Information for Faculty

VSU Faculty, We are Seeking Your Support to Continue Making “Greater Happen Here.”

Crucial highlights of how SI: PASS supports both student success and faculty goals:

  • Enhanced Student Performance: SI: PASS has been shown to improve student grades and retention rates, particularly for historically challenging courses.
  • Increased Student Engagement: SI: PASS encourages active learning and participation, which can lead to deeper understanding and better retention of course material.
  • Support for Diverse Learners: SI: PASS supports students struggling with course content, including those from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds.
  • Reduced Instructor Workload: By providing additional academic support, SI: PASS can help reduce the burden on faculty for remedial teaching and individual tutoring, allowing instructors to focus on other aspects of their teaching.
  • Fosters Collaborative Learning: S: PASS I promotes peer-to-peer learning and collaboration, enhancing the learning experience and creating a supportive academic community.
  • Data-Driven Results: Evidence from various institutions shows that SI: PASS program leads to higher pass rates and improved academic performance, which can be a strong selling point.
  • Supports Course Content Mastery: SI: PASS leaders are often students who have previously excelled in the course, offering insights and strategies that are directly relevant to current students' needs.
  • Promotes Faculty-Student Interaction: SI: PASS can facilitate better relationships between students and faculty by providing more opportunities for feedback and interaction.
  • Flexible Integration: SI: PASS can be tailored to fit the specific needs of different courses and teaching styles, making it adaptable to various disciplines and formats.
  • Alignment with Institutional Goals: SI: PASS can align with broader institutional objectives such as improving graduation rates and supporting student success initiatives.
  • Positive Feedback from Participants: Students and SI: PASS leaders often report positive experiences and outcomes, which can be persuasive in gaining faculty support.

Faculty SI: PASS Flyer Faculty are welcomed and encouraged to support the SI: PASS program by submitting recommendations for student leaders. The SI: PASS Leader role is a stipend-based position that provides students with valuable professional experience while supporting academic success across the university. The SI: PASS program aligns with institutional goals by strengthening student success initiatives and promoting collaborative learning environments. It receives positive feedback from participants and contributes to enhanced student performance in targeted courses. The program also increases student engagement, promotes meaningful faculty-student interaction, and supports diverse learners by providing structured peer-led academic assistance. Additionally, SI: PASS fosters collaborative learning by encouraging students to work together in supportive, academically focused settings that reinforce course content and build confidence. Faculty who would like to recommend students or receive more information about the program should contact Dr. Taneisha Brown, SI: PASS Director, by emailing tdbrown@vsu.edu.

SI is set up to be a voluntary program that supports students’ out-of-class learning. By design, students should participate based on their motivation to enhance their course understanding. Disclosing student participation to course instructors may inhibit students’ intrinsic desire to seek support, may alternatively lead students to perceive SI as an incentivized opportunity for grade improvement, and inadvertently bias instructors’ evaluation of students’ course performance. In each of these instances, the productive learning environment SI strives to foster can be compromised, and the overall effectiveness of SI can be negatively impacted.

SI is not intended to create additional work for faculty. You can support SI by granting time for occasional in-class announcements and support the program by encouraging students to take advantage of SI. Faculty should avoid the suggestion that only those who do poorly will benefit.

Additionally, we encourage you to:

• Assist us in selecting and approving candidates for SI leaders for your subject
• Mentor your SI leader through weekly meetings/checking-in about content competency and session planning
• Respect the non-disclosure of session participants by not asking your leader for attendance records or attending sessions
• Avoid offering incentives for SI participation
• Communicate with the CSA regarding concerns and questions about SI leaders’ performance and SI sessions

The SI leader will attend all class meetings; maintain a professional attitude about matters such as class standards, grades, and student complaints; discourage students from attending SI as a substitute for class; share SI materials with the cooperating faculty member before use, if possible; and provide feedback to the cooperating faculty member if requested to do so. Instructors are encouraged to ask leaders for general input on student usage throughout the semester, but requests for attendance lists and/or session visits should be avoided.

The SI coordinator(s) will cooperate with faculty in selecting candidates for SI leaders and place leaders only with the approval of the cooperating faculty member. We train all SI leaders according to established guidelines and standards; monitor the activities and presentations of SI leaders, help plan sessions and supervise their performance; provide supplies, training, in-service experiences, and consultations for SI leaders.

We also offer guidance and support for faculty working with SI leaders. If an instructor has questions about the program, please contact us at sipass@vsu.edu or visit us in the SI: PASS Room in Singleton Hall, Room #231.

It would be beneficial to receive feedback from students before the end-of-term evaluations.

SI can improve interactions with students during class. SI can increase the number of students who succeed and continue through the course sequence. SI will enhance students' understanding of essential concepts.

SI faculty can work closely with and mentor high-achieving students could be an essential strategy for improving outcomes.

SI targets historically tricky subjects. In other words, this subject contains content that students consider challenging. SI is designed to support faculty teaching and is assigned to an issue because of what is being taught, not because of how it is being taught.

Classes are picked from the DFW list (courses holding the most grade letters D, F, and Withdrawals). Additionally, a 100-level course takes priority over a 400-level course because of the higher course population.

SI PASS Resources

Lead Study Sessions

Information for Faculty

SI: PASS Photo Gallery

SI: PASS Brochure

Supplemental Instruction Brief Overview

FAQs

SI: PASS Student Benefits

SI: PASS Leader Interest

Enrollment Management Offices

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