2010 SI Conference Awards
Outstanding SI Leaders
Sam Coogan
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA
Sam Coogan has been an SI Leader at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta for the last two semesters for Calculus 1 (MAT 1501). After this semester, Sam is planning on attending graduate school in Engineering, with the aspiration of becoming a professor. He plans to use the principles of the SI model in his future endeavors.
Yoko Kushner
Anne Arundel Community College
Arnold, MD
Yoko Kushner is an international student who served as an SI Leader for Fundamentals of Biology (BIO 101) during the last two semesters at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland. Yoko, will continue as an SI Leader in the fall. Her future plans include completing her bachelor’s degree in Science, and once accomplished, return to teaching.
Derek Smalls
University of Guelph
Ontario, Canada
Derek Smalls has been an SI Leader at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada since September 2008. He is a senior Honors student enrolled in both Mathematics and English and has facilitated SI sessions for first year History (HIST 1010). He plans to pursue a Bachelor of Education aspiring to become a Mathematics and English instructor at high school level.
Outstanding SI Support by a Campus Administrator
Joyce Weinsheimer, Ph.D.
Associate Director for
Faculty Development
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA
With over 20 years of providing leadership to teaching and learning issues in higher education, Dr. Weinsheimer has dedicated almost her entire career to supporting student learning and success. As Associate Director for Faculty Development in the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), Joyce has been dedicated to advocating for collaborative peer based academic support to the faculty, deans, and high level administrators at her institution. She introduced the Teaching Scholars program, offering faculty the opportunity to explore a scholarly approach to teaching and student learning. In addition, she provided financial support to faculty who implemented innovative learning programs in their courses, encouraging the dissemination of assessment data from projects both on and off campus. With her commitment to student learning, she has played an instrumental role in effectively launching the SI program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In less than two years, Georgia Tech has gone from no SI, to coverage of all sections of Calculus I and Calculus II; two of the most challenging courses for first year students, as well as introductory Biology classes.
Subsequent requests have been received for SI from Industrial Engineering, and Computer Science. In addition to her support of SI, Joyce serves on the Academic Resources Committee; she works closely with the freshman seminar program (GT1000) which focuses on how faculty can “teach for learning”; and is the author of the book, Turning Point, aimed at students who are on academic probation, which is just one of her numerous publications contributing to student learning and success.
Outstanding Innovations
Craig Zywicki
SI Coordinator
Iowa State University,
Ames, IA
The 33,507 contact hours with students in SI sessions during the 2008-2009 academic year was the highest one-year total in the history of the SI program at Iowa State University located in Ames, Iowa. This achievement resulted from program improvements and a strong commitment to the core components of SI. Since the introduction of the program in 1992, recent changes made to the SI program through assessment, scheduling, online communication, creative marketing, staff development and support, as well as fiscal stewardship, have led to significant growth in the ability to serve students. The recent changes and expansion of the program, despite a diminishing budget, worsened due to the current economic recession, has dramatically increased contact hours while, at the same time, decreased cost per contact hour. The SI program at Iowa State University has shown itself to be an organization that carefully assesses what is working and what is not, and adapts to maximize the impact to student learning using innovative strategies, to uniquely establish the Iowa State University SI program among other outstanding programs.
Outstanding SI Program
University of Wollongong
North Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Sally Rogan, Head of Student Support & Peer Learning
Kylie Austin, PASS Program Coordinator
The SI Program, commonly known in Australia as Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) commenced at the University of Wollongong (UOW) in 2002 and currently supports every School at UOW. The growth of the program can be attributed to significant input from the Peer Leaders and the establishment of strong relationships between Faculty, Campus Administrators and program staff. It is a highly successful implementation that is based on the key principles of SI, contextualized for the Australian educational setting. PASS at UOW has grown rapidly each year. In 2010, PASS will be on offer to some 6,000 students each semester across 60 courses in all nine schools on the main Wollongong campus and the remote Satellite Education Campuses, with participation rates as high as 90 percent, while averaging 70 to 80 percent in most courses. The program is student centered, primarily staffed with a team of 70 SI PASS Peer Leaders, headed up by the PASS program Manager, Sally Rogan.
The program supports 95 percent of the 3,800 first year students and also supports 55 percent of sophomore students and 400 postgraduate students in the Graduate School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Business with a participation rate of 65 percent. During 2009, over 74,000 contact hours were offered and 15,468 students benefitted from the Program. Attrition rates were reduced by an average of 12 percent, with more than 1,200 students graduating as a result of attending the PASS Program at UOW. The program has a strong national and global awareness with a Google search of PASS within Australia bringing the UOW PASS Program up at No 1; offers training of staff for most institutions in the region; provides ongoing communication and the establishment of a PASS community, for example, the organization of the annual Australian National PASS Forum and the Australian National PASS Leader Awards; as well as having implemented the Australasian Journal of Peer Learning to promote research and innovation within peer learning. The PASS program has impacted significantly on the culture of learning at UOW and has won multiple institutional and national awards and accolades for outstanding contributions to student learning.