Ep. 6 - Seeking Help for Your Classes

Welcome to Episode 5 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast! Need help in your classes? Don't know where to go for tutoring? Also, have you heard of Supplemental Instruction, but not sure what it is? Find out here! 

In this episode, we have:

• David Reyes  - Tutorial Services Coordinator
• James Graham - Supplemental Instruction Coordinator

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Transcript

Star Wildes  
Welcome to the CSUSB advising podcast. Join us as we bring you the latest advising updates at Cal State San Bernardino. Each episode is specifically made for you the CSUSB students and parents. We provide you with advising tips, interviews and both CSUSB campus resources and those in academic advising, sit back and enjoy. Go Yoties.

Matt Markin  
Welcome to episode five of the CSUSB advising podcast. My name is Matt Markin and I am with...

Star Wildes  
Hi. I'm Star Wildes from advising and academic services. Welcome everyone. 

Matt Markin  
Star. What's up? How have you been? 

Star Wildes  
I've been okay. I'm trying to keep count of how many months now we've been here, you know, at working from home, but you know, doing, doing well, healthy and safe.

Matt Markin  
Awesome. Now we're well into October, and I don't know what are we in, week eight now of the semester, so we're pretty much halfway done with the term. I'm still getting used to semesters versus the quarter system. How are you handling all of this right now?

Star Wildes  
My gosh, week eight. If you would have said that in the quarter system, week eight, nine, ten. And then two more weeks, right? Of course, and then finals. But week eight for semester, we have a long way to go still. So, yeah, absolutely, Matt, thank you for mentioning that. 

Matt Markin  
If anything with semesters, I mean, we've talked about this before. I mean, it does give students more time in their classes to delve into information, because if this was the quarter system, like you're saying, a week eight, we'd just be a few weeks away, a couple weeks away before finals, students would already be well into registration for the next term, and registration isn't even starting until November 2. So hopefully that gives students that time to really focus on the here and now they still have plenty of time before registration does start. However, it's probably a good time to start thinking about getting those appointments scheduled with your advisors. So October 26 is when officially spring advising begins. November 2 is when spring registration starts. And so by October 23 you should be receiving an email from the registers office along with your registration date and time posted on your mycoyote account Student Center. It might be sooner than that, but by the 23rd that is supposed to happen, and something else that you want to be doing is checking your Student Center to see if there's any holds on your account, and also checking your emails. So some of you that are in your first year at Cal State San Bernardino as a first time freshman non EOP, you probably received an email from our office advising academic services to schedule an appointment or schedule a workshop to attend to remove the hold that is on your account. Star, do you have any extra info on that?

Star Wildes  
Yeah, so I want to speak specifically for our undeclared students. So for all of you who are undeclared and this is your first year. You want to make sure that you complete your undeclared orientation. That is through your Blackboard. Also for students who are at 30 plus units who are undeclared, you want to make sure you declare your major buyer before October 23 a lot of great things. And again, Matt, thank you so much for bringing up when you know, advising, and also when registration will begin for it. For a lot of students, you want to make sure again you check your holds, because that hold will prevent you from registering. Once you get to that registration date and time and again, your registration date and time will be found via your MyCoyote.

Matt Markin  
Now, one thing right now in the fall semester is the deadline has passed. By this point to take care of your title nine and sexual violence training. The due date was October 9. So if you haven't completed it, please make sure you get that done. So that way, if you do get a hold on your account, you can get that removed by completing that training, because that does stop you from registering for the spring. But by this point right now, too, a lot of students are taking their midterms, or maybe already took their midterms. Maybe they have another one coming up. So with that, you might be looking for that extra little bit of help with your classes. Now, some of your classes might actually have tutoring options available through the tutoring center, and so we actually talked with David Reyes, is who's the tutorial program coordinator for Cal State, San Bernardino tutoring center, to talk more about how you can get the tutoring, how to sign up, even talks about study skills and time management. So a lot of great information. Let's jump right into that interview. 

