Academic Resource Center
Wartburg’s Comprehensive Academic Support Program
The Academic Resources Center coordinates academic advising and support services. The center serves as a clearinghouse for questions about academic advising and academic support services. Academic Resource Center programs can help you achieve your academic, personal, and professional goals. The Academic Resource Center is located on the third floor in Vogel Library.
Academic Advising
Faculty Advising
Faculty advisers are the primary source of academic support for students. Advisers meet periodically with students to help plan academic programs and evaluate career choices and goals. Advisers are assigned at registration, based on students’ areas of academic interest. Students may change advisers any time by contacting the Registrar’s Office or the Academic Resource Center. Students who declare more than one major work with an adviser in each major.
Testing Services
Testing Services schedules, administers, and processes a variety of tests, including CLEP tests, departmental challenge exams, and correspondence exams. Testing Services offers information and strategies on preparing for Praxis and CLEP.
Disability and Access Services
Qualified students with disabilities are protected from unlawful discrimination by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 2008 (ADA), as amended. Accommodations for students with documented disabilities are coordinated through Disability Services.
Academic Support and Recognition
The Academic Resource Center supports students in their first year by providing services to enhance their transition to college as they join the community of Wartburg Knights.
- Early identification of students needing academic assistance and individual academic counseling
- Workshops and one-on-one assistance to help students develop good time-management skills, test-taking strategies, and effective note-taking methods
- Resources on college reading, writing, and other strategies to promote college success
- Integration of content relevant to making the transition to college and a liberal arts education into the first-year curriculum: EN 115 College Composition , IS 101 Asking Questions, Making Choices , and SCH 101 First-Year Scholars Seminar
- Advisers trained in student development and first-year student needs
- First-year honor society to recognize academic accomplishments of new students
Mathematics Lab
The Wartburg Math Lab is a learning center for the sutdy of mathematics. The Math Lab provides a comfortable place to receive assistance in specific courses taught through the Wartburg Math, Computer Science, and Physics Department. Students are encouraged to bring their homework, projects, and topical questions to receive support from the student Math Lab Consultants. Centrally located in the Vogel Library Classroom I, the Math Lab is accessible to all Wartburg College students and no appointment is necessary.
Supplemental Instruction (SI)
The Supplemental Instruction program offers regularly scheduled, out-of-class, peer-facilitated study sessions to all students enrolled in the courses selected by individual departments. SI sessions are informal seminars in which participants compare notes, discuss ideas, develop organizational tools, and predict test items. The sessions are led by students who have successfully completed the courses and taken special SI training. Sessions begin during the first week of the term and are offered at least once each week. Information about Supplemental Instruction is available from the Academic Resource Center and on the Academic Resource Center website.
Writing/Reading/Speaking Lab
The Writing/Reading/Speaking Lab provides individual and group tutorials to assist writers at any stage of the composing process: generating ideas, focusing a thesis for a specific audience, drafting, developing content, revising and editing, and documenting sources using MLA, APA, and other styles. The lab provides help for students who wish to improve their reading comprehension and retention. Peers also offer feedback on speech organization, development, documentation, and delivery.
Vogel Library
The Robert and Sally Vogel Library is the place on campus to explore diverse resources and special collections, engage in scholarship and study with the Wartburg community, work with knowledgeable and supportive library staff, and find a wide variety of spaces for learning and collaboration. All these attributes support student success and the library’s mission of educating information-literate, lifelong learners.
Resources
Vogel Library’s resources are found in three basic categories. Many of these resources are accessible from off-campus:
- DATABASES: Students have access to many online databases through which they can read articles, study images, or stream music and video.
- RESEARCH GUIDES: To facilitate student learning, librarians create customized web pages, called research guides, to be used for help in studying for classes and within disciplines.
- COLLECTIONS: Finally, Vogel Library’s collections support multiple avenues and levels of student need. Learners may use the more traditional resources such as books, eBooks, journals, DVDs, and CDs, or they may venture into more specialized collections: world music instruments, curriculum materials, or two featured collections: Wartburg College Archives and the Archives of Iowa Broadcasting.
