Developing an Online Tutoring Program

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Developing an Online Tutoring Program

• Deborah Hardwick, Interim Manager
• Houston Community College
• Online Tutoring Program

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Developing an Online TutoringProgram

• Once you start thinking about an online tutoring
  program, myriad decisions have to be made. The
  purpose of this module is to walk you through the
  decisions to find the best solution for your
  institution.

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But first, an introduction

• Houston Community College operates what is
  probably the largest content in-sourced online
  tutoring program in the country.
• We offer online tutoring at all levels of math,
  biology, chemistry, physics, and English for
  papers in all disciplines and two-tier tutoring
  in psychology.
• We out-source the technology and in-source the
  content.
• I manage the HCC online tutoring program.

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• We currently serve about 15 of the 55,000
  students enrolled in the institution, and that
  number keeps growing.
• Typically, we respond to 1,000 1,300 student
  submissions per month.
• We have 23 tutors.
• We provide tutoring 24 / 7/ 365.

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24 / 7 / 365

• Because we offer access to the asynchronous parts
  of our program 24 hours a day, and because I have
  several insomniacs on my tutoring staff, we have
  an average turn-around time of 6.5 hours for
  student papers and other submissions.
• We work through breaks because students are
  studying then, and since we offer mini-terms
  between long semesters, we are available all the
  time.

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A Warning

• This is a long presentation, but developing an
  online tutoring program from scratch is a complex
  process.
• We jumped in and made many decisions as we went
  along. That is NOT the best way!

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A Commercial

• I will be presenting The Ins and Outs and Ups and
  Downs of Online Tutoring at the ATP conference in
  St. Louis.
• Im also doing a round-table discussion on
  developing a program at the League for Innovation
  conference in Denver in early March.
• Please join me at either or both conferences if
  you are considering developing a program.

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Definitions

• Before we begin, lets take a few minutes to
  agree on a common vocabulary. Some terms are used
  in their generally accepted meanings while others
  have specific definitions in the online world.

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Online Tutoring

• The provision of academic and/or work force
  content support through electronic media rather
  than through face-to-face communication.
• Tutors can work from home in their robes and
  fuzzy slippers, as can students. Others work from
  vacation spots.

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Synchronous Online Tutoring

• Chat rooms and Instant Messaging are examples of
  real-time online tutoring. Tutors and students
  communicate in an electronic form of
  conversation.
• In chat rooms, one or several students may be
  present, with or without a tutor.

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Asynchronous Online Tutoring

• This is a delayed response form of online
  tutoring. Students submit papers and / or
  questions, tutors answer them, and students
  retrieve the responses later. It is the most
  common, cost-effective, and efficient form of
  online tutoring.

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Open-Read Message Boards

• This is an online communication system in which
  anyone with access to the system can read and
  respond to questions and answers.
• It is useful when tutors wish to post review
  materials for many students.
• It is also useful for information that many
  students may be interested in.

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Private Online Communication

• Most communication in online tutoring is in
  private communication, similar to e-mail, between
  the tutor and student.
• Private here means that other students cannot
  read the information, but supervisors and other
  tutors MAY be able to, depending on the
  technology you use.

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Outsourcing

• This is the purchase or use of technology or
  content from an outside vendor.
• Some textbook publishers now provide online
  tutoring for students using their books.
• Other sources are purchased by the institution.

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Insourcing

• The opposite of outsourcing is providing the
  technology and/or content from institutional
  resources.

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Technology

• The form of electronic service that will be used
  depends on many factors. Servers, operating
  systems, and archival systems all need to be
  considered.
• Add-ons must be considered, depending on the
  technology you choose. We use cyber-tablets for
  math and science tutors and macro toolbars for
  English and math.

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Content

• Who actually provides the tutoring is the most
  important factor in the success or failure of an
  online tutoring program.
• The amount of help given must be pre-determined.

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Decisions

• Shall we offer online tutoring?
• What will we tutor?
• Who will we tutor?
• Who will tutor?
• Will we in- or out-source the technology?
• Will we in- or out-source the content?
• Who will be responsible for online tutoring?
• What administrative structure do we need?
• How will we convince students and teachers to use
  the system?
• How do we measure its effectiveness?

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Why Should We Offer Online Tutoring?

