Online Tutoring?

Daanji asks: "Being a struggling Electrical Engineering student at Northern Arizona University I have taken on a Math tutor job to support myself at the Learning Assistance Center. Being one of the few computer literate tutors on staff, I have been asked if I wanted to participate in online tutoring. This trial will begin with moderate means, consisting of Microsoft Netmeeting (which almost everyone has on their machines), a digital pen, and hopefully Mathematica, Maple, or some other math program. I've also been asked to think about how to fully implement this idea to its full potential to provide students with an acceptable service. What I would like to know is if anyone has been involved in a similar situation. What technologies have any of you used (software or hardware) to implement a similar system: what works best, what doesn't, how effective was it, and how much did it cost? Was your experience successful or worth the effort? Any suggestions or constructive criticisms, helpful hints, or links would be appreciated."

Comments

You'll be missing face-to-face contact

[GuyMannDude]

I'm wondering how much thought has been put into this project. All the people who I tutored really appreciated someone sitting down with them and helping them out. A lot of the time, they are actually smart enough to work things out themselves, they just need some moral support and hand-holding to reassure them. I think that kind of personal contact is going to be missing if you do this online.

I'm also wondering what the point of doing this online is? What is the expected benefit? Is a tutor going to be helping multiple student clients at a single session? If so, then you'll probably have the problem that more shy students won't get a chance to ask their questions. Is it to help people who can't -- for whatever reason -- attend regular tutoring hours on campus? Well, these people have to decide how serious they are about getting help. I see drawbacks to online tutoring and don't see any immediate advantages over the normal means.

Another important aspect of offline tutoring is that you will get some idea as to whether any of your help is sinking in. When you explain something, you want to look that person in the eye (or at least look at their face if they are reluctant to make eye contact) and look for clues that they are actually understanding or are just claiming that they understand to avoid looking dumb. I don't see how you are going to get these clues online. If you type "Do you understand?" and they type back "Yeah.", it's not at all clear whether they actually do or are just saying that.

Since the university seems to have dumped this in your lap, it's an opportunity for you to think through some of these issues and report back to them, possibly with suggestions. First you should run some of these concerns by them to see if they have any answers. If not, then you will have pointed out to them some of the difficulties and potential drawbacks of their approach. About now you may be feeling "Hey, I just wanted to tutor. I didn't sign up to develop some new teaching methodology." While that's true, if you can provide some guidance to the tutoring organization to help them improve their methods (and they are suitably impressed with your inputs), you may be able to use them as references for job hunting or grad student applications. Never pass up an opportunity to show someone how smart you can be!

Good luck,
GMD