The Group Work Lab, housed in UP’s Learning Commons, is open and ready to assist groups of students—whether for class projects or campus groups hoping to reorganize and refocus their work. Students can book an appointment for their group through the Bookings Scheduler to meet with a Group Work Lab consultant, both of whom have taken CST 332 (Collaborative Group Leadership) and have completed trainings around tutoring and facilitating group work.
Faculty, please consider encouraging your students to utilize the Group Work Lab’s services if you have any group work or group projects built into your syllabi. Our consultants are prepared to assist students during any stage of their project but are especially equipped to provide support during the early stages of planning and team building. Some professors in the past have required groups meet with a consultant, and others have offered extra credit to groups who visit the Lab.
If you are an advisor of a student group on campus, you can also consider recommending that members of the group make an appointment for the Group Work Lab, as our consultants can provide information about role definition, workload management, crafting a deliverable timeline, and how to effectively frame the issue at hand.
We are also in the final stages of updating our website to include useful information for groups to reference around virtual etiquette for remote meetings and work, role definition within groups, and Appreciative Inquiry, a model that promotes change within organization and groups through positive framing and focusing on the strengths of group members.
If you have any questions about the Group Work Lab or helpful models to utilize for group work, feel free to reach out to Dr. Natalie Nelson-Marsh (nelsonma@up.edu), communication studies, as she coordinates the GWL alongside Jeffrey White (white@up.edu). For a peer tutor’s perspective, feel free to reach out to Group Work Lab consultant Sophie Downing (downing21@up.edu) for any assistance around structuring group meetings/resources around your unique assigned projects or group work.
We hope to work with you and your students soon!
As professionals in teaching within higher education in trying times, we can leverage the Learning Commons’ peer educators to facilitate students’ practicing what we teach, says Jeffrey White, Learning Commons administrator. Learn about 
The shift to remote courses has given us the opportunity to revisit how we support student learning in our classes and other academic learning assistance programs. In 
The Learning Commons invites all students to connect with peer tutors, writing assistants, and speech and presentation consultants as an effective learning strategy for greater success in their college courses. Working with our tutors also makes your online learning experience at UP more social. This summer, we offer students the following online tutoring programs in Microsoft Teams:
The Learning Commons will operate on a reduced schedule during finals week. Content tutors and the Writing Center’s writing assistants will be available by appointment only on a limited basis. Writing and math tutor schedules are on WCONLINE at 
The Learning Commons is now running all programs online, and student usage is up from the first week of online instruction, according to director Jeffrey White. By encouraging your students to connect with a peer tutor, you might help them to connect more deeply to learning and studying online while engaging socially with our peer tutors. 
When students come to the Learning Commons for content tutoring, they often could use more work on how to study in general as well as the content area. How one approaches studying in one discipline varies from other disciplines, and how one approaches studying often impacts the grade earned by a student. The Learning Commons is launching a new pilot program to support students’ metacognitive approaches to studying. You can learn more about the program at 
Just in time to start thinking about your spring course planning, Jeffrey White, Learning Commons, offers 7 minutes of advice answering the question“What Course Design Principles Enhance Student Learning?” in 
The Clark Library is hosting a reception for “Down Around the Corner: An Exhibit of Paintings by Mark Ghyselinck, C.S.C.” on Friday, October 25, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Please join us for refreshments while viewing his impressionistic depictions of the beauty around us from as far away as Salzburg to as close as here on campus. Fr. Ghyselinck is the pastoral resident in Shipstad Hall and faculty in the performing and fine arts department. The exhibit will be on display into January.
As part of its ongoing effort to improve peer tutoring and student performance, the University’s Learning Commons has been developing and improving tutor training, according to Learning Commons director Jeffrey White. The national College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA) recently approved the Learning Commons’ application for Stage Two of the International Tutor Training Program Certification (ITTPC) – Level 1. This approval represents the next step in certifying the Learning Commons’ tutor training program and follows an initial one-year certification. To receive approval for certification, the Learning Commons’ application was peer-reviewed by professionals in the field who are selected and trained by the CRLA.