Given the importance of communication skills, writing centres are the norm in educational institutions to provide support to students to become better written communicators. In today’s digital age, it is not just enough to be an effective communicator but one has to be well-versed in data analysis skills as well. Analogous to the role of the Writing Centre, the Q centre aims to help students to get additional help on quantitative methods that many courses in FLAME cover and to sharpen their quantitative skills. Quantitative skills are those skills that are related to information or data that has to be analysed via mathematical, statistical or computational techniques and includes coding as well. These skills are not just required in STEM, but is becoming increasingly important in many other disciplines too. There isn’t a discipline offered in FLAME that doesn’t employ data analysis methods.
The Q centre will have designated faculty members along with quantitative instructors and empanelled team of peer tutors. Peer tutors are senior students from quantitative disciplines who have a firm grasp of the subject and have a passion to teach their fellow students. The centre will work closely with the Centre for Teaching and Learning to incorporate high impact educational practices to improve student engagement and learning.
In addition to helping students, the centre will act as a resource to the FLAME community, including faculty, to provide support for quantitative research.
The activities of the centre shall include study sessions, workshops, one-on-one tutoring sessions, coding competitions etc.