This program seeks new strategies for diagnosing and assisting students with learning disabilities. It also seeks to establish a comparative data base among normal students. This program has attracted outside funds, including a substantial grant from the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and Affiliated Trusts. VSI is designed to work with students that are severely under prepared for college level work. Rather than requiring students to enroll in a separate track of remedial courses that is both costly and time-consuming, the VSI program embeds study strategy instruction and practice with a rigorous college level history course that has been placed on video tape.
Students receive college credit in the course while developing the necessary study skills.
Beginning during Winter Semester 1992, VSI has conducted pilot tests with small numbers of high school students and with UMKC students who are on academic probation or were previously academically dismissed. Since 1991 the Center's Director has received invitations to conduct SI and VSI training workshops in Australia, England, South Africa and Sweden. Through these workshops, more than 50 institutions have begun SI on their campus. To help contextualize the SI model for each country and provide more immediate technical assistance, a program to train individuals on each continent to conduct training workshops has begun. So far, one individual has been certified for England and another for southern Africa.