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Many students can benefit from academic coaching, including those who:

• feel overwhelmed by the work required to succeed in college.
• need help in developing better time management and organization skills.
• easily procrastinate.
• need to better understand how to get started on and complete a task.
• feel more motivated and perform better when held accountable.

• Collaboration: Student and coach working together to solve problems. The coach teams up with the student to critically look at crucial situations, help develop appropriate skills, offer key information, and provide necessary feedback.
• Knowledge Development: The acquisition and application of new and relevant information. Coaching allows for the development of concrete strategies and critical support systems and for the exploration of individual learning styles, memory, and organization.
• Plan for Action: The development of a strategic plan for accomplishing goals. Coaching focuses on developing short and long term goals and providing necessary structure for the actualization of those goals. By establishing timelines, assigning tasks, and assuring follow-through to completion of goal, coaching helps students systematically change behavior and develop problem-solving skills.

• Improved performance
• Developing new and effective habits
• Learning to make informed decisions
• Accountability

To change behavior and develop new skills, there are no quick fixes. Sustained effort and practice are necessary for a student to achieve long term and enduring change. We recommend that a student be prepared to commit to the coaching process for at least one semester. Continued contact with a coach will allow time to evaluate issues, create an action plan, and practice new behaviors.

One of the most important factors for successful coaching is a student's willingness to make changes in the way he or she does things. Often students believe that to do better means to do more. Unfortunately, being a successful student is not that simple. To have the best results from a coaching experience a student must be willing to critically evaluate strengths and weaknesses and to change methods of accomplishing tasks. The role of the coach in this process is to help monitor the student's progress toward changing behaviors and offer feedback.

All students who take part in academic coaching are encouraged to use a planner.  The Rinella Learning Center offers a free digital planner each semester, which is designed to help students better manage their time, course materials and assignments, and life responsibilities.  Students can email rlc@miamioh.edu to request a copy of the RLC Planner file.  Students who participate in academic coaching may also purchase a paper planner from the retail store of their choice.