Online Tutoring: Going it On Your Own or Collaborating

UMass DartmouthInstructional Development

The Decision: Going It On Our Own

• Why?– Financial Issues– Flexibility of Process– Writing Center Concerns• Tutor training• Peer tutors vs. faculty tutors

– Retention Concerns• Student Connection to campus

The Choice: Outsource or Develop

• Outsourcing– WCOnline– AskOnline– SMARTHINKING– Skype/Unyte

• Developing Our Own– Asynchronous Drop Box– Live Chat Help– Wimba Classroom for Live Tutoring

Development Steps

• Securing faculty coordinator• Selecting tutors• Developing tutoring processes– Focus on traditional writing center practices– Practice tutoring in new environments– Forms developed for submission and for responses– Student satisfaction survey for follow up

• Tutor training– Wimba Classroom– Live Chat Tool

The Online Writing Tutoring Portal

• Online Writing Tutoring Portal– http://www.umassd.edu/cits/id/writingtutoring/

The Online Writing Tutoring Portal

The Online Writing Tutoring Portal

The Online Writing Tutoring Portal

Live Helper

Wimba Classroom

Wimba Classroom

Lessons Learned

• Saved financial resources– Used existing software on campus– Live chat tool affordable– Tutors often receiving work study funding– On-going technical support

• Campus writing center– Managing/Scheduling – Training– Scalability– You can build the service, but will students use it?

• Learning Concerns– Does the support service increase student learning?