Study Lab Goes Virtual, Adds New Resources to Support Students
Study Lab, located within the Dietrich School, provides an accessible resource for students to optimize their study skills.
“Study Lab is a resource for students to support their academic skill development and success in their coursework, as well as a place for them to learn about, experiment with, and try new study skills to help them be successful,” says Mary Napoli, the lab's director.
“We are attempting to address the need for a personalized education experience which may be more difficult to find on a large campus,” explains Jennifer Smith, MEd, an academic coach at Study Lab. “Through one-on-one and small groups, students will hopefully feel like they are seen, like they belong, and that they have a support system that they can turn to.”
According to Napoli, students who use Study Lab can take advantage of several types of programs to improve their study skills.
“Our largest is our tutoring program, we have a staff of about 60 undergraduate peer tutors who support many of the foundational courses that students will take in their first or second year in the sciences.”
Study Lab also offers hour-long one-on-one tutoring sessions virtually and in-person as well as drop-in tutoring in Pitt's Hillman Library.
Study Lab also provides academic coaching. Students schedule a one-on-one appointment with an academic coach where they discuss their classes and study strategies. The coaches help the students develop a plan for successful studying using proven strategies.
“We are big supporters of studying smarter, not harder,” says Napoli.
Adds Smith, “We understand that every person intakes information differently and has different personal commitments, and we work hard to create a space where students can determine the techniques that work for them and get additional help with specific content areas.”
Like many academic programs, Study Lab had to take its operations virtual when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented in-person learning.
“Prior to COVID, I had been very hesitant to dive into the virtual support services arena,” says Napoli. “When we're coaching, we like to see the notes that students are taking or have students show us the textbook that they’re reading. We like to be collaborative. It’s so much easier for our tutors to work with a student on a whiteboard and work through a problem and draw things out. It's a little bit harder to be collaborative in that virtual space. But we did it, and I do think it was better than I expected.”
“When the pandemic began and we were all at home, we still needed to provide these resources for students. Courses did not stop, and for some, they were much harder because of the pandemic,” says Smith. “After doing some research, we were able to find a virtual classroom for our tutors to offer tutoring appointments through, and we were able to move our academic coaching appointments to Zoom.”
The pandemic also led Study Lab to provide unexpected services. Study Lab was able to use existing outreach programs for first-year seminar classes, residence halls and organizations on campus to address taking classes in a virtual setting and how to succeed in online courses.
“We were getting students on the offensive, discussing what courses were going to look like, what kinds of things they would need to do to be successful, and what kind of resources were still out there for them to be successful, even though they weren't working with folks in person,” Napoli says.
“The pandemic showed us the importance of what we were doing and that the need for personalized education continues to grow,” notes Smith. “It really showed me the impact relationship-building can have on students and staff alike, and that we needed to continue to offer virtual options even as we transitioned back to in-person so that we could reach a greater number of the campus population.”
Smith explained that during the pandemic, she found herself meeting with the same students more regularly than pre-pandemic, often just to check in and see how things were going.
“Because we were in our homes, those regular check-ins helped some students still feel part of the campus community. That is something that has continued now that we are in-person which is great for a lot of students! I think it’s positive that we are able to still offer virtual appointments and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”
As for the future, Study Lab has exciting plans. A new initiative for the fall will focus on peer-led team learning.
“It combines the best of academic coaching and tutoring into one,” says Napoli. “It's designed to support students in specific courses by offering them a one-hour-a-week study group.”
Students will meet with the same group every week, and each group will have a student facilitator, who will facilitate a sense of community among the students and lead them through exercises and activities to help them master course content.
“it might be that the first exam is coming up,” says Napoli, “so they'll work together to put together a test prep plan for what they're going to cover and how they're going to cover it, and they'll be able to talk together as a group on how to do that.”
No matter the learning environment, Study Lab is committed to providing these useful services and expanding new programs for Pitt students.
“We're trying to support students however we can. And as their needs change, we try to adapt to what those needs are,” says Napoli. “In addition to our dedicated professional staff, we have a huge team of excellent students that truly do the hard work in service to their peers. They are all wonderful to work with.”