Diane Fjordbotten, the Learning Café coordinator working in her office on Oct. 7, 2021
Despite the trope found in movies, post-secondary education is not always all fun and games.
For those taking the experience seriously, gathering the skills you need for the workforce through higher learning can at times be overwhelming and stressful.
Often the source of stress can be found in the writing of a term paper.
With the odd rules found in the English language governing grammar and spelling, let alone APA format or basic essay structure, the experience is bewildering for some students.
Thankfully at Lethbridge College there is a place students can go to gain the skills and confidence to navigate these sometimes turbulent waters.
Like elves in Santa’s workshop, four dutiful Learning Café employees work tirelessly behind the scenes to help bring smiles to the faces of Lethbridge College students.
The Learning Café academic success centre is located in the Buchanan Library and also has an online service available to students called the Writing Dropbox.
Rylan Spenrath, one of the employees for the program, says its main focus is to steer writers in the right direction, not to grade or correct students’ writing before they hand it in.
“We primarily focus on individual writing assignments,” Spenrath says, adding that due to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act all members of a group need to give their permission in order to have group work feedback for a project they are working on.
Diane Fjordbotten, the Learning Café coordinator, says the focus of the Writing Dropbox is not to point out every mistake in the writing, but help students identify mistakes so they can find them on their own.
“So, always the goal is for the student to learn the skill,” says Fjordbotten.
On average it takes about three days to get a paper back to a student, so they do need to plan ahead.
In fact, demand for the service is rising with about 75 papers dropped off this September alone.
If the trend continues, a longer turnaround time may be necessary, says Spenrath.
On average the Learning Café receives about 300 papers per semester.
Spenrath says students don’t necessarily need to hand in a finished paper to get feedback.
“You don’t need to have a completed draft; you can submit something at any point during your writing,” Spenrath says. “It can just be the intro or a very rough copy.”
Fjordbotten says student feedback overall is positive about the service.
“They find that feedback not only helps them improve their outcomes on a particular assignment, but over time, they find that it also improves their writing skills,” she says.
Yet many students still don’t seem aware of the Writing Dropbox service.
Nancy Clark an Architectural Animation Technology student in her third year at the college, has heard of the Learning Café but didn’t know about the Writing Dropbox program.
“I had a 12-page paper for a business writing class in my first year, I never wrote a paper like that before,” says Clark. “If I knew, I would have used that service.”
Spenrath says the staff offer video feedback to make their suggestions clearer. It also helps with expediting their feedback.
The Learning Café has other programs to help students succeed as well, including academic and study skills support, peer tutoring and more.
“We help students build the skills they need to be effective in their work, Fjordbotten says. “We help them increase their efficiency by learning new strategies.”
Some of the skills taught go beyond test taking and simply how to write a paper.
“We help students manage their mental health by teaching strategies around test taking and managing stress,” she says. “So ultimately, our goal is to help them just to, confidently approach the challenges that they have as students.”
You can use the Writing Dropbox by going online or in person at the Learning Café in the Buchanan library.