Are you ever challenged by the volume of your university reading load? Do you ever struggle to concentrate on reading for more than a short period? Have you sometimes been confused about what to focus on in your material? If you answer yes to any of these questions, you are not alone. Most university students face some level of challenge in keeping up with, and learning effectively from, their readings.

The assumption behind college instruction is that students are the engine of learning and that most of the significant learning happens outside of class while students are working through a dense reading or other challenging intellectual task on their own. Most college classes meet only 1-3 times a week for a total of about 3 hours. Consequently, college instructors think of class meetings as an opportunity to prepare you for the difficult work that you'll be doing on your own outside of class.

Professors want to facilitate active learning experiences based on what you read, and the assumption is that all students have the skill and self-motivation to carefully read all the assigned texts. ESL students, in particular, can find the reading challenging. In this module we will explore active reading strategies that will help you successfully read your academic assignments.

Sources: Art of Reading - BCCampus SOL*R Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Canada License and Successful College Composition (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License)