• In todays world, online communication makes
  possible solutions to problems that were
  unsolvable just a few years ago.
• College students today, especially in community
  colleges, lead incredibly complex lives. Online
  tutoring eliminates a large stress factor.
• Cost is a factor in all colleges. Online tutoring
  means that tutors arent paid for sitting and
  waiting. Additionally, space isnt tied up that
  could be used for additional classes.

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Why?

• Distance learning is HOT! Students need the
  flexibility that DE offers, and online tutoring
  supports online learning.
• Even students who take classes on campus cant
  always make it to the Tutoring Center when it is
  open.

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What Will We Tutor?

• Will we confine online tutoring to one discipline
  or will we offer services in some or all subjects
  offered?
• If tutoring is offered in only one discipline,
  management is relatively easy, but effectiveness
  is limited.
• If it is offered in multiple subjects, management
  is more difficult, but effectiveness is broader.
• Multiple subjects creates synergy. Students come
  online for math, say, but discover that help is
  also available for psychology.

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One-discipline TutoringAdvantages

• If you decide to offer online tutoring in only
  one discipline, management resides within that
  department. Funding will probably come through
  the discipline, as will tutors.
• Face-to-face(F2F) tutors can work both forums. We
  call such tutors hybrid tutors. This minimizes
  sitting around time, but both forums are
  usually busy at the same time.
• Cross-referrals are easy.

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One-discipline TutoringDisadvantages

• Students may experience frustration at not being
  able to access online tutoring for all their
  tutoring needs. Franz Fanon called this the
  Revolution of Rising Expectations.
• Schools with large distance programs will have to
  explain why online tutoring isnt offered across
  the board.
• Cross-over questions may not be answered as
  completely as you would like.

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Multi-discipline Tutoring

• Offering tutoring in all or some of the subjects
  offered at your institutions widens the field
  while making tutoring user-friendly. Students use
  one log-on, one format, and one protocol for
  tutoring in many subjects.
• Cooperation among a variety of departments, when
  it works, promotes collegiality. When it doesnt,
  its a headache.

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How Much Help Will We Give?

• Certainly, we all agree that tutors should never
  DO homework for students, but how much help is
  enough and how much is too much is a critical
  decision.
• In math, chemistry, and physics, we give more
  hints and help to students who are completely
  lost. Tutors often work through a similar
  problem, and then ask the student to try and
  re-submit.
• How many times can or should a paper be looked at
  by a tutor?
• In our English Center, we expect readable drafts.
  We prefer to look at no more than two drafts of a
  paper, but sometimes students slip a third one
  in.

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English Tutoring Issues

• Will we only offer online tutoring for papers for
  English classes or for papers in all disciplines?
• Will we focus on grammar, structure,
  organization, content, or a combination of these
  factors?
• If we provide English tutoring in all
  disciplines, what do we do about content?

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Cross-discipline Tutoring

• Tutors in our online English Center are not
  content specialists in all the subjects for which
  we get papers.
• We piloted a two-tier approach with psychology
  tutors, and it worked so well that we are
  expanding it to other areas.
• English tutors work the paper for grammar,
  structure, and organization.
• Then, we pass the paper to psych tutors who deal
  with the content.
• Students get two responses.

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Who Will Tutor?

• If you choose to outsource the content, the
  company you hire will provide tutors. There are
  no decisions to be made.
• However ...

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• if you in-source the content, you need to look at
  many categories of potential tutors. Active
  faculty (full-time and adjunct), retired faculty,
  students, and outside tutors should all be
  considered.

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Faculty

• 1. Consider faculty first. Your faculty know the
  curricula, standards, materials, and sequencing
  of classes.
• They are familiar with your student population
  and can tailor tutoring help to the students in
  your school.

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Full-time faculty

• Full-time faculty who also tutor are invested in
  the program and will encourage its use to their
  students.
• Release time or office-hour tutoring can reduce
  costs.
• Overload tutoring provides income with less work
  than teaching another class.
• English teachers, however, often dont want to
  mark even more papers!

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Adjunct Faculty

• Adjunct faculty whose classes dont make or to
  whom you cant give a full load can be kept in
  the system by using them as tutors.
• This is probably the richest source of online
  tutors.

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Retired Faculty

• Retired faculty members or adjunct who choose not
  to teach for a semester or two are also a great
  resource. They have all the advantages of faculty
  but can usually tutor more hours per week than
  active teachers.

