Communications
Expanding Peer to Peer Tutoring to Enhance Learning and Academic Success
October 2023
The university experience can be challenging for students along their academic journey. Providing academic support options to students is essential. The Academic Success Center (ACS) is the university’s go-to place for academic assistance offering tutoring services, writing support, and other academic support. This fall the center is piloting two peer tutoring programs to enhance their current programming.
Peer tutoring offers unique benefits for students who want extra academic support. It can be a one-on-one experience, they relate to peers differently than a professor or other professional in the area they are learning, students feel more comfortable around other students, tutoring can be more personalized and tailored to the student, and both the tutor and tutee are building communication skills.
One pilot initiative is called Peer-assisted Study Sessions (PASS) is a supplemental instruction that gives students an opportunity to master course material along with other students in the class. The PASS program partners with professors on a course they teach. Currently, the pilot involves two sections of the Mathematics for Liberal Arts course and three sections of Composition I. PASS Leaders (peer tutors) sit in this course a second time.
The PASS Leaders are undergraduate students who have recently excelled in that class. Attending the class again helps the PASS Leader understand what is taught each session and better understand the immediate needs students may have. PASS Leaders provide an informal learning environment, they provide study sessions outside of class, help students understand the course material better, and drop-in study support is also available. This support can also be utilized by students in other course sessions.
The other academic peer tutoring pilot is the Academic Peer Mentoring program. They are reaching out to students in the Exploratory Curriculum program’s U-Decide course. The course is for new students who haven’t decided on a major yet. They are offering students support for study strategies, time management, study skills like reading comprehension and note-taking skills, work through procrastination, and tips on motivation. Students are offered one-on-one meetings with a peer mentor and encouraged to keep meeting with the mentor if needed throughout the semester.
The ASC is also applying for certification through the College Reading and Learning Association. This certification allows ASC to train and certify students with Peer Education Certification. This certification provides recognition for professional standards of skills and training that tutors and peer educators have learned. The tutors and mentors in the ASC, SMART Lab, and Academic Services – Athletics would benefit from this credential as it is highly valued in the education field.