UTM TimeTracker is a new online scheduling tool meant to help students organize their academic lives. The tool, launched by UTM’s Office of Student Transition, can track assignment due dates, study time, and grades. Developed by a UTM alumnus, TimeTracker was created to mitigate concerns that poor time management is a large barrier to academic success.
“Most new university students face a new, flexible study environment where they have a great degree of independence in planning their time,” said Sveta Frunchak, Learning Strategist with the UTM Office of Student Transition’s Orientation and Transition Programs. “Research shows that procrastination — in [an] academic environment, mostly in the form of delaying completion of assignment and postponing to study for an exam — is very common among students around the world.”
The main feature of the tool is an organizational calendar that can be customized to a student’s particular schedule. Students can upload their schedules from ACORN, and additional non-academic events and extracurricular activities can be added as well.
“The tool has a holistic nature,” said Frunchak. By integrating co-curricular engagement and wellness measuring, it “provides students personalized support and accountability with tracking their time.”
Frunchak said many students “need to learn how [to] organize their out-of-class time effectively.” With this in mind, there is a statistics tab that helps plan how much time should be spent working on each course.
Other features include a mark calculator that can determine grade point average. These statistics generate personalized weekly reports that can give students a sense of how they are doing academically and how they can improve.
Even though it was created for UTM students, TimeTracker is available for free to any U of T student. Only a valid UTORid is required to access it.
The Office of Student Transition is currently hosting tutorials to help students learn how to use the calendar. Students can sign up on the office’s official website.
