| Title | Where’s the one-stop shop at UBC? Partnering to ensure academic success for our first and second year undergraduates |
|---|---|
| Faculty/College/Unit | VP Students |
| Status | Completed |
| Duration | 1 Year |
| Initiation | 04/01/2005 |
| Completion | 03/31/2006 |
| Project Summary | The Academic Success Partnership will provide a single, coordinated point of contact (mixed-mode) with students to provide supplemental learning skills for first and second year students to enhance learning and support student success. This proposal incorporates the submission previously submitted for AMS Tutoring, which has received TLEF support in the past. This is an opportunity to expand and coordinate student support services to provide an improved and more coordinated service. With increasing admission GPAs, increasing levels of student stress, demands on current programs and the diversity of our students", combined with limited resources to identify and address student learning needs in the first years of university life. It is critical that the university maximize its resources, skills and connections with students to provide meaningful and timely support through a single contact point. Through a unique partnership between the Alma Mater Society, Office of Learning Technology, student learners and the Office of the VP Students portfolio, we will create a coordinated, student-centred, peer-based, easy to access student service to better support academic success. Institutional research confirms that our current students are not satisfied with the learning support provided by the University. Further, prospective students, comparing programs that build academic success/learning skills services at other research-based institutions, find our services both difficult to find and disappointingly limited in their offerings. These programs are important to support academic achievement, but also to define a supportive, student centred learning environment that will contribute to UBC's distinctive undergraduate program. This strategic partnership will ensure that UBC can provide the academic resources and support, when and where students need them, regardless of which campus they choose to complete their degree. This project will enhance and coordinate:
This project will result in an innovative hub of resources and programs to better meet the needs of students at UBC-Vancouver and may be shared with UBC-Okanagan. Faculty and faculty advisors will have a strong point of referral for students rather than the current decentralized and inadequate services. Finally, a coordinated approach will create a nucleus of expertise about student learning needs to inform the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth to further improve teaching. Common to all services will be a commitment to peer-based services. Students will deliver tutoring services, provide academic success workshops in consultation with educational experts design on-line resources, and lead peer based learning communities. Both Sauder and the Faculty of Science are interested in piloting SLC in course where the grade distribution suggests the need for enhanced learning support. In this synergistic partnership both students looking for academic assistance and students providing this will gain in terms of their own academic skills. This partnership will employ upwards of 50 students and be UBC's strongest example of peer education. Each component of the program will be steered by a team leader and collectively we will work to create synergies between all aspects of the program. Key leads will be Michelle Lamberson (OL T), Margot Bell (Learning Commons), and Grant Wong, Exec Cord Student Services and Tutoring Coordinator (AMS). |
| Funding Details | |
| Year 1: Project Year | Year 1 |
| Year 1: Funding Year | 2005/2006 |
| Year 1: Project Type | Small TLEF |
| Year 1: Principal Investigator | Brian Sullivan |
| Year 1: Funded Amount | 116,380 |
| Year 1: Team Members | Brian Sullivan, Office of the Vice-President, Students |