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Students

• Peer tutors may prove useful. If you have a
  strong SI (Supplemental Instruction) culture,
  this can be a great source of tutors.
• Upper division or graduate students are also
  wonderful tutors. This is a way to groom
  potential faculty for later. However, they
  probably dont have the knowledge of your system,
  so additional content training may be necessary.

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Outside Tutors

• While outside tutors can enrich a program, they
  probably do not know your system well, so more
  training is necessary. You may have to provide
  textbooks for classes they will tutor in.

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Who Will We Tutor?

• There is a tendency to think that only
  distance-ed students use online tutoring. WRONG!
• Approximately 80 of our students are taking
  lecture classes, but their schedules make online
  tutoring necessary.
• Online tutoring isnt only for developmental
  students, either a common misconception.

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TechnologyIn- or Out-sourced?

• In-sourcing technology means working very closely
  with your IT department.
• Sufficient server capacity and back-up are
  crucial.
• Archiving is needed.
• Tech support help needs to be available.
• E-mail can be used, but archiving and oversight
  are problems.

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E-mail Tutoring

• Some schools use their in-house e-mail system for
  tutoring. However, archiving and oversight are
  much more difficult.
• There is no way to effectively archive work for
  review by supervisors and/or other tutors.
• In my opinion, this is the least effective
  in-sourced technology arrangement, but it may
  work to show the need for a better system.

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In-sourced Technology

• If you decide to in-source your technology, you
  can design a system tailored to your needs.
• Tweaks and changes are quite easily accomplished
  if you have a good working relationship with your
  IT department.
• Authentication of student-users must be
  considered.

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Out-sourced Technology

• There are three primary types of outsourced
  technology.
• 1. Commercial sites that provide technology and
  content on a per-use basis.
• 2. Textbook-linked sites that are typically free
  to users of the companys books.

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Out-sourced Technology

• 3. Companies that provide the technology but not
  the content.
• This is the choice that we made. We use
  askonline.net. There are a few more companies
  coming along to do the same thing, but I do not
  have experience with them.
• (This is not a paid endorsement!)

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In- or Out-sourced Content

• This decision is the heart of the matter.
• Commercial services that provide the tutors are
  certainly easier to manage. Checks just have to
  be written on time. Depending on the company and
  the agreement you have with them, selected
  college personnel MAY have access to tutor work
  for oversight purposes.
• However ... (my opinion follows)

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Out-sourced Content

• tutors who are unfamiliar with your courses,
  your sequencing, your grading standards, your
  calendars, and your population may not be as
  helpful as tutors who know these things.
• This is why we chose to in-source our tutors.

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Publisher-provided Tutors

• These tutors can be really helpful, but only to
  students who are taking classes that use the
  texts.
• MyCompLab and MyMathLab are two of the biggest.
  Student- and teacher- satisfaction with them are
  quite high at HCC, but not all of our classes use
  textbooks from ABLongman Publishers .

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A Summary

• In my opinion, based on a year and a half working
  with online tutoring every day, out-sourcing the
  technology and in-sourcing the content provides
  the best of all worlds.
• However, managing such a program is a time- and
  labor-intensive process.

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Who Will Be Responsible?

• Depending on the size and complexity of your
  program, options are available.
• 1. If you confine online tutoring to only one
  subject, the chair of that department (or her
  designee) may oversee online tutoring.
• 2. If your school has a tutoring manager, this
  can be added to his job description.
• 3. If you choose to provide online tutoring in
  several disciplines, a new position should be
  created to oversee the entire program to ensure
  consistency.

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Responsibility - more

• Decisions must be made about whether overall
  responsibility will reside on the faculty or
  student services side of the house.
• We chose to keep it within the faculty domain
  because tutoring is teaching.

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• I have been managing our program on release
  times, but we have discovered that that is not
  the ideal situation. In the new budget, we have
  asked for the creation of an online tutoring
  manager position dedicated solely to overseeing
  and growing our program.

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Responsibility even more

• Someone needs to oversee
• Hiring and training of tutors
• Scheduling of tutors
• Payroll
• Budgeting
• Marketing
• Technology trouble-shooting
• Supervision of the work product

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How Should We Structure the Administration of a
Program?

