Learning to succeed as a student often involves leaning on the support of others as we discover the strategies and tools that can help us achieve academic and professional success. As many of us know, this journey of discovery and development is rarely straightforward.
Learning support entails all the people and services outside the classroom that help our students to succeed academically and professionally.
In Winter 2025, Renison Student Experience and Housing launched our Renison Learning Support Project. This initiative strives to develop a deeper understanding of the needs and wants of our Renison student community as it relates to learning support.
To do this, Renison engaged with students through in-person, group-based consultation sessions, as well as through an online survey. In the sessions and subsequent survey, students were given the opportunity to share their feelings about their own learning, their experience with existing learning support services, and what services, tools, and facilities they would like to see Renison provide to support their learning. The data collected from the consultation sessions and surveys was reviewed by members of the Student Experience and Housing (SEAH) team to gain a better understanding of students':
- Confidence (or lack thereof) in their ability to learn,
- Perceptions of utility about various learning support services at UWaterloo and Renison, and
- Desires in terms of services and resources that Renison could provide to support their learning
This data, in conjunction with insights drawn from scholarly research into post-secondary student learning support, was used to develop three key action items for enhancing student access to learning support services and resources. Further details regarding the feedback methods used during the consultation process, as well as the Project's key action items, can be found below.
Okay, but why?
As an institution of post-secondary education, Renison University College is centred around the act of learning. This is reflected in the Mission Statement contained in Renison’s 2024-27 Strategic Plan:
“Renison aims to foster inclusive living, learning, and working communities empowered by excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service to educate and prepare highly skilled graduates for success and contribution to the world”.
Renison’s 2024-27 Strategic Plan identifies two priorities that relate to our institution’s ability to help students better learn and grow. These priorities, and the associated sub-priorities, are outlined below:
Priority 1: Nurture transformative student leaders
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1.2: Continuing to develop and improve student support systems which will enable Renison to nurture student success, health, and well-being, and reflect the needs of the diverse student population.
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1.3: Continuing to offer and enhance training opportunities for student leaders and opportunities for peer leadership and student employment at Renison University College.
Priority 4: Continue to be an inspirational place of teaching, research, and learning
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4.2: Adapting and refining programming responsive to the data-informed needs of students, both current and future, in keeping with our core academic strengths and expertise
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4.3: Continuing to strengthen institutional capacity toward excellence in teaching, learning, and research
These priorities recognize that students, faculty, staff, and members of the wider community come to Renison to not only learn about the wider world and our place within it, but also to learn more about how we can help each other. Specifically, Renison is a place where students learn how to work together, see things from the perspectives of others, and perhaps most important of all, support and serve one another. In a similar vein, post-secondary education often involves “learning how to learn” as we are introduced to ideas and methods of knowledge acquisition that may be difficult to grasp at first. As we work with others to expand our understanding, we are often learning how to help others learn in the process, developing and refining strategies for sharing knowledge and working together.
To drive these priorities forward, we recognize and honour the essential role of our students' voices.
Fostering Engaged Learners: The Renison Learning Support Project serves as a road map for how Student Experience and Housing plans to take action based on valuable student feedback.
The Consultation Process
An essential component of the Renison Learning Support Project was the solicitation of students’ feedback regarding their perceptions of their own learning skills as well as the support available to them as members of the University of Waterloo and Renison student communities. The two primary means of obtaining said feedback were the In-Person Learning Consultation Sessions, which were held during the first week of February 2025, and the Learning Consultation Survey, which was launched the following month on the Renison website.
In-Person Learning Consultation Sessions
The In-Person Learning Consultation Sessions consisted of three group-based, workshop-style meetings with members of the Renison student community. The Consultation Sessions were held during the first week of February in Renison’s Dunker Family Lounge (DFL). In addition to a session where all students were welcome, separate sessions for Renison Residence students and International and English Language Learner students were also offered. All told, 26 students participated in the Consultation Sessions, with 11 students participating in the All Students session, a further 11 students participating in the Renison Residence session, and four students participating in the International and English Language Learner session. Participants were asked a series of questions related to learning support at Renison and the University of Waterloo. Participants would then share their thoughts in small group discussions while a member of staff recorded their responses in writing and the meeting facilitator summarized key points from the whole group. Participants also completed an activity where they ranked the utility of various learning support services and strategies, with said rankings being captured via photographs by a member of staff. The feedback recorded from the discussion questions and the activity were analysed by the Student Advisor and helped inform the development of the Project's key action items.