Matt Markin  
First up we have David Reyes. David Reyes has enjoyed working in tutorial services for over 20 years, and feels rewarded by his role in fostering the academic success of students at the collegiate level. David is the tutorial program coordinator at the CSUSB Tutoring Center. He and his tutors work. To encourage students to seek assistance from tutoring or any other resource available to them. David notes the bittersweet irony of tutoring, tutoring and the tutors are thrilled when students come for help, but if the job is done, well, students no longer need us and can soar confidently on their own. David, welcome to the podcast.

David Reyes  
Thank you. It's great to be here.

Star Wildes  
Yeah, thank you, David. We're going to go right into our questions. We're excited that you're here, and tutoring is something that students need to know about during their academic year here at CSUSB. So, David, how can students access tutoring during this time?

David Reyes  
Well, you know, though, of course, like many other services on campus, we've switched to virtual services online, and so currently, tutors can, I mean students can access our services by going to our website, and it'll give a detailed description on where the links are for our online booking system. We use WC online, which is similar to the writing center. So for those of our students who've used the writing centers booking system, they'll be familiar with what we are currently using now, but through our CSUSB tutoring website, you can get the information there. It'll link you to the online booking platform, and then, once you register an account using your student ID, you'll log in, and then you'll be greeted with an appointment grid with all the tutors that are available to you all their times and through the days of the week that they're available. And you just go ahead and find a time and a day that works for you and start clicking to book that appointment.

Matt Markin  
Awesome. And one question we get a lot from students regarding tutoring, or lot of different activities on campus, but specifically for tutoring. Is it free?

David Reyes  
Yes, tutoring is definitely free on you know, a colleague of mine from supplemental instruction, James Graham, likes to say it's not necessarily free. It's, I mean, it's part of the tuition, which is true, but we do not charge you for using the services after you've registered with the university. Just like many of the resources on campus, your student tuition fees go into it. So you know, that's why you should take advantage of what's available to you, these resources you've kind of already prepaid for. So why not use things that you know, it's like if you paid for a gym membership and never used it. Why would you do that? So tutoring is here for you. You when you book an appointment, we're not charging you anything for the appointment, and so, you know, and just like many of the other services, supplemental, instruction, mentoring, please seek out that help. There's so many resources right now, and especially during our this pandemic, the university has kind of consolidated a lot of the resources on the website so that students can find out where what is available to them during this time and what what they need. You know that could be crucial to the success of their online learning.

Star Wildes  
Thank you so much for sharing that, David. And again, you know, as far as tutoring, very important. So if a student goes to the tutoring website, and let's say they find that the course that they would like tutoring for is not available, not offered. What would you advise students to do?

David Reyes  
That's a tough one, because, you know, it's always disconcerting, concerning or disheartening if we can't assist students when we really want to. The first thing I would say is, of course, try to ask your professor to see what resources, or if they, he or she, they can directly help you, if not, the other option would be to perhaps start a study group with your classmates. I know it can be tough to approach people, but you know, I'm sure if you're feeling a certain way in class, you're not the only one feeling that way. So your classmates there got there has to be others who feel the same way, and maybe consolidate your knowledge and resources to try to get a better understanding of the course concepts and the questions that are being posed to you. The other option is to email me directly and to see if I can we can still assist you. So my email David Reyes at DJ, Reyes R, E, Y, E, s@csusb.edu and you know, asked give me a little background of what you're looking for, what class you're in, and if possible, like we don't like to turn people away, if we can help you in any way, we will. So let me know what it is you're looking for, and maybe there's a tutor who has some experience with that, and we may try to help you, maybe on a one off, not so much a regular thing, because we're not our tutors are qualified for specific subjects and not a subject that they haven't tutored before. But if there's any way we can get you jump started, we can, for example, we had a student who wanted help with pivot tables, and none of our tutors actually do pivot tables on the tutoring schedule, but our economics tutor, he has a good understanding of pivot tables, so we connected the student with the Econ tutor to get them started with that portion of their homework. And so that was a great help to the student. So again, if we can help in any way. We don't just automatically say, No, that's not our job. We will try to find some kind of resource for you. If we can't do it, find some other external resource. So we don't give up, unless we just absolutely can't find an option for you.

Matt Markin  
That's great advice, and so Yoties, take advantage of that. David and his team might be able to assist you with some extra help with the tutoring, even if that subject is not offered. But another thing that comes up is study skills and time management. We know how important that is. Do you offer any services to help students learn more about time management or improve their study skills?

