The Secrets to College Success - with Joshua Smith of Loyola University @benjaminkeep

Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

I think that if you approach college in the right way, you can get a lot out of it. So how should we approach it? Joshua Smith, former dean of the School of Education and current faculty member at Loyola University, offers his thoughts to help you get the most out of the college experience.

00:00 Introduction
1:05 What does it mean to be successful in college?
8:02 What college seniors wish they would have done differently
14:42 Understanding the teacher's perspective
23:18 On developing relationships with teachers
30:28 Key skills that many college students lack
46:42 Changes to the higher ed that will affect college students
51:48 Advice for the student doing 100% online learning
54:44 Some perspective from Josh

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Special thanks to Josh for joining me here!

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The Secrets to College Success - with Joshua Smith of Loyola University

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$How Games Help Us Learn | Game-Based Learning Games can help us learn. But how? And when are they most effective? Join my online learning community: https://www.benjaminkeep.com/community 00:00 Introduction 00:27 Three Ways That Games Can Motivate 03:48 Four Ways to Teach Concepts and Skills 09:22 Whats the Difference Between Gamification and Game-based Learning? 10:10 The Idea Behind Preparation for Future Learning 14:17 The Key Principle to Making Games Effective for Learning Game examples used in the video: Kahoot, Math Jumps, Wuzzit Trouble, Mario, Airplane Spotter cards, Coding Pirates (海霸), Dragonbox Numbers, Space Invaders, Stats Invaders, Call of Duty, and Civilization. What about games that dont help you learn? https://youtu.be/WYl-nZyoEXs References: Tobias, S., Fletcher, J. D., & Wind, A. P. (2014). Game-based learning. Handbook of research on educational communications and technology, 485-503. (currently at http://acikders.atauni.edu.tr/pluginfile.php/75303/mod_resource/content/1/GameBasedLearning_V2_1.pdf) [General background on the idea.] Arena, D. A., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Experience and explanation: Using videogames to prepare students for formal instruction in statistics. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 23(4), 538-548. (currently at https://aaalab.stanford.edu/assets/papers/2013/Experience-and-Explanation-OnLine-First.pdf) [This is the one on Stats Invaders.] Arena, D. A. (2012). Commercial video games as preparation for future learning. Stanford University. (currently at https://www.academia.edu/download/42560722/CommercialVideoGamesAsPreparationForFutureLearning_DylanArena.pdf) [This is the disseration I mentioned using Call of Duty and Civilization.] Arena, D. (2015). Video games as tillers of soil. Theory Into Practice, 54(2), 94-100. (https://sci-hub.st/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00405841.2015.1010843) [On the preparation for future learning idea] Jimenez, O., Arena, D., & Acholonu, U. (2011, June). Tug-of-War: A card game for pulling students to fractions fluency. In Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Games+ Learning+ Society Conference (pp. 119-127). (currently available at https://www.academia.edu/download/6979659/Jimenez,%20Arena,%20Acholonu%20-%20Tug%20Of%20War%20-%20GLS%20Proceedings%20(2011).pdf) [Note how, in this project, when they tested their initial design, students’ game experiences weren’t translating to out-of-game contexts.] Long, Y., & Aleven, V. (2014, June). Gamification of joint student/system control over problem selection in a linear equation tutor. In International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (pp. 378-387). Springer, Cham (pdf currently https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yanjin-Long/publication/268577301_Gamification_of_Joint_StudentSystem_Control_Over_Problem_Selection_in_a_Linear_Equation_Tutor/links/5470fb2b0cf24af340c3b8fd/Gamification-of-Joint-Student-System-Control-Over-Problem-Selection-in-a-Linear-Equation-Tutor.pdf) [An example of where Dragonbox wasn’t effective.] On how to use Dragonbox effectively in the classroom, check out: https://tapintoteenminds.com/how-to-effectively-use-dragonbox-in-your-solving-equations-lesson/. Note how much time he spends drawing connections between the game and the target skill.$

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