What is SI?

Due to Covid-19 Supplemental Instruction sessions and office hours will be held fully online via WebEx for the Fall 2020 semester. Please visit our schedule page or Brightspace for more information about the schedule and how to connect with online SI for your course.

Supplemental Instruction is a program built around peer-led group study sessions for some of Purdue’s most challenging courses. Our SI Leaders are undergraduate students at Purdue who have taken the course that they are assigned to lead and know what it takes to succeed. They are trained to facilitate or guide learning through fun, collaborative activities that provide more practice with challenging course material and concepts. SI attendance is correlated with higher grades in the paired course, but it shouldn’t be thought of as a quick fix or a place to go for last minute help before an exam. To get the most benefit, you should attend SI early in the semester and continue coming as often as you can. Keep in mind that 1 hour of productive group study is equal to 2 hours of solo studying – SI helps you maximize your study time while also getting to know your peers and having fun.

What to Expect

Online SI Sessions will be held via WebEx. When you come to an SI session, you should expect to encounter a welcoming and inclusive environment. Since SI sessions are collaborative, you should expect to work in small groups with other students in your class; however, SI is a low stakes environment (you won’t be graded!), so don’t be embarrassed to make a mistake or be confused. The leader will use several online tools to give you the opportunity to think more critically about course content and develop a deeper understanding of how different concepts connect to one another. This could include using screen-sharing and annotation tools, breakout rooms to put you in smaller groups with other students, or even online games and apps to make content practice more fun. Although the leader might not directly answer a question you ask, they will help you to find the answer yourself, which in the long run will be more beneficial to your learning.