Online Renison Learning Support Survey
The Renison Learning Support Survey was administered online during March 2025 using Qualtrics XM survey software. Students in the Renison community were invited to answer a series of questions related to learning support. The questions were designed to evaluate:
- What learning support services at UWaterloo and Renison participants used,
- Participants’ satisfaction with the level of learning support provided by UWaterloo and/or Renison, and
- The utility of various learning support services
Students were also asked to indicate their study status (i.e. full or part-time studies, undergraduate or graduate, the number of courses they are enrolled in at Renison) as well as limited demographic information (for example, were they a domestic or international student, English Language Learner, mature student, etc.). Finally, students were asked to provide suggestions for services or support that Renison could provide to better support their learning.
In total, 141 responses were recorded for the survey, with the majority of respondents indicating they were full-time, undergraduate students. In addition, 15% of respondents indicated they were Renison Residence students, 12% indicated they were international students, 10% indicated they were online students, and 10% indicated they were mature students. As well, 80% of respondents indicated they typically enrol in at least one course at Renison per term overall, with 31% of respondents indicated they typically take one course at Renison, 27% indicating they take 2 to 3 courses at Renison, and 22% indicating they take 3 to 5 courses at Renison. Similar to the in-person consultation sessions, participants' responses helped inform the development of key action items for enhancing learning support at Renison.
Key action items: what students told us
Overall, the consultation sessions and survey feedback informed the development of three key action items that the Student Experience and Housing team will work towards implementing for the upcoming 2025/2026 academic year.
Action Item 1: Increase awareness of the learning support services available to students in the Renison Community through enhanced peer-mediated communications and programming that assists with "service navigation"
When analysing the feedback from the Learning Support Consultation Sessions and Renison Learning Support Survey, one of the themes that became apparent was some participants’ lack of awareness of the learning support services available to them. Some students noted that they were not even aware that some services existed, while others may have been vaguely aware of some services, but lacked a thorough understanding of how said services could support their learning. Selected feedback that illustrates this point follows.
Student feedback regarding issues that prevent them from getting the learning support they need:
- “Bridging the gap between finding what sources are offered and what I need specifically”
- “(Learning support services) not advertised enough / not promoted”
- “…I feel the problem is you have to reach out on your own, and that’s where I struggled. I also didn’t know about any resources for the first two years”
- “At UW, there are many resources that I knew about, but I do agree that its harder to figure out the resources on your own”
- “Lack of information is a barrier / not knowing where to go and who to find”
When asked how Renison could improve awareness of learning support services, participants had many suggestions. A sample of said suggestions follows.
Student suggestions for increasing student awareness of learning services/accessing these services:
- “I think that a greater promotion of some of the services that are offered to students through Main Campus might be helpful. I know as a Renison student there can be times where it is very isolating and you aren't aware of the resources that you can utilize. The promoting piece is necessary.”
- “I think everything is all good but I hope it way more easier find what kind of program they have”
- “More supports for part-time students specifically. I get lost at the main campus. I would love weekend drop in sessions at Renison. This would assist with focusing and learning life skills hands on. Due to work schedule it is hard to do the daytime virtual and night time is with my children.”
- “Help navigating services / how to use the writing centre / how to navigate accessibility services”
The feedback expressed by our consultation session and survey participants, combined with the conclusions drawn from the aforementioned research, suggests there is an opportunity for Renison to enhance our students’ awareness of the available learning supports via peers/near-peers, enhanced communication, and personalized assistance to aid students when accessing services to support their learning. This could take a variety of forms, but possible options for implementing Action Item 1 can be found below:
- Enhancing existing student leader training modules to increase leaders’ understanding of the learning support services available in the Renison/University of Waterloo campus community.
- Taking advantage of existing peer support programming (peer leader/don-facilitated events, SDS Study Sessions) to promote additional learning strategies and resources.
- Using social media testimonials and/or informational videos by peers/near-peers (such as peer leaders or peer mentors) to share learning strategies and resources they used to be successful
- Having peers/near-peers visit course lectures to promote learning support services at Renison and in the wider University of Waterloo community.
- Offering in-person and virtual (online) “service navigator” appointments where students can request personal, 1-on-1 assistance from a peer leader or a member of SEAH’s full-time staff when accessing a support service for the first time.
Action Item 2: Foster opportunities for structured and unstructured peer-led learning support at Renison
Our second action item centres around the concept of peer-led learning support. Peers can play an important role in supporting the learning of their fellow students; feedback received from our Consultation Sessions and Surveys also supports this notion. Indeed, when Learning Support Survey participants were asked how they valued opportunities to learn with peers
- 57% of participants felt course-specific group study and support sessions to be either “very useful” or “somewhat useful”,
- 48% of participants felt non-course specific, study hall-style sessions to be “very useful” or “somewhat useful”,
- 57% of participants also felt that one-on-one course support/tutoring would be either “very useful” or “somewhat useful”, and
- 44% of participants indicated that one-on-one coaching for study skills or life skills” would be “very useful” or “somewhat useful”.
