The tutoring center held the first of their new series of weekly workshops last Thursday aimed at “discovering your learning style” and “becoming a more effective student,” as the name of the workshop suggested.

“Different people learn in different ways,” Paul Spiker said. “Successful students take charge of their own learning.”

This workshop consisted of a presentation by Spiker, a tutor with Point Park’s services, as well as an interactive portion. Each student was tested to find what learning style works best for them. Once students identified their learning style, either visual, aural, read/write or kinesthetic, Spiker gave tips on how each of the styles can best improve their learning techniques both in class and outside while studying.

Spiker emphasized in the presentation that these are rules of thumb and if something doesn’t work, branching out and trying new things is encouraged.

“Significant learning is often difficult,” Spiker said. “You will experience roadblocks; everyone does. This just means that you put in effort, it is not a sign of failure.”

Junior organizational leadership major, Venetta Andrews is part of the online program and learned about the workshop series through an email and came in on her day off to attend.

“It looked like something that was interesting and that I could benefit from,” Andrews said.

She also said she enjoys that the class was available to all students at Point Park, and is willing to come to another session in the future.

“I thought the class was really nice,” Andrews said. “Hopefully people catch on and more people start coming. I’m looking forward to next class.”

According to Spiker future workshops may include lessons in writing or math. These would be refresher courses for students who may not have encountered those subjects in a while and would like to review.

Alongside assisting students academically, a goal for the series was to gain more exposure for the tutoring center. Student Success Coordinator with tutoring services Natacia Owens said they are hoping this will help students feel more comfortable so they can get the help they need.

“Sometimes they’re afraid to show up, so just having a little session like this can help just affirm them and touch on the things that maybe we didn’t know that we needed to touch on,” Owens said.

The tutoring center is located on the fifth floor of the West Penn building and offers a variety of tutoring services outside of the workshops, including one-on-one sessions, drop-in hours and online tutoring.

“We definitely want to help not only just undergrads, but any student here at Point Park,” Owens said.

Future workshops will be held every week from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., alternating between being held on Wednesdays and Thursdays.