and eventually, a career. A student’s mindset can make all the difference in their academic progress. When they have a chance to learn how to control their thoughts, they learn to understand that through dedication and hard work, they can accomplish difficult and challenging tasks. When their mind is ready, they’re ready to learn!
Taking the Own It! Program
There are 10 total modules in the program. Some of the featured topics that support and teach the mindset readiness approach are: Thinking Like an Owner, Using Destination Thinking, Owner/Victim Choice and Being Unstoppable. Students are given key objectives for each module, watch engaging videos and are prompted to give their feedback and insight about each scenario.
Students are also presented with a series of motivating quotes from world thought leaders and they choose which one relates to them the best. The quote then shows up on their profile dashboard to refer back to later in the course; giving students a personalized experience that provides ongoing motivation and direction.
Registration and support for the Own It! program are pretty simple. After they log in, students typically spend a few days (average of 4 days) completing the step-by-step course. Upon completion, students receive a certificate and a letter of recommendation.
Within the Own it! training modules, each student creates a personal learner profile. That profile serves as their introduction and support as they begin their coursework in ASU Prep Digital. The Own it! learner profile is complete with information related to their career interests, flexibility and adaptability, initiative and accountability, study habits, learning preferences, and personality traits.
To keep Own it! concepts in front of students all year long, there are also quarterly individual learning conferences providing opportunities to discuss and reflect on student skills related to progress in meeting the goals they have established.
To learn more, read this blog post on the ASU Prep Digital teaching model or visit our website.