- Wartburg College Archives: Located on the third floor of the Vogel Library, the College Archives documents and preserves Wartburg College’s history and connects alumni, faculty, staff, and students to the institution’s rich heritage.
- Archives of Iowa Broadcasting: The Vogel Library is home to the Archives of Iowa Broadcasting (AIB), a permanent collection of materials relating to the history, development and contribution of radio and television in Iowa. The AIB preserves this important piece of Iowa history and makes it accessible for current and future study.
People
The librarians and staff at Vogel Library work together and with the campus community to support information-seeking of all types, with a focus on successful academic research. The library leads Wartburg’s information literacy across the curriculum (ILAC) program, part of the Wartburg Plan of Essential Education, and embraces the national Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. In support of the mission, librarians collaborate with classroom faculty to introduce and foster information literacy skills, such as finding, using, synthesizing, and critically evaluating information. These interactions may occur during classroom instruction, at the reference desk, and in individual consultations. Vogel Librarians interact with students at three key stages in their disciplinary development in information literacy:
- NOVICE STEPS: Introducing students to basic concepts of inquiry and information-seeking, which include development of information literacy skills and growing awareness of library resources to support student success in an academic environment.
- STEPPING STONES: Introduction to discipline-specific resources; building from basic to more complex concepts of information literacy and the role this plays in helping learners develop dispositions toward critical inquiry.
- MASTER STEPS: Mastery of discipline-specific resources and reinforcement of information literacy principles that will continue beyond the college setting.
Vogel Library’s librarians work closely with students to help them achieve their full potential. As a second-year student noted, “Librarians exceed the expectations; they make sure to take the time to help us with assignments and even set up follow-up meetings to be sure we get everything we need. An A+ for the great job!”
Technology
To support students’ study needs as they engage with Wartburg’s challenging curriculum, the library offers a range of technology. Located on the first floor, the Curriculum Studio Classroom has 25 iMac computers that are available for student use when classes are not in session. The second floor offers 45 thin client windows computers with productivity software as well as 8 PCs with specialty software and assistive technology. On the third floor, students will find smart study rooms with digital displays and a presentation practice room with video capture and a 60 inch digital display.
Spaces
Vogel Library was designed as a 21st century “Learner’s Library,” which means it provides a wide variety of spaces to meet the learning needs of our diverse and inquisitive student body. Spaces are designed to encourage:
- COLLABORATING: Today’s work world is structured around collaboration, and undergraduate assignments follow this lead. Vogel Library’s 22 group study rooms come in a range of sizes to suit all manners of collaboration, including one presentation practice room equipped with a 60-inch digital display flat panel screen with video capture capabilities. For further presentation practice or larger group study sessions, two contained library classrooms and an open studio classroom are available for use when no class is in session.
- STUDYING: For working alone or with others, there are study tables throughout the library in open areas or private spaces. In addition, individual study rooms are available, and for those who crave distraction free study areas, designated quiet zones are also available.
- RELAXING: The library supports both academic work and taking a break from the rigors of the classroom. Grab a snack and a drink from the Konditorei coffee shop, and chat with friends or browse the library’s relaxation materials-DVDs, music CDs, featured new books, and the young adult fiction collection.
Partnerships
- CONSORTIA: The Cedar Valley Library Consortium and the Iowa Private Academic Libraries consortium allow the College to access scholarly resources more affordably by sharing catalogs and resources.
- INTERLIBRARY LOAN: Books, articles, and other research materials not accessible through the library’s collections can usually be borrowed from other libraries through interlibrary loan. This service is free to Wartburg students, faculty, staff, and emeriti. Requests can be made online through ILLiad, the library’s interlibrary loan system.
- WAVERLY PUBLIC LIBRARY: Due to the close proximity of the local public library, students have additional access to resources within walking distance. Public library cards are free with a Wartburg ID.
Community
Vogel Library is vital part of the Wartburg community and strives to provide opportunities, resources, staffing, and spaces for this community to flourish. As an appreciative student pointed out, “The library is a great place not only for studying individually, but studying with a group for class, grabbing some coffee and banana bread, and free reading. The library definitely can help students achieve and excel during their time at Wartburg.”
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