Supplemental Instruction: Improving first-year student success in high risk courses (2nd ed.)

Abstract

The Supplemental Instruction (SI) program of the University of Missouri-Kansas City addresses attrition by providing academic support in courses that are high risk for students. The program contains a number of innovative features, for example, high-risk courses are identified instead of high-risk students, and everyone in those courses is offered assistance; student participation in small group sessions is voluntary, and evaluation goes beyond student and faculty satisfaction surveys and includes actual rates of institutional change. Small group sessions incorporate such features as informal quizzes, group discussion, test question prediction, review of previous examinations, restructuring of classroom lecture notes, and other activities. The key people in the program are the SI leaders, who are presented as students of the subject of the course. As such, they present an appropriate model of thinking, organization, and mastery of the discipline. SI leaders attend all class sessions, take notes, read all assigned material, and conduct small group sessions. The SI program has been certified as an Exemplary Educational Program by the United States Department of Education, and has received National Diffusion Network funding. This paper describes program development, specific goals and objectives, results and outcomes for students and/or the institution, and potential for adaption by other institutions.