Supporting Economic Understanding and Student Success Through Peer Assistance in an Economics Learning Center

This paper provides an overview of a peer-assistance resource for students in the undergraduate degree programs in economics at the University of California (UC), Irvine. UC Irvine is a large public research university with approximately 1900 undergraduate economics majors. The Economics Learning Center (ELC) is a walk-in help facility for students in principles of economics, intermediate economics, statistics, and econometrics courses. The ELC is staffed by trained undergraduate students with strong academic records. The ELC was opened in 2014 in response to growth in the ratio of undergraduate majors to faculty and graduate TAs and growth in the share of economics students who are from outside the United States. The author discusses the effectiveness of the ELC, describes lessons learned since its inception, and provides suggestions for improvements to the model.