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Faculty Resources
Working together to support student success
The Learning Commons deeply appreciates all the time, effort, and insight faculty invest in student success. We hope these resources will address any questions you have about our programs and help begin conversations on how we can collaborate in the future.
Supplemental Instruction
Supplemental Instruction is an academic support service that provides peer-facilitated study sessions for undergraduate students in high-risk courses. SI sessions are informal review sessions where students discuss course material, develop important organizational and study skills, and integrate the material and skills as a group. These sessions are led by an SI Leader—a student who has taken the course successfully—working with the guidance of the partner professor who teaches the course being supported. SI Leaders receive training by SI staff, attend lectures, and meet regularly with the course instructor.
- Reduces rates of attrition within targeted historically difficult courses.
- Improves student grades in targeted historically difficult courses.
- Increase the graduation rates of students
While most tutoring services target specific students, SI focuses on the course. Instead of pointing out an individual student as needing help, SI creates a "big tent" that invites all students in the class to participate. This reduces the stigma and anxiety some students experience asking for help.
- 1000 – 2000 level undergraduate courses, particularly those within the CORE 42
- Gatekeeper or Gateway Courses
- High-enrollment courses that include difficult content
- Courses with a historically moderate to high rate of students earning Ds, Fs, or withdrawing from the course (typically a DFW rate ≥30%)
- Lecture-intensive courses where students would benefit from hands-on practice with the content
You may find more detailed information in the UCM SI Faculty Handbook
Tutoring Center
The Tutoring Center provides peer-tutor course support dozens of UCM courses. For these courses, we have tutors who have taken the course at UCM, earned a B or higher, and have their instructor’s approval. If you feel your class would benefit from a tutor, please contact the Learning Commons at learningcommons@ucmo.edu .
For classes not specifically listed, we have a few options. Often with general education courses, one of our many tutors has taken the course and can help. We provide general study skills help when we do not have a tutor with experience in the course. Many times the tutors can help students using their notes, text and provided online resources. Our tutors encourage students to reach out to instructors when they have questions. We walk students through using their syllabus to identify their instructors office hours, office location, and preferences on communication.
We are always looking for good tutors! Please contact the Learning Commons at learningcommons@ucmo.edu.
The Learning Commons can help with all of your course support needs. We are open Monday-Thursday 10am-8pm, and Friday 10am-2pm. Let us know when you have a test, and we can provide a tutor and room. We also encourage faculty attendance at test review sessions if possible.
Writing Center
The primary purpose of the Writing Center is to guide students to become better writers in the university setting. Writing Center consultants are interested in helping students develop skills and acquire knowledge to foster their independence as writers capable of editing their own texts. Whether instruction takes place on the premises of the Center or through its online service, the emphasis is on teaching students rather than proofreading or "fixing" papers. To this end, Writing Center consultants make every effort to ensure that tutoring sessions are directed at least as much by the student's questions and input as by the tutor's suggestions, and that writers are invested with ultimate ownership of and responsibility for their own texts, as well as confidence in their ability to meet the standards of the academic discourse community.
Consultants in the Writing Center will help students achieve the following outcomes:
● Identify and analyze the rhetorical context to articulate a clear purpose for writing.
● Strengthen their writing skills.
● Strategically apply particular writing processes and techniques to enhance their personal style.
● Appropriately document any sources they have used.
We recommend incentivizing rather than requiring Writing Center visits. A number of instructors across campus have found creative ways to motivate students to use the Writing Center. Some offer extra credit while others give students full points in the “mechanics/grammar” section of their rubric. Extended due dates or additional rewrite opportunities may also motivate students to submit Writing Center reviewed drafts. Other attach a small number of points on the rubric to the Writing Center visit.
If you require your classes to visit the Writing Center, please consider staggering the due dates if you teach multiple sections of a course. Similarly assign the due date for the Writing Center before the final paper's due date. This will give students time to revise their papers using what they learned at the Writing Center
