Bring the System to Your Students
Research-informed materials you can recommend, copy, and use in a single session.
Most students have never been taught how to plan a week, check whether their studying is working, or decide where AI belongs in their thinking.
They are capable. What they usually lack is a structure for the part of academic work that happens between classes, and language for talking about it. That is what the Learning Ownership System provides: seven moves a student can use on any single academic task. The Scholarly Learning journals then organize a full term into four phases, so those moves get practiced over time.
Everything below is designed to be usable without preparation. The free tools are one page each and need no license or sign-up. The books can be recommended in a sentence, purchased individually, or discussed for course and cohort use.
The fastest way in: six one-page tools from Think First are free to download and print, with no sign-up. They may be shared unchanged, without charge, and with attribution for classroom, advising, and student-support use.
The Seven Moves · Quick Assignment Triage · Pause Before You Prompt · Turning Feedback into a Next Step · Stop Rereading Everything · Reset and Recovery
Six Places the System Fits
The seven moves fit a single session. You do not need a full term, a course redesign, or a program to make them useful.
- First-week orientationGive students language for how learning actually works before the first deadline arrives, rather than after the first poor grade.
- Assignment launchSpend ten minutes on Understand and Plan when you hand out a major assignment. Much avoidable rework comes from students misunderstanding the task or its criteria, not from lacking ability.
- Exam preparationPractice First earns its place here. Many students still reread, and rereading feels productive while doing comparatively little.
- Conversations about AIVerify gives you a concrete standard to point at: can the student explain and stand behind what was submitted.
- Learning center workshopsThe one-page tools work as workshop handouts as they are, and the seven moves give a session a spine.
- TA and peer mentor trainingA shared vocabulary helps TAs and peer mentors give students more consistent advice about how to study.
Matching a Title to a Student
Four titles, two layers. Think First teaches the system and works for any student in any term. The journals carry it through a specific term for a specific audience.
Think First
The seven moves and the tools that put them to work on assignments, exams, AI use, feedback, weekly planning, and recovery. 112 pages, designed to be opened at the point of need and written in.
Book details →The Scholar: Fall 2026
The four phases rebuilt for a course-heavy undergraduate term: multiple courses, competing deadlines, and the week-to-week work of staying on top of them. Of the journals, this one works the full set of seven moves hardest.
See inside →The Graduate: Fall 2026
A four-phase journal for a crowded fall term, September through December, built to keep the work that moves a degree forward visible when everything urgent competes with it. It leans hardest on Plan, Monitor, Adjust, and Transfer.
See inside →The Graduate: Summer 2026
A 123-day journal for the opposite problem: months of open time with almost no external structure, and a thesis or dissertation waiting in it.
Journal details →Three Templates You Can Copy
Adapt freely. The first includes the Canadian link, which matters if your students are in Canada.
For a course or a whole class
Subject: A short book on how to approach the work in this course
Hi everyone,
A quick recommendation as we get started. Think First is a compact guide to seven moves that make academic work go better: understanding what a task is actually asking, planning an approach, practicing retrieval instead of rereading, checking your own work, and deciding where AI belongs in your thinking.
It is short, it is designed to be written in, and you can use it on any assignment in any course.
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1067863001
Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1067863001
Six of the one-page tools are also free, with no sign-up, at learningownership.com/thinkfirst/ if you want to try them first.
Best,
[Your Name]
For an undergraduate seminar or advising office
Subject: A term journal that may help you stay on top of the semester
Hi [Student Name],
If this term already feels crowded, The Scholar: Fall 2026 may be worth a look. It is a guided journal built for a course-heavy undergraduate term: several courses, competing deadlines, and the week-to-week work of keeping up with all of them.
It gives you a short daily rhythm, a weekly review, and a way back in when a week gets away from you, without having to catch up on anything you missed.
You can see what is inside here: https://scholarlylearning.org/the-scholar/
Best,
[Your Name]
For a graduate student or advisee
Subject: A resource for planning your term
Hi [Student Name],
As you plan the term, I wanted to pass along a resource that some students find useful. The Graduate: Fall 2026 is a guided journal built for exactly the problem you are facing: sustained progress on work that has no weekly deadline, surrounded by work that has deadlines every day.
It gives you a daily and weekly structure, and, importantly, a way back in when a week goes badly, without needing to backfill anything.
You can see what is inside here: https://scholarlylearning.org/the-graduate/
Best,
[Your Name]
An Introductory Session for Your Group
Ask about a complimentary introductory virtual workshop on the Learning Ownership System for your course, learning center, or student group. Sessions are usually 50 to 90 minutes and are built around the seven moves, with the free one-page tools as handouts.
Sessions have been delivered for faculty groups, graduate cohorts, and student-support units at several universities.
Cohort, Program, and Institutional Use
Interested in a whole cohort, lab group, first-year seminar, graduate program, or student-support unit? Get in touch and we can talk through what would actually work, including how students would obtain copies.
The free companion tools require no arrangement at all. They may be copied and distributed unchanged, without charge, and with attribution, for as many students as you like.
Created by a Professor Who Studies How Students Learn
Peter Arthur, PhD, is a Professor of Teaching at the University of British Columbia and a Killam Teaching Prize recipient. From 2005 to 2015 he was the founding Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at UBC Okanagan. His work focuses on self-regulated learning, metacognition, and how students can use AI in ways that support rather than replace learning.