Overview of the Academic Success Center
The Academic Success Center at Alfaisal University is a space where members of our community can find help understanding concepts, developing skills, and growing as lifelong learners. The Center primarily exists to extend and support the work of Alfaisal’s classes by offering consultation sessions, in which learners are paired with trained student consultants who provide writing support as well as academic support for specific classes.
Vision
To establish and sustain a thriving teaching-learning-writing community that is aligned with Alfaisal University’s mission to give students opportunities to develop their full potential.
Objectives
The following objectives will help develop the kind of learning community that is in line with our vision:
- Providing high-quality, targeted consultation sessions that support students’ writing and learning processes. These supports go beyond the specific assignment or concept to help students develop as independent learners.
- Maintaining a high-quality professional development program for each rotation of student consultants so that they can quickly assess learners’ needs and provide appropriately leveled support.
- Providing the physical and digital resources necessary to support the Center’s seamless operation and the students’ academic success.
Academic principles
- Valuing inquiry-based and discovery-based instruction over more didactic or lecture-based teaching methods.
- Providing instruction within the zone of proximal development so that learners can reach information and pull themselves to the next level.
- Treating writing as both a process and a product, and supporting the process.
- Establishing clear claims in papers, supporting them with appropriate evidence, and providing analysis that links the evidence with the claim.
- Affirming complete academic honesty.