Co-curricular Small Groups
Co-curricular activities are structured, non-credited learning activities. Unlike extracurriculars such as athletics or interest groups, these activities intentionally complement the college curriculum. They may be located within an academic program, as with certain cohort programs, or exist somewhat outside the college. Such programs fall under the umbrella of widely-tested, beneficial programs outlined by George Kuh in “High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter.”
The benefits of co-curricular work are extensive and well-documented, both in terms of student satisfaction/feelings of support, and enhanced holistic student development. We suggest that this type of work may be even more crucial during the pandemic, with its potential to disrupt and disconnect many students not only from the physical campus, but from opportunities for mentorship and personal and professional growth.
This model shares some qualities with the tutorial, though its structure may vary significantly depending on the group’s purpose. The group is ideally small (2-6 students), and meetings are regular – weekly or biweekly over the course of the semester. Students may be recruited from a class they took in the past, by department, or through a cohort group. They may choose to read a text or series of texts together or to focus on a research task. To ensure that the group can be productive, we suggest that at its outset, the faculty leader and students members work out exactly what the group’s deliverables will be.
Here, student leaders take responsibility for designing, planning, and carrying out a group project. These typically take place with faculty approval but without faculty attendance or close supervision, and groups meet over the course of a semester or academic year. Such groups at their best share many qualities with a faculty-led group, in establishing the project’s goals in writing (the “proposal”), in holding regular meetings with concrete deliverables, and in requiring a final reflective piece assessed by the guiding faculty member. Typically, though, these groups have been larger (10-15 students, with changing membership) with inconsistent attendance.
At an Appreciation Meet-Up, held via videoconference, students bring work/news/research to share in an informal, positive environment -- examples could include a favorite poem written by someone else, a short piece of creative writing, a clip of music, a “report back” from an internship experience, or a news item for discussion. Such groups would be held on an ongoing basis, though membership may change. Faculty might decide to survey students on the kind of events they would like to see or to create a committee of students to plan meet-ups.