The folks over at Unigo and WSJ on Campus recently included two of our Silver Gurus in their article titled “How to Pick the Right Classes” where students weighed in on how they learned to go about picking the right classes and what the best strategies for doing so are.

Here’s what our Gurus had to say:

“Take classes that you’re interested in! If you don’t like the material, then you will regret it, and you probably won’t do as well. You can probably find classes that you are at least semi-interested in to fill even your most dreaded requirements. For example, I had to fulfill a science requirement, and to do that, I took a human evolution and disease class, which was absolutely fascinating. And despite the fact that science was never my best subject, I did so well in that class because I was so interested.”

-Kaylin Dalrymple, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Using online resources like GradeGuru can be very helpful when looking into a course. Just as with anything else in life, if you have an idea of what you’re about to get into, you’ll understand it so much better. It’s like following directions: if you can review the directions and a map before you begin your trip, you find it a lot easier to navigate throughout, rather than having a GPS yell, ‘merge left NOW!’ when you’re in the far right lane on an eight-lane highway.”

-Erica DeVasier, Indiana University Bloomington

For the full article and for more tips on picking the right classes visit: How to Pick the Right Classes

Kaylin Dalrymple is a Junior at The University of Illinois. Kaylin is majoring Communications with a concentration in Advertising.  Kaylin is a Brand Director at Illinois and a contributing author to our blog.



We all know that Facebook and Twitter are super efficient tools for keeping up our friends and acquaintances.  But what a lot of people are not aware of yet is that Facebook, and other social networking sites like Twitter and YouTube, are starting to be used for educational purposes.  I am currently taking a Twitter marketing class and the professor periodically sends out tweets regarding upcoming class information. Given the general direction of business communication, it is unsurprising that a class in the College of Business here at the University of Illinois is using Web 2.0 technology. Using social platforms to update students and connect them to relevant information is brilliant. I check my Facebook and Twitter accounts more often than I would like to admit, and the following academic related updates have been very helpful:

1. Reminders about an assignment I forgot to even start on
2. Notes on GradeGuru that are relevant to my upcoming mid-terms
3. Articles that could give me some background information

According to a recent article in The Guardian, there is a lot of debate in the United Kingdom over proposed plans to change the curriculum of schools to include Web 2.0 technology.  This shows how important it is for our generation, who grew up with the Internet but not with tools like Facebook and Twitter, to learn about and to embrace these sites, as our future careers will most likely deal with them in some way.

Some professors and other educators have even gotten creative in how they teach their courses.  For example, there are many fake “historical figures” accounts on Twitter, and the tweets tell you something about history. Take one of Abraham Lincoln’s latest tweet for example, “The enemy is crossing his wounded over the river in flats, without saying why he does not stop it.”  The tweet of course referring to Lincoln’s congratulatory order to the battle of Gettysburg. I admit, I googled the phrase on the tweet but I learned something new today! Whether we like it or not, social media for academic and learning purposes is here to stay. So the next time someone tells you to get off Facebook, make sure they know, you’re just investing in your future!