This suggests that, in addition to group-mediated peer support, there is also a strong appetite for personalized support (particularly if this support takes the form of course-specific tutoring, although a large minority of respondents noted that coaching to aid with study skills or life skills would also be useful). Related to this, one student noted that the support provided by their peer leaders was “very helpful” and that they appreciated having access to an upper-year student who was “highly involved in learning” and who shared “constructive study methods”.
Drawing on the feedback received from the Consultation Sessions and Survey, as well as supporting scholarship, Action Item 2 proposes that Renison finds ways to foster opportunities for structured and unstructured peer-led learning support. Some possibilities for implementing these action item include:
- Expanding existing peer-led learning support programs, such as the SDS Study Sessions, to other courses offered by Renison faculty and instructors, providing additional opportunities for students to learn from peers or near-peers who are either currently enrolled in the course or who recently completed the course.
- Adapting practices and training methods developed for Supplemental Instruction programs for course-based study sessions led by student leaders at Renison.
- Offering a variety of group study events, from quieter study halls to more animated “study socials” to online study support, encouraging student engagement and connection between peers.
- Exploring opportunities to expand programs like the peer mentor program developed by SEAH for BASE and EFAS program students to Renison’s credit programs and students living in Renison Residence, helping students build in-person and virtual connections with peers in their program before and during their studies.
- Offering evening and weekend peer support, both in-person and online, to students who may not be able to access existing support services due to the constraints imposed by time or distance.
Action Item 3: In consultation with the Student Affairs Advisory Committee, explore opportunities to enhance common spaces at Renison and improve access to learning tools to better support student learning
Another theme that became apparent when analysing the feedback provided by the consultation session and survey participants was the desire for enhanced spaces for studying, as well as improved access to tools and resources to improve student learning. While this was especially noticeable in the Consultation Session for Renison Residence Students, students from the other in-person sessions as well as the survey also expressed a desire for enhanced spaces for studying and easier access to learning tools. An excerpt of said suggestions can be found below.
Student suggestions for enhancing common spaces at Renison to support student learning:
- “Study spots / good learning environment”
- “Spaces/sessions of different levels of productivity (like the DP library – each floor is a different “quiet level”)”
- “More study spaces / rooms that is cozy, comfortable (coffee shop vibes)”
- “Flexible seating / standing desks”
- “Docking stations / outlets”
- “Individual study spaces / having a larger quiet study space that is available at all hours”
- “Always good to have more options when it comes to places to study on campus. Especially those with an electrical outlet and stable internet for my laptop.”
- “I wish library hours were longer and classrooms were not that cold to study in”
Student suggestions for additional tools and resources at Renison to support student learning:
- “Create a public archive for courses that have been around for a long time (commonly recurring courses) to draw upon = Online recordings”“Phone jails / facilitators to ensure productivity”
- “Having tools for success / GLEAN AI (allows student to record lectures and give transcripts) = speech-to-text”
- “More AI tools: Brain fuse; Notebook LM”
- “Printing room / stationary room / whiteboard markers / office supplies more accessible”
- “Mobile whiteboards”
Recognizing that there are many stakeholders involved when it comes to the provision of physical spaces and resources at Renison University College, it would be advisable for Renison Student Experience and Housing to work with Renison’s Student Affairs Advisory Committee to determine:
- What work the Student Affairs Advisory Committee has already pursued related to the aforementioned suggestions regarding enhanced learning spaces and resources, and how that may align with the suggestions provided by the consultation session and survey participants,
- Where there may be opportunities for collaboration and/or joint advocacy for pursuing enhancements to Renison’s spaces for studying and learning, as well as the provision of additional learning tools and resources, and
- How the suggested enhancements could be prioritized to provide the greatest benefit to the Renison student community in the short, medium, and long term.
Overall, the feedback received shows us that there are many ways Renison can enhance students' awareness and access to learning support services and programming.
Questions and next steps
This report outlines an ambitious action plan that Renison’s Student Experience and Housing team will be working towards, with support from units within the School of Global Engagement and Education (SGEE).
The community is invited to continue to share feedback and input to enhance the student experience by speaking with any member of the Student Experience and Housing team. In addition, a feedback form is available online.
Project lead
Questions and feedback are pivotal as we continue to move forward. The project lead is:
Andrew Dixon
Student Advisor, Student Experience and Housing
Renison University College
Phone: 519-894-4404 ext. 28639
Email: aj.dixon@uwaterloo.ca
Office: Room 1930 (English Language Institute)