Mission

Our instructional faculty and highly trained peer educators enhance learning through customized instruction, scholarly investigation, and faculty and student development.

Vision

To be a campus laboratory for developing and sharing disciplinary expertise in customized instruction.

Values

Professionalism: We value the professionalism of our peer educators and support their development and career paths through supervision and mentorship.

Inclusive: We foster an inclusive atmosphere that includes respect and support of diverse perspectives, backgrounds and experiences.

Learning Centered: We offer customized instruction which centers on learners' unique educational journey

Expertise: We commit to the development and transmission of academic, pedagogical and peer learning expertise.

Collaboration: We build and maintain mutually beneficial and productive collaborations through the exchange of expertise, tools and resources.

Experimentation: We support risk-taking and experimentation to develop, implement and evaluate new theories and practices.

Our Tutoring

The individual programs and centers that make up the Learning Centers department maintain distinctive practices appropriate to their disciplines and missions. For example, the Science & Math Learning Center provides walk-in, "café style" tutoring to support specific, introductory STEM classes, while the Communication and Writing Centers deliver mostly prescheduled individual and group consultations to students in any subject. The Learning Centers continue to expand their academic mission beyond tutoring to support faculty development and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Our instructional faculty members teach relevant courses and participate in service and scholarly activities in academic units across campus, including Chemistry; Communication Studies; Education; Graduate Psychology; Mathematics & Statistics; Media Arts & Design; Physics; and Writing, Rhetoric, & Technical Communication.

History of the Learning Centers

In 1974, Madison College began to offer tutoring in various subjects to support learning and student retention. James Madison University established the Learning Resource Centers (LRC) in 2005 to consolidate several academic support elements, including tutoring and Disability Services. As part of Student Success Programs, the LRC shared support from both Academic and Student Affairs.

In 2009, the Learning Centers became an academic department that now includes five programs:

• the Communication Center, 
• Multilingual Student Services (MSS) - formerly known as English Language Learner Services (ELLS)
• Peer-Assisted Study Sessions (PASS, or Supplemental Instruction)
• the Science & Math Learning Center
• the University Writing Center

In 2014, the Centers moved into their newly renovated facility in the Student Success Center. 

Digital Communication Consulting (DigiComm) was founded in 2014. The program's essential services merged with the UWC in 2019.