What happens in an FSG?
FSGs offer you a different learning experience where the focus is on collaborative and active learning techniques. Your FSG leader will guide you in the session and support you in finding your own answers.
Who will be at the FSGs?
Other than the FSG Leaders, students in your class will be attending the sessions. You will also notice an FSG Program Assistant visiting the sessions to check in on the FSG Leaders. The Program Assistants are there to provide feedback and support to the FSG Leaders. They are not part of your course’s teaching team.
What are the differences between lectures, tutorials, and FSGs?
Lectures and Tutorials
Lectures and tutorials are typically run by Course Instructors and Teaching Assistants. They are classes where you learn new course material and are tested on what you have learned.
Facilitated Study Groups (FSGs)
FSGs, on the other hand, focus on developing skills that are essential to the course. Each session is collaborative and provides you with the opportunity to work with your peers to create a strong and meaningful understanding of the course material. FSG Leaders do not teach course material or provide answers to assignments.
Is FSG Attendance required?
Attending FSGs is optional. You can drop into the sessions for your courses when they are running during the academic year (View the FSG Schedule). Each session is led by a different group of leaders so you can learn with different communities. The FSG Leaders design their activities based on what you’re learning in class.
You can attend FSGs based on what works best with your schedule. We encourage you to attend sessions regularly as research has shown that students who attend FSGs earn higher grades that students who do not and those who do attend FSGs develop their critical thinking, organization and problem solving skills which leads to greater success in their academic career (Burmeister, 2013). As well, our analysis of FSGs at UTM and student grades from the past have shown that students who attend more frequently tend to average higher marks than those who do not attend.
Do you take attendance in an FSG?
You will be asked to sign in with your student number or by scanning your T-Card when you attend a session. We collect this information so that we can evaluate the effectiveness of the FSG program. Any data that we report would be de-identified and shared in aggregate form. At the end of each term, we review the aggregated data to see when students are more likely to attend sessions and the effects of attending FSGs on their final course mark. However, we never release the identity of the students who have attended the FSGs and we do not match student names with student numbers in this statistical analysis.
In general, your Course Instructors and Teaching Assistants will not know if you are attending an FSG. Only in cases where a Course Instructor has included FSG participation as part of their course syllabus has attendance data been shared. You can review your course syllabus to check if you may be impacted by this.
Role Clarity: Course Instructors, Teaching Assistants, Facilitators
| Course Instructor | Teaching Assistant | Facilitator |
Who is this person? | Highly trained and learned expert in their discipline with skills in teaching and research. | Graduate or undergraduate student with demonstrated knowledge in the content and discipline. Receives training on teaching and grading strategies. | UTM undergraduate student who has previously taken and was successful in the course they are facilitating for. |
Expertise | Subject Matter Expert: Focus on content and disciplinary information | Subject Matter Expert: Focus on content and disciplinary information | "Course Expert": Knows what it is like to be a student in this course and what study and academic skills are required to do well |
Training Focus | Subject matter, teaching strategies, research | Subject matter, teaching strategies | Collaborative and active learning strategies to structure their sessions around learning skills in the context of the course material. |
Session Focus | Course content | Course content | Learning skills and strategies for being successful in UTM |
Role and Responsibilities | Sets the course syllabus and teaches it. Determines what will be taught, the assignments, the grading, and how the course will run among other things. Teaches course content, marks assignments, can provide help/clarification on course assignments. | Varies based on the Description of Duties and Allocation of Hours outlined by the Course Instructor. Can teach course content, mark assignments, review material with students, and provide help/clarification on course assignments. | Create study sessions that focus upon skill development that is essential to doing well in the course with a focus on skills such as learning preferences, critical thinking, organization, note taking, and problem solving. Does not give answers or go over course assignments. Re-directs students to the most appropriate campus resource when things are beyond the scope of their role. Their main goals are to assist students in developing study skills with the course content as a platform and to support students in familiarizing themselves with how UTM works. |
How can you best prepare for participating in an FSG?
At all times, students are required to abide by the University of Toronto’s Code of Student Conduct. FSGs are a shared space for all the students who attend, so mutual respect for the learning experience of others is essential.
We encourage students to participate in FSGs by collaborating, asking questions, and working with the other attendees. An FSG is a different learning experience from a lecture or tutorial so you will find that the focus of your activities and learning is different. While the FSG Leaders will design activities based on what is happening in your course, you are encouraged to come with questions and have ideas of areas you’d like to focus upon.