Spring 1998
Vol 6 Issue 2

IN THIS ISSUE...

Technology and Change ... duh!

Some Thoughts on Change from Egypt

Creating Opportunities for Student Success

Playing Out the Imagination's Wildest Scenarios...

Learn Today, Apply Tomorrow

Upcoming Events

Learning Styles

From Computer Bio Simulations...

Community College Assessment Library

SEE ALSO...
The Forum

Discussion

Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction

Creating Opportunities for Student Success
Jeanne Franco, PVCC

Sitting at my computer last fall while taking a UCLA online course in Java Programming, it occurred to me that as a student I needed a tutor. The material was giving me a little trouble, but I didn't want to bother my instructor with my minor questions. Had I been taking this course at PVCC, I could have run over to the Learning Assistance Center, grabbed a tutor, and had my questions answered in ten or fifteen minutes. Searching through the support services offered by the UCLA online program, I found nothing that resembled tutoring assistance. I decided to ask some of my peers if they thought an online tutor would be a welcome enhancement to the program, and I received a resounding "Yes." What a revelation!

I had taken the UCLA online course for two reasons; first to learn Java programming language, but more importantly to witness, from a student's viewpoint, what it was like to take a course totally online. I had spent a lot of time researching the merits of going online with a course, and I felt I had a grasp on the pedagogy involved in creating an online course. However, I wanted to experience the other side of the coin before I stepped out with an online offering of my own. After my UCLA experience, I realized the importance of creating support systems to supplement and enhance the learning experience for online students.

Picture this. You are a student of accounting in an online program that you have chosen because of your busy work and family schedule. It's 2 a.m., and after reading the text and re-reading your instructor's supplemental material, you can't figure out how to measure the cost of a plant asset purchased in a non-cash transaction. You know your instructor reads and replies to all of his email messages at about 6 o'clock every evening, but your paper is due tomorrow by 6 p.m. so you won't be able to ask your question and receive an answer before the deadline.

All of a sudden you remember that there is an online tutoring web site you could access tonight. Perhaps your question has been asked by a former student, and it is listed and answered on the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page at that site. You log on to your service provider, pull up Netscape and type in the URL for the Online Tutoring Web Site. You click on the FAQ link and access the questions for Chapter 10 -- "Plant Assets," and there is your answer.

As an instructor of accounting at PVCC, I understand the importance and the benefits of a strong, comprehensive tutoring program. I know that the more opportunities we can make available to students to ask questions and receive academic support, the more we increase their chances for success. That is why on the first day of class I always spend a few minutes explaining to my students that there is additional support for my course. Our Learning Assistance Center offers group and walk-in tutoring as well as supplemental audio and video materials and computerized accounting tutorials.

Given my experience with the positive outcomes of students who take advantage of tutoring and my experience as an online student, I began to search cyberspace for online educational opportunities that included this important student support service. I found NYU, the University of Phoenix, and Duke University each with virtual MBA programs. I located sites at Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Rice, Stanford, Rutgers and the Open University of England each with varying degrees of online offerings, but nowhere could I find an example of online tutoring to support student success. Before I created my online courses in accounting, I decided that I needed to have a tutoring web site in place.

In pursuit of this idea, I created "The PVCC Online Tutor." PVCC students who access this site discover that there are three ways in which they can get extra help with their course. First, students may access a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page that lists questions and answers by chapter/topic to see if their question has already been asked and answered. The FAQ pages will be updated and expanded often by a content expert as new questions are identified. Therefore, each time students visit this site they should find something new.

Next, at this site students may access a Tutor Web Board which allows them to introduce themselves to their peers, to read other students' course related postings, and add their own inquires and comments to the board. With the click of the mouse each of the entries to the Tutor Web Board is automatically threaded and posted to a web page. A content expert will monitor the Web Board to ensure that postings remain within the realm of the course content and to offer expertise to the discussions.

Lastly, students are given an opportunity to ask a specific course related question directly to a tutor via email. An online tutor will be trained and assigned to read all email questions several times each weekday and to respond to each student in a timely fashion. Questions from this site can then be used to further develop the FAQ pages.

After creating this Online Tutoring Web Site, I realized that online students may not be the only students who could benefit from this service. I began considering those traditional PVCC students, both day and evening, who find visiting our Learning Assistance Center difficult because of time constraints created by attending school while working or raising a family. After discussing my idea with our LAC Director, David Gerkin, I realized that while the online tutor is not designed to take the place of an onground tutoring program for all traditional students, it would serve a niche of students as an enhancement to our current LAC program. Since our discussions, I am now offering this web site to all Accounting Principles I and II students, and David has identified instructors in Mathematics and English who are interested in expanding the program.

As a side note, I have also created some enhancements to the web site that I hope will prove to be beneficial. As with traditional tutoring, a major factor in running a successful program is letting students know that tutoring is available and motivating them to use it. Toward this end, I have created three sets of colorful flyers which introduce accounting students to the site. Each set has been designed to attract attention at different times during the semester. In addition, I have added music to the opening pages of the site and plan to run a "name that tune" contest in the fifth week of the semester to attract additional interest and visitors.

Beneficiaries of this site will ultimately be our students, but the college will benefit as well. Having a tutor available anywhere and anytime at the end of a mouse will prove beneficial for busy onground and online students alike. Further, the site encourages student interaction with their peers through use of the Web Board. For the traditional student, this is interaction outside of class that may not have taken place if students were to visit the Learning Assistance Center individually. For the college, at the cost of a tutor to staff the web site several times each day, the college is able to extend additional tutoring support services effectively and efficiently. Even for those disciplines that don't require a full time tutor and for those 200-level courses where it is so difficult to find tutors, the online tutoring web site is an efficient new opportunity to support students. Further, answering student questions via email several times a day gives tutors a new found opportunity to ask for expert help with difficult questions. Therefore, tutors are given an added opportunity to learn while they help those they tutor. Finally, team building will occur between faculty and the LAC staff as we work together on this project for the benefit of students.

The speed at which technology is changing our world is phenomenal, and with technology we have all been afforded the opportunity to create new ways to reach students and assist them in expanding their horizons. As we move into cyberspace we are finding that many of the traditional pedagogical techniques used in the classroom are not transferable to cyberspace, and new ways of creating interfaces between the student, instructor, and knowledge are currently being developed. But some proven onground methods are still applicable to online education. The key is figuring out which techniques are transferable and can continue to enhance the student experience. There is one thing, however, of which I am certain. The more opportunities that we can make available to all students to ask questions and receive academic support, whether online or onground, the more we increase the chances of our students' success.