The Learning Centre offers JCU students in all locations access to learning and peer support services, including:

• A drop-in help desk service at the Cairns and Townsville libraries, and for external students via our contact form
• Pre-semester workshops to help you prepare for university study, including writing and maths help
• Online writing feedback via Studiosity
• Online resources for refreshing your strategies for learning, reading, writing, maths and statistics
• Peer Assisted Study Sessions

Download the Learning Centre Services Guide (PDF, 208 KB) for further information about the services available to JCU students.

Learning Advice Desk

JCU students can access the Learning Centre’s Learning Advice Desk, a drop-in service located on the ground floor of the Townsville and Cairns libraries. A Peer Advisor will be available for a 15-20 minute consultation. This service is available to external students by using our Contact Us form.

Peer Advisors can help with developing strategies for time management, unpacking an assessment task, understanding how to meet assessment criteria, academic reading and writing.

Students are required to bring their student ID, assessment task description and criteria, as well as a working draft when accessing a drop-in consultation.

Learning Advice Desks are open Monday to Friday during Study Periods 1 and 2 at the following times:

Cairns Campus

Monday to Friday: 10:00AM to 12:00PM and 1:00PM to 3:00PM

Townsville Campus

Monday to Friday: 10:00AM to 4:00PM

Learning Advisors

Learning Advisors deliver a range of programs at JCU including workshops and seminars throughout the academic year. JCU students can contact a Learning Advisor by completing the Contact Us form.

Learning Advisors support the development of students’ academic language and learning strategies in specific subjects across the University. They also support academic staff in various ways to ensure students develop discipline specific and professional written communication in their subjects.

JCU staff may refer students for one-on-one consultations with a Learning Advisor.  To make a referral, please complete and submit a Learning Advisor Consultation Request.

Studiosity Study Help

The Learning Centre offers after hours online study support through Studiosity.

Studiosity provides personalised, live, online help from a trained network of Studiosity advisors which is available for after hours to help students.

JCU Australian tropical campus students have access to 8 interactions with Studiosity each semester (6 month period).

1. Connect Live: Access for Users to Studiosity’s on demand academic support service, available between 3pm and midnight Australian Eastern Standard Time (hours of availability for individual subjects vary – for current service hours click here.) Connect Live subjects supported include:

• English
• Maths (General, Intermediate, Specialist / Extension)
• Science: Biology, Chemistry, Physics
• Study Coach
• Statistics (FirstYearUniversity– bridging)
• Accounting (FirstYearUniversity– bridging)
• Economics (First Year University – bridging)

2. Writing Feedback: Review of submitted assessment drafts for academic literacy, including structure, spelling, grammar, punctuation and referencing. No review of content, no editing or proofreading.

To access Studiosity

• Log in to LearnJCU
• Go to your Subject Site
• Go to Tools in the right-side menu
• And click on the Studiosity link.Learning Advice Desk

Peer Assisted Study Sessions

Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) is a FREE academic support program for students. The highly successful program operates in universities across Australia and commenced at JCU in 2014 in selected subjects.

PASS provides a casual, friendly and active learning environment where students can work together to better understand the content and learning objectives for a subject. The study sessions focus on integrating course content (what to learn) with academic reasoning and study skills (how to learn).

Students who consistently attend PASS sessions are shown to attain higher results than those who do not participate.