SI Faculty Resource Site

Supplemental Instruction (SI) is an academic support model that uses peer learning to support traditionally difficult courses with the use of an SI Leader.  The program started at University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) in 1973 (same year as ACC!), and has been implemented, studied, and evaluated for its effectiveness across a variety of disciplines and institutional levels.  Studies have shown that students who regularly participate in SI sessions perform on average a whole letter grade better than those students who don’t take advantage of the service!

The SI Leader is a student who performed exceptionally well in a course, and was nominated by a faculty member to support the class for future semesters. The SI Leader is hired for $23/hr, and then goes through 9 hours of SI training, as well as 4 hours of mandatory compliance training before they are ready to perform their job duties.   

Job duties of the SI Leader include attending class as a peer model student, holding an office time every week to plan for sessions, and running study group sessions outside of class on a regular schedule. 

The study group sessions allow the opportunity for the SI Leader and students in the class to network, compare notes, discuss readings, develop organizational tools, and teach each other the material covered in class.  

SI  is provided to you, your department, and your students at no cost!

Effectiveness

In the early 1990s, the U.S. Department of Education validated three specific claims about the effectiveness of SI:

1. Students participating in SI within the targeted high-risk courses earn higher mean final course grades than students who do not participate in SI. This finding is still true when analyses control for ethnicity and prior academic achievement.

2. Despite ethnicity and prior academic achievement, students participating in SI within targeted high-risk courses succeed at a higher rate (withdraw at a lower rate and receive a lower percentage of [fail] final course grades) than those who do not participate in SI.

3. Students participating in SI persist at the institution (reenroll and graduate) at higher rates than students who do not participate in SI

A more recent review of all published SI research between 2001 and 2010 found studies in support of all three of these claims, and no studies contradicting them.

The SI program began at ACC in 2007 with just 6 SI Leaders supporting 12 sections of four different courses. From there, the program grew to support more disciplines and students at ACC. When the Highland campus opened in 2014, the SI program saw a big boost! As our program grew, we came to support more departments such as World Languages, Math, Chemistry, History, and Philosophy to name a few. We also started supporting courses for students applying to nursing school such as Anatomy and Physiology and Pharmacology.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the SI program had to quickly adapt to meet the needs of our students and we quickly implemented online SI sessions over Zoom or Google Meet. After seeing that we can successfully hold SI sessions online, we have continued to support online courses at ACC. 

Fast forward to today and the SI program has had some of it's most successful semesters since before COVID. In the Fall of 2024, we supported over 150 class sections with more than 80 SI Leaders! We had over 9000 sign ins from 1600 students. By the numbers, we had a great semester! Let's hear what our SI Leaders and students have to say.

Testimonials from students and SI Leaders.

"I found the sessions and their instruction to be an excellent complement to the challenges of an intro language course — Japanese (JAPN 1411). As the SI pointed out in one session: ”this is where you get to dig into the content that gets introduced in class.” He was right — it was an excellent combo. I appreciated how in sync the SI sessions were with the course sessions. I also appreciated that he conducted one on-line session and one in-person session (Highland Campus). The sessions didn’t feel repetitive. In fact, it was a real benefit to attend both (when possible) for the extra practice. I value the SI's enthusiasm for the subject and appreciate how his SI sessions strengthened the entire course experience"

-Scott, JAPN 1411 Student, Spring 2023 

"I wanted to let y'all know what a great experience being an SI leader was. I was so impressed by the organization and the support we received from you and the SI mentors. Being a new leader I was pretty nervous about the job, but I had the best time planning sessions and working with the students!  The SI strategies also helped me in my job as a nurse precepting new grads.  I've learned how valuable "wait time" can be!  Thank you for a great semester!"

-Raeanne, SPAN 1411 SI Leader

What are my SI Leader's duties?

Your relationship with your SI Leader

Your students' relationship with your SI Leader

• First day of class

• Promoting SI Attendance

• ACC Resources by Campus

• Qualifications to be an SI Leader

• How to nominate/request an SI Leader

• How do I add my SI Leader to Blackboard once they are assigned to me? 

• How do I benefit from having an SI?

  • Many professors who have worked with an SI in the past have commented that their semester is less hectic, because their students attend their class and they already have an understanding of  the lesson.  

• I will be teaching 2 or more sections of a class, how does SI work for that? Do I need an SI for each section?

  • If you are working with multiple sections of the same course (ex: 3 sections of MATH 1314), then you only need 1 SI to sit in on one of those sections. The SI will sit in on one section, but will be added to the Blackboard site for each section, they will advertise their support to each of your sections.

  • If you are teaching different classes (ex: I teach a MATH 1314 and 2412), then the SI would sit in on both classes as they are different courses.

• Can I nominate a student who took my course "X" number of semesters ago?

  • Yes, you can nominate any student who you've worked with before. As long as they meet the qualifications we listed. 

• Does my nominee need to be a current student at ACC?

  • We prefer that your nominee is a current ACC student who took your course. However, many students take breaks from coursework and transfer to 4 year institutions.  If your nominee is not currently enrolled but recently took your course, we will accept the nomination and reach out to the student.

• How much does an SI Leader get paid?

  • Each SI Leader gets the ACC hourly employee rate which is presently $23/hr

• I won't be teaching this semester, will my SI lose their position?

  • No, your SI will likely still be employed regardless if you are teaching or not. In the event an SI leader loses their faculty member for one reason or another, we attempt to pair them with another faculty member that works with their schedule. However, there are no guarentees of employement. Reaching out to other faculty and seeing if they're interested is a great way to make sure we find a placement for your SI.

• Does my department pay to have SI support? Do I have to pay to have SI support?

  • No, neither your department or you have to pay for SI support.  SI is a part of the embedded learning services at ACC funded through the Student Affairs department. 

• Can I nominate an international student to be an SI Leader?

  • Yes!  But the student will have to make sure and obtain a social security number, if they don't already have one.  We recommend the student reach out to the International Student Office ASAP, as it can take some time to go through this process. 

• Can I nominate a student that lives outside of Texas to support my online course?

  • No, ACC employees must reside in Texas

To contact us, email supplementalinstruction@austincc.edu

Paul Price, Manager

• Oversees SI operations at Southern Campuses (EVC, HYS, RVS, SAC) 

• Email: pprice@austincc.edu

• Phone: 512-223-5303

Ruchi Kumar, Specialist

• Oversees SI operations at Northern Campuses (EGN, CYP, NRG, RRC, SGC)

• ruchi.kumar@austincc.edu

• Phone: 512-223-0169

Emryse Geye, Specialist

• Oversees SI operations at Central Campuses (HLC, RGC)

• emryse.geye@austincc.edu

• Phone: 512-223-7356

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