Essential Skills Resources

Through consultations with faculty, students, graduates and employers, KPU has defined several Essential Skills which help graduates of all programs succeed in their chosen careers. These Skills are also essential for your success in your courses and in your program.

Click on a Skill to find links to resources that can help you improve that Skill.

A. Creative Thinking and Problem Solving Skills

B. Oral Communication Skills

C. Writing Skills

D. Interpersonal, Teamwork and Leadership Skills (including working in groups)

E. Personal Management Skills (including Study Skills)

F. Reading and Information Skills (including citing your references and using the Library well)

G. Visual Literacy Skills

H. Mathematical Skills

I. Intercultural Skills

J. Technological Skills (including using myKwantlen, Moodle, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc.)

K. Citizenship and Global Perspective

 

A. Creative Thinking and Problem Solving Skills

  • The Thinking Page - Cited as the #1 site on the Web for information on improving organizational and individual thinking. Includes information on systems thinking, creativity, cognition, cybernetics, etc.
  • MindTools' Problem Solving Tools - Twelve approaches to help you crack difficult problems.
  • Critical Thinking on the Web - A list of web resources for improving critical thinking.
  • Defining Critical Thinking - A definition by North America's academic Foundation for Critical Thinking.
  • Critical Thinking Web - Many on-line tutorials on aspects of critical thinking; downloadable mini-guides, etc. A Chinese-language version is also available through this site.

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B. Oral Communication Skills

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C. Writing Skills

  • Purdue University's OWL - the "On-line Writing Lab" - One of the oldest and best websites for advice about how to write well. It includes helpful resources for improving both academic and business writing.
  • How to Use Microsoft Word - since we don't use feather-quill pens or even typewriters to write our papers anymore, we all need to learn how to use word processing software. Word is widely used, and many of its methods are used by other word processors. So here's a great site for helping us learn how to write on-screen. (For more on how to use office software, see the section on Technological Skills below on this page. If you don't have Microsoft Word and the rest of Microsoft Office, try OpenOffice - it's totally free, downloadable, and compatible with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
  • Academic Grammar for Students of the Arts and Social Sciences - Hong Kong University's site to help students with their academic assignments. Not just grammar: also vocabulary; writing with computers; guidelines for essays, literature reviews, research reports, etc.
  • The Paradigm On-Line Writing Assistant.
  • Paragraph Building Writing Tips.
  • The Longman Web Dictionary (and see the Reading and Information Skills section below for more dictionary, thesaurus, and other related links).

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D. Interpersonal, Teamwork and Leadership Skills

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E. Personal Management Skills

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F. Reading and Information Skills

  • Dartmouth College's tutorial on Reading Your Textbooks Effectively and Efficiently.
  • Wikipedia - the most popular and dynamic on-line encyclopedia.
  • Britannica - the oldest and most authoritative traditional encyclopedia, now on-line.
  • Citation Style guidance and handouts from KPU's Library.
  • Biblioscape - A free software programme that allows you to enter information about a book or article ONCE, and then produce endless citations and bibliographies.
  • Bibliographix - A unique combination of reference management and idea outlining.
  • Citationmachine.net - Helps you do citations.
  • Remember, always check with the APA, MLA, Chicago or other appropriate manual when in doubt. But first, check that it is APA, etc. that your instructor requires you to use.

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G. Visual Literacy Skills

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H. Mathematical Skills

  • SliderMath - If you have to think twice about some basic number facts - 7 times 8, for instance - you won't be as quick with math as you could be. The SliderMath videogames will help get those facts into your memory. This link will take you to the times tables game; see the rest of this site for similar games for other number facts.
  • PurpleMath - For a good, clear explanation of any math topic from pre-algebra to pre-calculus, try PurpleMath.
  • ALEKS - A great resource to help strengthen your math skills on your own, perhaps to help you prepare for your next semester's math course. ALEKS is an intelligent on-line electronic tutor. It will assess your current skills and then take you, step by step, from where you are in math to where you want to go. This link takes you to a quick tour of ALEKS; if you like it so far, click on 'Course Products' to see the courses available - from grade 3 math to pre-calculus and business math in the K-12 section; from basic math to pre-calculus, statistics, accounting, etc. in the Higher Education section. Signing up with ALEKS will cost about $20 for six weeks and $40 for 11 weeks.
  • StatSoft - The only internet statistics resource recommended by the Encyclopedia Britannica. Explanations of any topic from variables and confidence intervals through types of distribution and regression analysis.

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I. Intercultural Skills

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J. Technological Skills

  • For help with myKwantlen, log in at myKwantlen with your student number and birthday (in ddmmyy format) to get to your course websites.
  • If you need more help in using myKwantlen, try this site.
  • For help with Moodle, click here.
  • For help in using a keyboard efficiently, click here for a set of games that will give you practice in using a keyboard quickly and efficiently.
  • See also the section on using Word in the Writing Skills section earlier on this page.
  • For free downloadable software which you might want to use instead of Microsoft Office's package of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc., check out OpenOffice

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K. Citizenship and Global Perspective

  • Global Perspectives - an internet newsletter for the rich and powerful.
  • A Map of the world with the north pole down - a different perspective.

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