Here to Help You SurPASS Your Goals
- Meet your peers at interactive study sessions
- Get unstuck on challenging concepts
- Prepare for tests and exams
- Learn strategies that actually work
Winter Services available January 26 - April 10
The LSC provides other tutoring supports for all PASS-supported courses.
Use of LSC services, including PASS, indicates agreement to abide by Learning Support Centre policies.
What is PASS?
Peer-Assisted Study Sessions brings students together in group study sessions led by senior students who have succeeded in the course.
Build understanding, skills, and community while having fun.
PASS Leaders
PASS Leaders are senior students who have successfully completed the course and understand what it takes to do well.
PASS Leaders stay up to date on course content and hold weekly group study sessions and exam review sessions.
SI in Canada
Mohawk College’s PASS Program is rooted in the principles and best practices of “Supplemental Instruction” (SI). Supplemental Instruction is a form of co-curricular academic support that targets high-risk courses rather than high-risk students.
Read More About SI
For more information about the PASS program, please email pass [at] mohawkcollege.ca (subject: Information%20About%20PASS) (pass[at]mohawkcollege[dot]ca)
What is PASS?
PASS (Peer-Assisted Study Sessions) is an academic support program aimed at supporting historically difficult courses at Mohawk College. The PASS Program provides weekly peer-led study sessions to help students achieve academic success in targeted, historically difficult first-year courses. PASS has been supporting targeted, high-risk courses at Mohawk College since 2012.
Mohawk College’s PASS Program is grounded in the principles and best practices of “Supplemental Instruction” (SI). SI is currently used at over 2,000 post-secondary institutions in 29 different countries, including 12 institutions in Ontario.
SI uses collaborative learning strategies in peer-facilitated sessions to assist students. Sessions are completely voluntary and anonymous to faculty, and they provide students with an opportunity to:
- Better understand concepts / course material
- Solve practice problems
- Ask questions
- Learn from your peers
- Study smarter
- Prepare for exams
By attending PASS sessions, students are agreeing to the Declaration of Informed Consent policy.
Supplemental Instruction in Canada - Guidelines for Best Practice
Canadian National Centre for Supplemental Instruction, University of Guelph, May 2014
This document reflects the work of a small group of Canadian SI professionals who came together in June 2013 to create a set of guidelines for how the Supplemental Instruction model is best implemented within the Canadian higher education context. Given that some best practices are influenced by practical constraints related to resources and budgets, alternative recommendations have also been included to reflect “highly recommended practices”.
What is Supplemental Instruction (SI)?
Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a form of co-curricular academic support that supports high-risk courses rather than targeting high-risk students. SI provides students and course instructors with a non-remedial approach to learning enrichment by offering regularly scheduled peer-facilitated study groups within courses to integrate essential academic skills with course-related material. These sessions are facilitated by trained undergraduate students commonly referred to as SI Leaders.
The SI model was created at the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) in 1973 and has since been effectively implemented around the world. UMKC remains the International Centre for SI, providing training for the US and accrediting other National Centres to provide their certified training around the globe. In order to run an effective SI Program, faculty and staff receive specialized training from a Certified Trainer in their region. SI Programs appeared on the Canadian landscape in the late 1990s, and have since been implemented across the country in colleges, polytechnics and universities.
Objectives of SI
SI in colleges, polytechnics and universities throughout Canada responds to a variety of key strategic objectives — such as retention, transition, the first year experience, student success, student engagement and social inclusion agendas — by enabling students to co-construct knowledge and develop study skills under the guidance of more experienced peers, the SI Leaders/Facilitators.
The general objectives of SI are to:
- improve student retention and progression rates
- enhance the quality of the student experience
- deepen understanding of the discipline
- improve academic performance of attendees
- develop and improve student knowledge of effective study strategies
- foster the development of transferable learning skills
- enhance students’ meta-cognitive awareness
- create and foster a learner-centred approach
- foster collaborative and active learning and engagement
- enhance social inclusion and create a non-threatening learning environment
- create discipline-specific student communities of practice
- facilitate social-connectedness
- provide leadership development for high-achieving students