David Reyes  
Yes, it's on the tutoring schedule under study skills. So there's a tab for that. If you go to our website, along with all the other academic subjects that we do. But then if you click the study skills tab, you'll see my information, because I'm the primary, basically tutor for study skills. And so a lot of the questions do come around time management. And with time management, I like to say it's not really time management as much as as it is self management. And so as long as you're aware of that in the beginning, and take and take a look at that, it's not so much that you let time get away from you, it's it's about how you're managing yourself in that time, right? So then another big question that comes up is maybe test preparation, Note taking is another issue, or, as I like to say, note making, because in order to have good, effective notes, you're making those notes, you're not necessarily taking those notes, right? So how you make them and then interpret them after your studies? That's the crucial part. And one thing that I can give in terms of a tip for note making is that there are two tips actually that are essential to note making. One is to take notes in your own words, if possible, because that'll help gage whether or not you actually understand the subject matter. If you can't take the notes the if you can't process what the professor is telling you and create that into your own words, then it kind of tells you that you're that's an area that you're a little weak on, and you may that's where you may want to focus your studies afterwards. The other second tip for note making, I would say, is to make sure that you study them on a consistent basis, because we learn best with repetition. So you don't even have to, you know, do a marathon note study session. You can just take a note, look at your notes, maybe 20 to 30 minutes every day, just so you're looking at them, and then your brain and your eyes are processing that, and some of that information is bound to stick if you're looking at it regularly, unlike our poor students, who decide to do a marathon study session the night before, and then they're trying to hold on to all this information at the end through their exam, and it's really difficult, and you putting extra pressure on yourself. 

Star Wildes  
Thank you so much for for sharing that, and I agree with you. So you know, managing yourself right for time management, that's very important. So thank you so much for sharing those tips. So how our next question here is, how has tutoring been during this time? I know we're virtual. We're going into another virtual term for spring 2021 um, how has tutoring been and how are students utilizing your tutoring resources? I know you've explained, of course, how can they get tutoring? How are they utilizing? How has it been going for your tutors?

David Reyes  
Actually, I was just looking at the numbers the other day, and tutoring is going really well, and the numbers are healthy, and we're quite pleased with the way students are accessing and engaging with tutoring. In the spring, when we first had to, you know, quickly move over to virtual learning. It was a little slow at the start, because everyone was trying to get it under their feet and figure out how things worked. But now that we've, you know, had to get the summer to work through things, and our incoming high school students had to switch over to virtual resources. They're a little more adept coming into the fall, and so, you know, we're not even we're about a third of the way through our semester, and at this point, tutoring has had over 400 visits, which is fantastic. So, and another great point about that is looking, when you're looking at the data that we have, is that more than half of that is coming from freshmen and sophomore students, which we like to see that they're using their resources this early on into their college career, you know. And so tutoring is doing really well. I hope that we can keep growing. And it's something like this podcast and our Instagram at CSUSB tutoring where, you know, we kind of keep promoting tutoring, and our numbers are growing on our Instagram as well. We're getting more followers, so, which means we're able to reach more people so that they know what they know what we're doing. They know our tutoring schedule. They're getting to meet our tutors through little videos that we do, and so, just so that we can they can see that our tutors have personalities and can relate to them, hopefully, and they understand where they're coming from and wherever their frustrations might be so and, you know, I always like to say about tutoring. Matt had mentioned my bittersweet comment in my bio, but I also like to liken us to if you've seen that movie Nanny McPhee, you know, she says that quote, maybe I should say it in her. Accent, but she says, When you need me but do not want me, then I must stay. When you want me but no longer need me, then I have to go. So I kind of feel like tutoring is like that, where you know when they need us, you know we'll stay, but it's a it's a sad thing that we've done our job well they no longer need us. So we we're on it. We go. We are. Go our separate ways. So but it's, uh, it's always great to be able to help people and know that if they no longer need you, it's because they've gained that academic self efficacy and competence that that we were trying to instill in them in the first place.

Matt Markin  
Are there any other characters that that you can say lines?

