Course Instructor: Guide to Requesting FSGs for Your Courses

FSGs are most effective for courses that: 

• Historically have at least 30% of students earning Ds or Fs or Withdrawing from the course 

• Have large enrolment with limited opportunities to actively interact and engage with the material 

• Are perceived as challenging by the students 

At UTM, the profile for a course that may be suitable for FSGs include many first- and second-year courses and courses that are pre-requisite to competitive Subject POSts and post-graduate and professional programs. 

While this tends to have higher representation in STEM course both at UTM and across other institutions, courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences have been and are supported with FSGs. 

How having FSGs in your course could work 

Even if FSGs may be a good fit for a course, ensuring that they are used by students and aligned with the course instructor’s pedagogical goals is a collaboration between the course instructor and the RGASC. 

The Course Instructor and the RGASC roles with supporting and running FSGs 

Every Course Instructor participating in the FSG program will be assigned a Program Assistant who will liaise with them to set up communications and FSG scheduling. Our Program Assistants will be in regular contact to keep you updated on the progress and attendance of the FSGs for your course. This communication is also an opportunity to discuss the misconceptions that students have and what best practices can be used to improve student understanding. 

How do FSGs support students and their learning? 

FSGs focus on skills development with the course content as a platform for discussion. Students work collaboratively in meaningful and directed study sessions to gain a better understanding of the course material. Students can also use sessions as an opportunity to meet other students in order to learn different methods of studying. The FSG Leader structures the session to ensure that students remain on task and focused.  

Research in Supplemental Instruction, the premise of FSGs, has shown that students who regularly attend these weekly sessions earn higher grades in their courses and improve the effectiveness of their studying skills (Burmeister, 2013). Bowman et al (2023) also confirm that SI positively impacts course grades, reduces DFWI rates, and improves retention while also finding that these correlations were even stronger for more frequent SI session attendance. 

Burmeister, S. (2013). Supplemental instruction: An interview with Deanna Martin. Journal of Developmental Education, 20 (1), 22-26. 

Bowman, N. A., Preschel, S., & Martinez, D. (2023). Does Supplemental Instruction Improve Grades and Retention? A Propensity Score Analysis Approach. The Journal of Experimental Education, 91(2), 205–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2021.1891010 

How are Facilitators recruited and trained? 

Our Facilitators are volunteer senior students who have previously been successful in the course. Each FSG Leader must have earned an A grade in the course and be in Good Academic Standing. Alternatively, course instructors can recommend students who did not receive an A grade in the course to be FSG Leaders. During facilitator recruitment, we may also ask course instructors if they are comfortable with having students who did not earn an A grade but have shown academic success in upper year courses in the same content area as facilitators in their course. 

Every FSG Leader receives training in active and collaborative learning strategies. FSG Leaders will use these learning strategies to assist students in developing their critical thinking, note taking, problem solving, organization and test preparation skills. 

While they are facilitating, a Program Assistant will visit their sessions to provide feedback on their facilitation strategies. Once each semester, facilitators will also attend an In-Service Training session for further development of facilitation strategies based on the overall program’s observations. 

What is the rationale for the FSG Training approach? 

Supplemental Instruction requires training to be intensive to ensure coverage of all the topics needed prepare facilitators. This rationale is also held by the International Centre for Supplemental Instruction at the University of Missouri Kansas City, and at the Canadian Centre for Supplemental Instruction at the University of Guelph. 

Deanna Martin, the creator of Supplemental Instruction, gives the following rationale for training intensiveness in an interview with Sandra Burmeister:  

“…the single most common reason for failure of a SI program is lack of consistent training and supervision of the SI leaders. If SI leaders aren’t supervised, they fall into lecturing and giving the answers.”  

Burmeister, S., & Martin, D. (1996). Supplemental Instruction: An Interview with Deanna Martin. Journal of Developmental Education, 20(1), 22–26. 

To support our program supervision, we need to ensure that our training covers the skills and theoretical foundation for facilitation. Best practices for setting up training include outcomes that need to be achieved through training intensity in: 

• role of the SI Leader  

• concept of collaborative and active learning  

• communication skills  

• practice in observing and leading sessions 

Lipsky, S. A. (2006). A credit-bearing course for training SI leaders. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2006(106), 33–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.231 

Amelia McDaniel (2008) also states that facilitator training should include: 

• philosophical Implications of the position of SI Leader  

• understanding of the philosophy of learning on which SI is founded  

• awareness of several generic session strategies  

• knowledge of how to plan flexible sessions 

• meeting with the course instructor 

• being prepared to spend a number of hour per week sufficient for attending lectures, planning, facilitating and debriefing their sessions 

McDaniel, A. (2008). Recruiting and Training Supplemental Instruction Leaders. In Stone, M. E., & Jacobs, G. (Eds.). Supplemental Instruction: Improving First-Year Student Success in High-Risk Courses. 3rd Edition. (pp. 33-51) The First-Year Experience Monograph Series No. 7. In National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. 

The RGASC facilitator training plan adapts these best practices for the UTM context to provide ensure intensity through the mode, scale, length, and range of our training to ensure our facilitators are prepared to develop and lead facilitated study groups.