Learning Center

If you want to enhance your current skills or learn new ones to aid in your academic success, academic coaching is for you. Academic coaching is an individual consultation session for students with one of the Learning Center staff members. During the consultation, you will learn to improve your study habits while developing new strategies for academic success. Each session is personalized to fit your individual needs. During a coaching session, we may examine your learning style, discuss approaches to the learning process or identify barriers that hinder your academic success. You will create your academic success plan in collaboration with your coach. Topics covered during academic coaching often include:

• Creating a study plan
• Concentration and memory
• Goal setting
• Learning and study strategies inventory (LASSI)
• Learning styles
• Motivation
• Note taking
• Organizational skills
• Reading strategies
• Self-advocacy and University resources
• Self-management (avoiding procrastination, creating a study schedule, prioritizing tasks)
• Stress management
• Test anxiety, test preparation and test-taking strategies

COL 123 – Study Strategies Course (1 credit hour)

This minimester course is for students who would like to acquire strategies to become independent and successful university students. The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory or LASSI is provided to assess students current strengths and areas for development. Topics include critical thinking, priority management, information literacy, motivation and goal setting, learning styles, listening and note-taking, reviewing and using your notes outside of the classroom, college reading, memory, test preparation and test performance, civility and making wise choices.  This course is graded pass fail and for first semester freshmen and sophomores. 

Success seminars offered at The Learning Center are designed to provide students the opportunity to develop or refine current skills necessary for academic and personal success at BW. All seminars are free and do not require advance registration. 

All seminars are approximately fifty (50) minutes and take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays (11:15 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.) and Wednesdays (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) in Ritter Library, room 214B.  Please visit the BW SMART Tab in Blackboard for the schedule or The Learning Center portal site. 

Supplemental Instruction (SI) is an academic support program that targets historically difficult courses. Historically difficult courses have a high rate of D or F grades and withdrawals. SI is a non-remedial approach to course mastery that increases student performance (grades) and retention and offers regularly scheduled review sessions open to all students in the targeted course. These study sessions are informal seminars in which students review notes, discuss readings, develop organizational tools and prepare for examinations. Students learn how to integrate course content with reasoning and study strategies.

Tutorial services are available for undergraduate students at Baldwin Wallace in most subject areas. There is not an additional fee, as the cost is included in your tuition. The Learning Center's peer tutors are recommended by BW faculty and have received an A or B in the course(s) for which they provide tutoring. Our tutors participate in a rigorous training program to ensure consistent quality service.

We offer the following tutoring services:

• Individual tutoring: Individual tutors are available in most subjects.
• Drop-in tutoring: We provide drop-in tutoring for biology, business, chemistry, math, physics and writing.
• Smarthinking online tutoring: Online tutoring is offered in a variety of subjects on drop-in, pre-scheduled and/or asynchronous basis.