David Reyes  
No, no, none that I can think of right now. Maybe Avengers. We're like superheroes.

Matt Markin  
Now, one of the another question that we have is, you know, we meet with students, and many times, if they tell us that they might be struggling in a class, we look to see if there's tutoring offered. You talked about the tutoring resources that are offered at Cal State San Bernardino, but their instructors might tell students to utilize a tutoring that that's offered, but as soon as they're on the fence of, like, do I go? Do I not go? When do I know I should go, or I'm nervous to go. I have anxiety to go. To go to tutor, as the, you know, as a tutor, tutorial program coordinator, like, what can you tell a student in terms of why it's important to to go to tutoring? 

David Reyes  
And you know, if we could figure out the formula of what makes people comfortable going to tutoring or why they do not go, that would be fantastic. But, you know, I can tell you at the university level, essentially, the students that go to tutoring are very self motivated with their educational goals. And you know, in at the K through 12 Level, I think there's a misconception, or some kind of pre determination, that students who go to tutoring are slower learners, and that's they went to tutoring because they need it and they're struggling. And so coming into the university, there's that mindset that tutoring is for the quote, unquote dumb students. Or, you know, I don't like to say that, but that's what the mindset of people is. But when you look at the students who come to tutoring at the university level, most of them are actually a and b students, and that's because they want to keep up their success, and they want to be make sure that they're not sliding back in their studies. So, you know, in that aspect, it's the smart students, not academically, but in terms of their personal growth and their mindset that are the ones who are coming to tutoring. If we could reach out and get the students who, you know, for whatever reason it is don't feel compelled to go get assistance and to get them to at least sit down for a session. That would be great. The data shows that the more sessions students attend, the more likely they are to pass their class. And even more set the more sessions kind of equate with a better grade in their class as well. So you know, if we can just kind of give these numbers to the students and let them kind of process it on their own, where I don't want to force feed people things like that, but if they can see the data that shows them, more visits equals better grade, hopefully at some point that registers with them and they'll come in and get tutoring assistance.

Star Wildes  
That is awesome. David, and yeah, it's so true, right? If you want to continue to do your best being your academics, you want to make sure that you, you know, seek out tutoring and the resources to help allow you to help keep on track with your academics. Well, David, that concludes our questions for you, and we are so happy that you joined us. Just wanted to ask, I know that you had said your email, but if students had questions about tutoring, wanted to connect with tutoring. May I ask if you can say your email or even a phone number that they could reach to reach out to you?

Lesley Davidson Boyd  
Right now, the best method of reaching tutoring and getting your questions answered is directly emailing me. You know, many of my colleagues know I barely sleep, so even if you send me an email 2am you probably will get a reply back. At, you know, 215 by 215 So, but please email me at DJ, R, E, Y, E, S, at, C, S, usb.edu, so it's DJ Reyes, and I like that handle because it makes me sound like I'm a music DJ too, right? But, yeah, if you send me an email, and most people will tell you, even no matter what time of day, I will probably get to it. You know, I'm a night owl, so I do my best work in the middle of the night anyway. So please feel free to contact me any questions that you have where like I said earlier, we want to help you make sure you get the resources. I know how frustrating it can be when you get the run around and people shuffle you off to other departments or other people on campus, and we try to be the last stop for you, if possible, and we'll give you a solution, and even if it is unfortunately to tell you there is no solution. I. Um, but we don't give up, unless we have to. We've exhausted all our resources for you. 

Star Wildes  
Thank you again, so much. Uh, don't forget also follow their social media on IG, Instagram, at CSUSB tutoring, they have amazing memes. I've been keeping up with them, making me chuckle and laugh. But again, thank you so much for being here with us, David.

David Reyes  
Thank you for having me, and it's a great being able to share this opportunity to you know, let the students know about our resources and that hopefully they feel welcome to come and use it, and especially during this time when everybody wants to help as much as possible. So please don't feel afraid or hesitant to reach out for assistance. We're all here to help you, and that's what we want to do, not because we have to do it.

Star Wildes  
Thank you so much, David, for sharing that information. Truly appreciate it, and I hope that everyone listening out there that you are going to be able to use the tutoring services. Next up, we have James Graham from supplemental instruction, and we're excited for him to be sharing what his program has to offer.

Star Wildes  
James Graham is an academic student services professional at California State University San Bernardino as a CSUSB coordinator of supplemental instruction. James facilitates partnerships between students, faculty, staff and administration to provide peer led learning support to undergraduates enrolled in traditionally high fell rate courses. James has over two decades of experience as both a public and private educator with a broad background including undergraduate work in musical arts, performance and education, post graduate certifications in health and fitness, graduate work in organizational leadership and extensive experience in training in nonprofit and community services. James is a strong advocate for learning, academic growth and personal development through education. Hi James, and thank you so much for joining us.

James Graham  
Thank you very much. Glad to be here today.

Matt Markin  
Yeah, we're glad to have you as well on the podcast. So let's jump right into these questions. So the first one we have for you is for students that may not know what is supplemental instruction or SI and how is it different from tutoring?

James Graham  
Great question, and I'm glad you asked, kind of clearing the air around that off the top is always very helpful, because I know the word supplemental and instruction are just words, right? So we all know what supplemental means. We all know what instruction refers to, but we do base what we do here at CSUSB on the research of Dr. Deanna Martin and the International Center for supplemental instruction, which is actually a very specific research based, evidence based, modality for small group learning. So the research on this is very clear in terms of that small group dynamic, not to replace what happens in a lecture, not to replicate what might happen in office hours or tutoring. Supplemental Instruction is kind of an other. So when we talk about si here at CSUSB, we're talking about kind of a capital S, capital I, supplemental instruction, not just the words supplemental and instruction. And basically, if I were to break that down, and sometimes it's a little easier to visualize, but you can understand that in a lecture format that traditional delivery, you have an expert at the front of the room who's trying to get the most information to the most people in the shortest amount of time. And it's generally mono directional. Sometimes it is a little more dynamic, depending on the size of the class. But for class, but for the most part, students are sitting absorbing. They're taking notes. They are highlighting key concepts as presented by the instructor. They're then asked to go and to study those notes, to study, maybe extra course materials, textbook, to study for an exam. They come back, they perform and demonstrate what it is that they have learned through that process. Sometimes students struggle with this because that mono, directional sort of didactic modality doesn't allow for the kinds of questions that may be relevant to their individual experience or lack of experience in a certain subject matter or area. We only support courses that have a 20% or higher fail rate, or at least we begin at that point some of the courses, and certainly this is our goal, will dip below that fail rate as a result of these opportunities for more robust learning. But we only really target courses, not students, but courses that have a traditionally high fail rate. So we recognize that it's difficult for students to learn this particular subject matter, this particular area of study, this particular course in that didactic sort of modality. So what do they do if they have difficulty? Well, they might go visit that instructor during office hours, which we would certainly highly recommend that they do. Do they may go visit one of our expert tutors on campus with another highly recommended best practice among students. But that also assumes that you know what you don't know, right? It assumes that you know what your question is. It assumes that you understand your gaps in learning, and that can be very frustrating for you and for the instructor or for the tutor, when you don't really know even what to ask. I don't understand any of it well. I can't really go back through all of the text and all of the material that was presented come back when you know what your question is. So supplemental instruction is kind of different. It's an other sort of category. We're not going to re lecture an SI session. That's what the Course instruction is for. We're not going to tutor an SI session. That's what our tutors and office hours are for in supplemental instruction, instead of that environment being led or facilitated by an instructor or by a tutor who may be a content expert, the SI leader is going to be a fellow student, a student who has already taken this class before and made an A in it. And they are not necessarily, they're content knowledgeable, but they're not a content expert. They're a learning expert. They know what and how to study the material. They know how to take good notes in this class that are going to be productive in that personal study time. They know how to organize. They know how to prioritize and to identify, what are the key concepts, what should I be spending my time studying, and what is maybe less important, either for this course or for courses to come that are going to build on this course and that SI leader in that SI session, which caps at 20 students now in a virtual environment, we've actually pushed that up to 25 when we return to campus, it will be 20 students or less in that small group learning environment. Students can work together so they can process notes together. They can ask and answer questions together. They can create study guides together, they can teach to learn as a strategy that we frequently use in SI sessions. So you turn to a neighbor or to someone at a table group, and you tell them everything you know about that concept, which helps you to identify again, what you know and what you don't know. And other students are there to fill in the gaps, so that SI leader is going to facilitate that process, and SI session isn't going to look like your lecture. It's not going to look like a tutoring session. It's going to look a lot more like a small group study session that's guided by an expert in learning that particular material. 

Star Wildes  
Thank you so much, James. So the next question is, what does what courses, does Supplemental Instruction help with and explain the differences as far as you know, supplemental instruction and tutoring. But what are courses that students can look forward to being offered supplemental instruction?

James Graham  
That is a great question star, and we do get asked that question very frequently. The easy answer is, I would refer you to our CSUSB Supplemental Instruction website. Each term we do publish the list of courses that have si aligned with them specifically, and not just courses, but course sections. Sometimes we will support for multiple sections within a course. Sometimes it's just one or two sections. It really depends on the alignment with the we work with our faculty on campus and with department chairs to align those. I will reiterate that we do only support courses that have a traditionally high fail rate, our kind of cutoff is 20% or higher. But that doesn't mean that you can't form your own study groups or create an environment with other students where you can use some of those same tools, but essay may not be formally offered for every course on campus. I wish we had the funding and the space to do that, but we don't so we prioritize those courses that are particularly challenging for students traditionally. So we look at at the exit data for various courses on campus, and when that course is particularly challenging for a good number of students, we align that that particular course with supplemental instruction sessions. Sometimes there are multiple sessions to one section. Sometimes there are multiple sections to one session. Kind of depends on the course enrollment size. So some of our smaller courses on campus, because we can take up to 20 students, if the course enrollment cap for that section is only 30 or 35 students, we may combine multiple sections and have a single or maybe two SI sessions when it's a large enrollment course that's particularly rigorous, like some of our biology courses, for example, we may have multiple SI sessions on different days and times that are available to students enrolled in a single section of that course. We do support a lot of biology courses, a lot of chemistry courses, math courses. We do support poli sci courses, psychology courses. We have courses we support in the College of Business Admin courses. So we actually work with four different colleges. I work with anywhere between 10 and 12 academic departments across campus each year. So there are a number of courses. It's not just one particular area.

Matt Markin  
And so let's say a student is in a class, and they find out that that class does offer si and but they're on the fence of maybe wanting to sign up to be part of it. Is there any data you can share to show that there is a benefit to do SI?

James Graham  
Certainly, absolutely. So we track, we actually use a lot of assessment data to be able to align as best we can, our SI support in ways that are meaningful to students and and that help students to graduate on time. That's a high priority for us. So we track those outcomes. We look at student performance in terms of graduation and retention rates. We look at student performance in terms of grade earned and the course, course, GPA, and overall GPA, we will track students who participate in multiple SI sessions for multiple courses and see how they perform. And we are able to kind of publish out that data in multiple forms. So if you are really interested in drilling down and digging deeply into that data, our institutional research website at CSUSB has a dashboard that is available that's public facing, where you can look at specific courses, you can look at suites of courses, you can look at terms, you can look at academic years and see how students fare, but just in more general terms, one of the things that we found using what we call match sample data analysis, which is to analyze students who meet specific demographic criteria and match both participants versus non participants within that same course. So we may look at a student who matches on 6789, different criteria, who didn't participate in SI, and someone who did participate in SI that matches on those same criteria. What we found is that the average non si participant for the courses that we support specifically, only 48% of those students make an A in the class for the average participant in SI when we talk about students coming to si participation, we really look at if they even calculating, and looking at students who come only one time, that number for A's and B's Among average participants shoots up from 48 to 60% of those students. And then we've also found, if you come regularly, which, for our purposes, is four times in the first half and second four times in the second half of that academic term, that 71% of those students made A's or B's in these same high fail rate classes. So significant numbers, we can't say in terms of correlation, I mean in terms of definitely that it's always si that makes the difference. Hopefully students are taking advantage of our tutoring center. Hopefully they're spending time with that instructor in office hours and advocating for their success. But SI is certainly a part of that. So we can say there's a strong correlation between si participation and success in the course. 

Star Wildes  
And it's really good to know that the the data backs up. You know, when students join in and, you know, go into Si, that they are more successful within the course. So thank you so much for sharing that, James. So the next question, since, since we are in a virtual environment right now, and I know we go into next term, same thing, what would the students experience in an SI session? What would that be like?

James Graham  
Well, obviously, you know when, when everything, when we jumped online, when we made this transition, we were all kind of scrambling to figure out, what is best practice, right? How do you establish best practice when there's no real precedent? Fortunately for us, si is internationally, has been offered online at various institutions. So we'd look at their best practice and figure out, okay, how do we do this in a way that is meaningful? And so certainly, we look at that best practice and made some determinations in terms of how we might deliver si virtually. But the other, and I think more important piece, is to take a look at that individual course, and how is that course being delivered. So we design SI sessions in a virtual environment, very much like we would design SI sessions in a physical environment, and that is that we look at the construct of the course, how that is being delivered to students, whether there's a lab component, in this case, virtually, whether it's being offered synchronously or asynchronously, what that lecture, lecture structure looks like, what the embedded support systems look like within the course. Because we don't want to replicate anything. We want to provide additional resources, supplemental resources, and so right now, in a virtual environment, our SI sessions all look a little bit different. So we have courses on campus that have a very synchronous, sort of traditional approach, where students will be required to attend that course, lecture, maybe Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday or Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, our SI sessions mirror that when it's a synchronous course, and generally they are aligned either just before or just after that delivered lecture. When it's asynchronous. Those sessions are a little bit more flexible, so they may not necessarily be aligned with the course calendar or the course schedule. They still do happen twice a week, and. Are scheduled regularly. They are face to face. So we do have online zoom sessions that are SI sessions, where students can interact. We use breakout rooms. We use a lot of vital technologies to be able to to facilitate learning at a deeper level. But in addition to that, while we're in a virtual environment, and maybe even moving forward. Once we're back in person, we have also added a blackboard element, and so students can access materials, Si, materials, support materials anytime by just logging into Blackboard. If you, right now, are enrolled in a course that is supported by Si, you will see, when you look at your Blackboard list that course, the Blackboard for your course, but you'll also see Si, and then that course ID that SI at that course ID is the SI Blackboard, and the SI leader interacts with students. There. It's a repository for materials that are maybe delivered or developed even within those SI sessions by other students, maybe Study guides or practice tests that are available via Blackboard, and that is delivered asynchronously. So we try as best we can to align with and sort of match and supplement what's happening in the course as it is designed. But also, in addition to that, we do provide both synchronous and asynchronous opportunities for students to engage around the material.

Matt Markin  
Now, one of the questions we get a lot is we've been getting recently has been classes are gonna be offered for the winter intersession, so going along with that, do you know if si will be offered in winter intercession? Will it be in spring semester? Will it be summer?

James Graham  
That's a great question, and I would actually love to know the answer. I could provide more definite information about about our offerings in the coming terms. Yes, we are slated, of course, to support as many courses as we possibly can in all terms, academic terms. That's ideal for us. Budget right now is an interesting question. When we talk about just the state of California and the CSU at large, I know that there have been cuts at the state level, and we're still waiting to find out exactly how much budget that we will be working with for the remainder of this academic year. And we'll make decisions based on maximizing our dollars. So we will offer as many sessions for as many courses as we possibly can in every academic term that we have the opportunity to support. Right now, I can more or less guarantee that we will have robust support for the spring. I'm not sure about intercession just yet. That would be a check back with me later, but it is also another moment for me to plug our website. So watch there, because that's where those updates will be made. We do tend to project what we hope to support, and then we have a process where we, because we do hire students exclusively who work within our program, where we onboard students. And so part of the answer to that question depends on you. If you're interested in being an SI leader and you've successfully completed a course that that is supported by SI, you're welcome to apply. So we can, generally, if we have the funding, we can open up sessions as long as we have leaders. One of the minimum requirements for that application process is instructor recommendations. So you also might want to speak with those instructors and say, Hey, I would be really interested in being an SI leader for this course. And they shoot names our way. And so we develop our schedule based on really those three factors, based on the availability of SI leaders, based on alignment with faculty and based on funding. And so as those determinations are made and those pieces fall into place, we make that schedule publicly available on our website.

Star Wildes  
That's so awesome. And thank you so much for sharing that, James. And as you had mentioned your website, right? And you're referring students to your website to check to see you know what supplement instruction or SI courses will be available. If students have questions about si or how to enroll, may we ask? How could they be able to contact you?

James Graham  
That's That's great. Yes. So by way of enrollment, there is no traditional, or really even formal enrollment process for supplemental instruction. They are first come, first serve sessions that are open and available to any student who is enrolled in the corresponding content course. So if you enroll in the course, and SI is offered for that course, you are automatically enrolled in the SI Blackboard, and you will be able to see all of those resources, regardless of that 20 or 25 student cap, the live sessions are the sessions that are capped at 20 or 2525 in the virtual environment, 20 when we're on campus. In order to maintain that small group learning environment, that first come first serve list is managed by the SI leaders. So you will see that SI leader in your course lecture. You will be receiving emails from that SI leader through Blackboard inviting you to add your name to that interests list, and then they build that list from there, once the term has begun. So you don't have to enroll in anything special. You don't have to go through the registrar's office at all if SI is. Offered for your course, you will see that si Blackboard automatically. You will receive emails from our offices and from the SI leaders, respectively, and you will have the opportunity to sign up for those SI sessions. Some of the SI sessions do fill up. We try our very best again, as funding, as much as funding, will allow to open as many session sessions as we need to, so that there's space for all the students who would like to participate in SI sometimes they do max out. And so you do want to make sure that you contact that SI leader early, and that you participate often. If you only participate a couple of times in the beginning of the term and the session is impacted that SI leader may contact you and say, We'd like to give your seat to someone else who is on the waiting list who would like to participate in the SI session. We want everyone who wants to be there to be able to be there. So it's really easy to get involved. It's not a complicated process at all, but it is something that you need to advocate. And I would say, honestly, that's just great. That's just great college student advice. Go and find the resources they're available to you. There are so many resources here at CSUSB. They're available to many of which you are already paying for as part of your tuition and fees. So take advantage of those. Si is certainly one of those. If SI is offered for your course, it means that at least one in five students don't pass that course. Take advantage of this service that you're already paying for, but you do have to step out and be brave and show up at that SI session and sign up with that SI leader. And it's super easy to do, and they're terribly, terribly friendly folks. It's one of the things that we look for in our interview process, is folks that are accommodating, who understand how to listen and understand where you're coming from. That's one of the essential skills that our SI leaders employ and develop throughout their tenure and time with us. So it's a super easy thing to do, and I would encourage you to if you have si offered for your course, check that out even starting this term.

Matt Markin  
James, we have reached the end of this interview with you, and we really appreciate you being part of this and giving the information about supplemental instruction. Love the point that you make about student fees, that a lot of the resources on campus or even virtual are paid for with the campus fees. And so if students don't use it, then hey, their fees are still paying for it. So definitely take advantage of it, yodes, this is a great opportunity, plenty of resources, especially with supplemental instruction. But James, thank you so much for joining us. 

James Graham  
Of course, thank you for having me.

Matt Markin  
Thank you so much, James for that information. A lot of useful info for our yodes. And thank you so much to you, and also to David Reyes from the tutoring center. We hope you enjoyed this episode, Yoties. We're going to make plenty more. We have another episode coming out later in October, so please make sure that you are checking your emails. You are checking your Student Center for any holds. If you have questions or need to set up an appointment with your advisor, your advisor. Contact information will also be on your student sender and your enrollment dates will be updating later this month regarding spring registration. The other question you may have is, when can you start to register for the winter intercession, and that will be November 9. All Students will be able to register because it is open enrollment beginning November 9, but make sure you meet with your advisors. And if you have any questions for us, please let us know. Main way to get in touch with us through email is advising@csusb.edu but star. Where can they find our office? Social media.

Star Wildes  
Awesome. You can find us on our social media platforms, Instagram, at CSUSBadvising, also Facebook, same handle and on Twitter, CSUSB underscore advising we look forward to seeing you soon.