• Who is ultimately responsible for the development
  and management of an online tutoring program
  depends on your institutions overall structure.
• Do you have someone who oversees all tutoring or
  does each department or division take care of its
  own?
• Where will funding come from?
• How involved are student services personnel in
  the tutoring process?

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• How many students do you expect to tutor?
• If you expect to reach fewer than 3,000 students
  a year, or if you plan to offer tutoring in only
  one discipline, a release-time manager may be the
  best answer. Larger programs need more
  supervision.

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• If you in-source the technology, is there
  sufficient IT support, or does the online manager
  need to be a techie?
• If you in-source the content, is there clerical
  support for hiring paperwork and payroll?
• To whom will the online manager report?

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Marketing Online Tutoring

• No matter how wonderful your online tutoring
  program is, it wont work if teachers dont
  recommend it, students dont use it, and
  administrators dont support it.

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Marketing Online Tutoring to Faculty

• 1. Tutors can save time for teachers.
• Non-English classes often require papers, so
  teachers in those disciplines spend an enormous
  amount of time slogging through bad grammar,
  spelling, and organization instead of looking at
  the content. An online English Center can cut the
  non-content work down to practically nothing.

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• 2. Tutors are a back-up voice for teachers.
• Students often need to hear something several
  times and from several people before it sinks in.
  Tutors have non-judgmental voices that back up
  what teachers say.
• Good tutors never second-guess teachers, but they
  point out areas of concern.

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• 3. Students may need the anonymity that online
  tutoring offers.
• Students often do not want to bother their
  teachers, so unasked questions stay unanswered.
  Online tutors can provide a safe refuge for
  asking questions.

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Marketing Online Tutoring to Students

• 1. Students can get help at their convenience,
  not only when a tutoring center is open.
• 2. Students can ask questions without fear of
  offending or antagonizing teachers. (Yes, this is
  a student fear!)
• 3. Students avoid the perceived stigma of needing
  tutoring, which many believe is only for
  dummies.

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Marketing Online Tutoring toAdministrators

• It saves MONEY!
• Tutors are paid for active work time, not passive
  waiting time.
• Space can be freed up.
• Parking spaces can be freed up.
• Tutoring can be offered in more areas than may be
  available in person.

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Evaluating Effectiveness

• This is the hardest part.
• It is difficult to know how effective tutoring is
  in general. What percentage of a students grades
  are attributable to tutors and what part comes
  from the teacher?
• Students who seek tutoring assistance are a
  self-selected sub-set of all students. Often,
  those who need tutoring the least are those who
  use it the most.

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Qualitative Analysis from Students

• Student feedback is an important component of any
  tutoring program, but especially for an online
  program since there is no other way to know how
  the program is perceived.
• A How are we doing? online survey provides
  data about student satisfaction.
• We have found that students often send thank-you
  notes. These need to be saved.

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Qualitative Analysis from Teachers

• Communication with faculty is crucial. Online
  tutoring managers need to attend department
  meetings to discuss questions, concerns, and
  faculty recommendations.
• Teachers who require / strongly recommend online
  tutoring can be surveyed via e-mail.

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Quantitative Data

• This is the hardest type of information to gather
  in a non-research institution.
• I dont have any great ideas about gathering and
  interpreting such data, so this is one of the
  areas that I will be asking for help with in St.
  Louis.
• We have found that the number of repeat visits by
  students correlates with high satisfaction.

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Wrapping It Up

• Schools need online tutoring to effectively reach
  those who cannot get to on-campus tutoring
  centers when it is open or who hesitate seeing
  face-to-face tutors because of embarrassment.
• Online tutoring is cost-effective for schools.
• Tutors love working from home, without the
  pressure of lines of students waiting for them.
• Students appreciate the flexibility of online
  tutoring.

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• However, designing an effective online tutoring
  program requires cooperation among faculty,
  tutors, administrators, and students.
• Forming advisory committee of the different
  groups of stakeholders is a good first step.
• Looking realistically at what your institution
  can and will support is crucial.

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• Assessing your technological and human strengths
  is part of the foundation for good
  decision-making.
• Finally, thinking outside the box and looking for
  creative solutions to complex problems is a
  thrilling challenge!

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Contact Information

• Deborah Hardwick
• Deborah.hardwick_at_hccs.edu
• 713-718-5430