Academic Learning Support

Supporting Students

An inclusive learning environment is established when all students are supported in adapting to the structure, schedule, expectations, and technologies used in the course. Supporting students requires thorough communication about how the course is set up, what they have to do, how the course is run administratively, and what resources and services are available to help them succeed.

Recommendation 2.5: Academic & Learning Support

Foster skills and practices for effective learning and integrate academic support and services throughout your course.

Background Information

What is this?

In addition to learning content, students also need to learn skills and practices that can make them more effective learners overall. Help students connect to campus services and support.

Why is this important?

Explaining how to be successful in your course and integrating support for “learning how to learn” information in your course can help students to be better learners overall; to learn, retain, and apply course content more effectively within the course; and to become more autonomous learners.

How to implement

Academic services and support can be introduced in the Course Orientation module and repeated in each major assignment. Some skills and practices (e.g., creating a learning calendar, connecting with a study group) can be made into low or no-stakes assignments on their own.

Synopsis from Self-Review

All students come to our university with an expectation of what it means to be a student who is grounded in their past experiences. This means that our classroom is filled with students carrying widely varying understandings of the expectations and practices that will lead to success. By supporting students to “learn how to learn”, you can help them build the skills and contextual knowledge they need to thrive.

How to Put into Practice

Students’ past experiences of learning influence their perspectives on what it means to succeed in an academic environment. For example, there can be wide differences in perceptions between students who start directly from an American high school, students who are returning to full-time education after a long gap in their studies, or students whose previous studies were in a different country. Without addressing this variance, this diversity of experience can lead to some students carrying invisible advantages, while others face invisible barriers. The online or hybrid environment adds challenges that are experienced unequally by different students, making this practice even more vital.

Sharing advice and building skills can be done early through a course orientation, and also provided throughout the semester as the course develops. Helping students “learn how to learn” is an important practice in all course environments.

Support Time Management

Learning is more effective when students engage regularly with course material, rather than cramming intensely before a test or major assignment. Encourage students to schedule time every day to complete their work in your course. You can support this by being transparent about how many hours of work are expected in and outside of class in relation to the credit load. For ideas about calculating student workload, see Recommendation 1.3: Transparent Expectations.

Think about how you structure and pace the assessments in your course. If you only set large, summative assignments, then you may be inadvertently encouraging less effective approaches to studying. For ideas about planning the frequency and variety of assessment, see Recommendation 6.3: Frequency & Variety.

Assign a Study Calendar

Encourage students to plan their study time by asking them to create and submit a Study (or Learning) Calendar. A Study Calendar addresses the question: “Where will you find the time you need for this course?” By providing a template, you can encourage a practice that will help them plan their time for all their courses. This is not typically a graded assignment (though extra credit may be given), and it is usually not necessary to review or offer feedback on how they complete the calendar. You can also encourage students to view their Canvas calendar to help them organize their schedules and workload.

Encourage Study Groups

The beginning of the semester is a good time to encourage students to team up with their classmates for group study. Having a written Study Calendar can help them find someone to study with. You can help to facilitate forming study groups by providing an open space (such as a discussion board) on your Canvas site where they can post their calendar and connect with classmates. This not only encourages good study practices, but it can also provide study support to students without access to formal tutors.

Share Advice from Past Students

Advice that comes in the voice of past students can be very effective in building students’ confidence and sense of belonging. You could consider including a success video recorded by students in which they talk about their experience of the course and what helped them to do well. While this kind of video requires planning, expertise, and resources, a simpler approach is to use comments from past students’ evaluation surveys. Keep comments anonymous and paraphrase as needed. Student advice can be shared as part of a course orientation or provided with specific assignments.

Highlight Academic Support Services

There is a wide range of support services available on campus. While students will have been introduced to these during orientation events, by calling attention to these in specific places in your Canvas course, you provide a timely and contextualized reminder and emphasize the connection between the support available and the specific challenges students may be facing as they work through your course.

Some academic services you may want to highlight that can be found on the UWSP Student Resources link include:

Additional Resources: