Butte College�s Supplemental Instruction (SI) Program is designed to build peer-led academic support both in hybrid and online communities of diverse students and self-empowered learners. This self-selecting, course-specific, peer-led academic support program seeks to promote active, collaborative learning involving critical thinking and transferrable study skills. Its efforts are aimed at improving the retention rate of students enrolled in the SI-linked courses and helping students pass these courses at a higher rate.
Supplemental Instruction (SI) is an academic enrichment program that is offered in historically challenging courses (high rate of D, F, and withdrawals). SI is a core support service offered in the Center for Academic Success (CAS). SI is an international program and is considered a best practice in colleges and universities. Butte's SI program was institutionalized in 2013 based on success data and the demand continues to grow from students and faculty. SI is designed to supplement � not replace � class lectures. SI discussion and review sessions are facilitated by trained student SI Leaders who have already completed the course. SI sessions are interactive and collaborative in all modalities. Students who attend sessions learn to integrate how to learn with what to learn. It's a chance for all classmates to get together outside of class to compare notes, to discuss important concepts, and to develop strategies for studying the subject in a structured environment.
The SI program plans to assess and reflect upon SI specific SLO's moving forward now that we have additional LRS support.
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SI contributed to the Vision for Success goals in the following ways:
SI is able to meet the needs of a diverse student population. CAS/SI is a critical part of the AB 705 initiative with helping support all transfer level math courses. We are excited to expand SI support into more transfer level math courses rather than just supporting statistics. Staff serves on the AB 705 Hub Committee.
Spring 2015 was our last program review in CAS. Recommendations included:
CHC and GCC support: Due to lack of resources, the program hasn't been able to expand SI course offerings at off-site locations. With the addition of a support staff person, this would allow the coordinator time to travel between campus locations to work with both the faculty and SI Leader. (ADDRESSED; the recommendation has been met)
Online support: We piloted face-to-face tutoring for two online biology courses during the fall 2017 semester. We also provided online tutoring for these classes as well. Due to low usage for both modalities of providing support, we have discontinued providing this type of support for online courses. Net Tutor has proved to be a good resource for students. (ADDRESSED; the recommendation has been met)
Broader marketing: We'd like to provide more outreach to students on the dashboard who were not utilizing SI resources. Again, lack of resources has not allowed this to happen. (ONGOING)
Strategy 1 - Special Programs Clerk to support SI Program
This includes hiring a part-time Special Programs Clerk (11 months) to provide support for the Supplemental Instruction Program.
Moving forward post-COVID, there is an increased need for administrative support. SI will continue face-to-face support and will provide online support as well and this is an extremely time-consuming endeavor.
With the state-wide implementation of AB705, we continue to grow the program to meet the demand by faculty. From Fall 2019 to Spring 2020, we increased the number of weekly sessions from 85 to 120+ at mulitiple locations. As we continue to explore the best practices for supporting transfer level Math courses (Math 4, 11,12,13,18,20,26) , there has also been an increase in support to STEM courses and we continue to receive requests for more SI support in additional courses/instructors. With this continued growth in the program, the day to day operations and logistics becomes more demanding requiring more personnel support. This position would provide an additional resource for SI Leaders, students, staff and faculty.
A SI specific Special Programs Clerk would do the following:
Strategy 2 - Classroom/Study/Work space for SI sessions
More classroom space is needed to hold SI sessions.
Due to the high demand of SI, study sessions for large lectures have higher attendance (15-35 students per session) so bigger classrooms are needed to hold SI sessions in the face to face environment. Currently in CAS, there are only 3 classrooms large enough for bigger sessions and one of these is shared with EOPS/Power Center. This makes it challenging to schedule several study sessions during peak hours (9am-2pm). Additionally, many students like to attend SI sessions in the evening at the Chico Center. (Space is limited at the CHC as well between 6-9pm.) It is difficult to increase SI support to large lecture classes when there is no where to hold SI sessions for students. More classroom space needs to be made available in order to increase the amount of courses with SI support.
We currently are working with department admin. assistants to schedule sessions outside of CAS. With an increased number of SI Leaders and SI sessions a week, more classroom and study space will be needed to meet the demands of the program.
For the spring 2020 semester, we had 30 SI Leaders holding 120+SI sessions a week. Some sessions occur outside of CAS and at the Chico Center. The Math department "donated" one of their worst classrooms in TE for SI sessions. Unfortunately, the TE building is going through a much needed remodel and this will displace potentially 10-20 SI sessions a week.
There is also a need for SI Leader work space. We took over a small study room and have outgrown it. We have 4 computers between 30 SI Leaders to enter weekly attendance and prepare for their 3-6 study sessions a week.
Strategy 3 - Hire SI Leaders
Additional SI Leaders to support AB705 will need to be hired, trained and supervised in order to meet the requests by faculty and the math department for increase in SI support in all modalities.
As per the Math department and AB705 committees request, we'd like to expand SI support for all transfer level math courses: Math 4, 11,12,13,18,20,26. With the implementation of AB705, students are being funneled into only transfer level math courses due to legislation within their first year at Butte. Originally only Math 18 courses were targeted for support, but we need support in ALL transfer level math courses. We will need to expand our budget in order to hire more SI Leaders to provide peer to peer support in these transfer level coures. The SI program has data to support it helps increase success rates and retention.
Strategy 4 - Annual SI Leader Professional Development Conference funding
Every fall, SI Leaders and SI Faculty have an opportunity to attend and present workshops at a conference in southern California called the West Coast SI Conference. This is a conference put on by SI Leaders for SI Leaders from both community colleges and universities who have SI programs.
Butte College SI Leaders and faculty have attended this conference for the past 5 years and have found this conference to be a life changing experience. For most SI Leaders, this is their first professional job and professional development opportunity. This is an opportunity to build community, share best practices and challenges, and acquire new ideas and materials for sessions which can be implemented in their current sessions and in the future. This professional development opportunity is critical to the ongoing development and daily operations to our program.
Strategy 5 - SI Program Accreditation
The accreditation initiative sets out key components of SI that programs across the United States must be doing in order to qualify to be an accredited SI program. While SI is by nature flexible, there has been a growing demand in the last decade to provide a way to showcase SI programs to distinguish those programs that are adhering to core principles of the model and receive development and coaching from the staff at the International Center for SI.
The first step is to attend the SI Supervisor Certification Training. Current certification has expired.
The process of becoming accredited isn’t easy, but this would ensure the quality of our SI program is maintained. In addition to the prestige of the accredited status, each accredited program will be connected with a Certified Trainer employed at the International Center for SI who will serve as that program’s personal connection to the center and will be available to that program to answer questions and troubleshoot any issues as they arise. Most importantly, the ability to provide SI Leader Certification on behalf of your Accredited program; includes use of official International Center for SI certificate of completion.
Accredited programs will also receive acknowledgement on UMKC’s website and in the International Conference on SI official program. accredited programs will receive priority consideration for conference proposals and will be invited to a conference reception exclusively for accredited programs.
These requested funds would cover the SI Supervsior Certification Training at UMKC in order to start the accreditation process.
During the pivot to online learning, CAS developed an online platform that provided support for all of their services. Due to the limitation of scheduling rooms on campus, being online not only provided the flexibility to meet students at times that work for them (evenings, weekends, etc.). Moving forward, we must recognize that this online platform is a fourth location that should be supported in providing flexible work schedules for staff, including the opportunity to work from home.
Due to the high demand of SI, study sessions for large lectures have higher attendance (15-35 students per session) so bigger classrooms are needed to hold SI sessions. Currently in CAS, there are only 3 classrooms large enough for bigger sessions and one of these is shared with EOPS/Power Center. This makes it challenging to schedule several study sessions during peak hours (9am-2pm). Additionally, many students like to attend SI sessions in the evening at the Chico Center. (Space is limited at the CHC as well between 6-9pm.) It is difficult to increase SI support to large lecture classes when there is no where to hold SI sessions for students. More classroom space needs to be made available in order to increase the amount of courses with SI support.
We currently are working with department admin. assistants to schedule sessions outside of CAS. With an increased number of SI Leaders and SI sessions a week, more classroom and study space will be needed to meet the demands of the program.
For the spring 2021 semester, we currently have 30 SI Leaders holding 120+SI sessions a week. Some sessions occur outside of CAS and at the Chico Center. The Math department "donated" one of their worst classrooms in TE for SI sessions, however we don't even have this tragic, awful classroom to use any longer.
There is also a need for SI Leader work space. We took over a small study room and have outgrown it and we only have two computers between 30 SI Leaders to enter weekly attendance and prepare for their 3-6 study sessions a week.
The only outside funds we have received are from SEAP. SEAP funded the FT LRS position as well as the SI Leaders for AB 705 implementation for transfer level Math courses.
SEAP granted: $50,000 for SI Leaders to support Math 18 - Statistic courses
SEAP granted: $130,000 for a full-time LRS
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | Supplemental Instruction | Personnel | 1220075001179900 | 52468 | $0.00 | $160,000.00 |
| Increase student assistant budget for SI Leaders | After meeting with the AB705 Committee and the Math Department on 1/27/22 and based on their request of support for the math department, additional SI Leaders will need to be hired, trained and supervised. With the implementation of AB705, students are being funneled into only transfer level math courses due to legislation within their first year at Butte. Originally only Math 18 courses were targeted for support, but with this new change/request students need support in all transfer level math courses (Math 4,11,12,13,18,20,26). We will need an increase in our budget to hire more SI Leaders to provide peer to peer support in these transfer level courses. |
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| 2 | Supplemental Instruction | 1220075001179900 | $25,000.00 | $0.00 | ||
| Professional Development for SI Leaders and SI Faculty | Butte College SI Leaders and faculty have attended the West Coast SI Conference for the past 5 years and have found this conference to be a life changing experience. For most SI Leaders, this is their first professional job and professional development opportunity. This is an opportunity for build community, share best practices and challenges, and acquire new ideas and materials for sessions which can be implemented in their current sessions and in the future. This professional development opportunity is critical to the ongoing development and daily operations to our program. The entire SI team should have the opportunity to attend. |
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| 3 | Supplemental Instruction (SI) Program | Personnel | 11.000.750.1.611000 | 52120 | $0.00 | $42,150.00 |
| Special Programs Clerk | With the state-wide implementation of AB705, we continue to grow the program to meet the demand by faculty. From Fall 2019 to Spring 2020, we increased the number of weekly sessions from 85 to 120+ at mulitiple locations. As we continue to explore the best practices for supporting Math 18, there has also been an increase in support to STEM courses and we continue to receive requests for more SI support in additional courses/instructors. With this continued growth in the program, the day to day operations and logistics becomes more demanding requiring more help. This position would provide an additional resource for SI Leaders, students, staff and faculty. We will also be needing more support as we move into a hybrid SI model in the future. A SI specific Special Programs Clerk would do the following: Assist with the hiring and scheduling of SI Leaders for all SI supported courses , perform a variety of clerical requests, provide program information as needed, assist in managing the SI program canvas page, maintains time sheets for SI Leaders, correspondence (verbal & written) with faculty, staff and students, assist SI Leaders with planning & execution of study sessions, coordinate with other campus locations and department secretaries to schedule rooms, promote SI and creates marketing materials, assist with creation of SI Leader portfolios, maintain calendars, assist CAS faculty & SI faculty, maintain files for weekly documentation received by SI Leaders, assist with data entry, and provide support needed for the SI program accreditation process. |
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| 4 | Supplemental Instruction | Operating Expenses | $5,000.00 | $0.00 | ||
| Start the SI Program Accreditation Process | The accreditation initiative sets out key components of SI that programs across the United States must be doing in order to qualify to be an accredited SI program. While SI is by nature flexible, there has been a growing demand in the last decade to provide a way to showcase SI programs to distinguish those programs that are adhering to core principles of the model and receive development and coaching from the staff at the International Center for SI. Our program needs support for the following: SI Supervisor CertificationTraining (Currency within 10 years) SI Training for Leaders (Initial & on-going) Planning and debriefing weekly SI sessions Observation of all SI Leaders (8 per semester) Analyze data (compare SI to non-SI participants) *These funds would fund SI Supervisor Certification Training @ UMKC to start the process. |
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