Students strung out on difficult math problems or stumped on the first lines of their essays have many places to turn for help at the University – but the resource students use most often is help from fellow students. In addition to the University’s Academic Learning Services, student tutors help on an individual basis, with test prep companies like Kaplan and student-faculty programs offering additional services that allow students to get a better grasp of their work.
Student tutor Daniel Occhipinti is a free resource for underclassmen in the Greek system at the University. Occhipinti, a senior, said he began tutoring in his sophomore year and estimates he has helped 35 to 40 students since.
“I treat tutoring as a community service, and I want
to help out,” Occhipinti said. “Being in the Greek system, you see a lot of young students who need help. What got me started was a need for assistance.”
Occhipinti said he observed fellow students suffer with writing essays or taking tests. So he began tutoring, specializing in writing, essay organization and test-taking strategies.
“It’s rewarding when someone you tutored calls the week after a test you helped him out on and says, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you know I got an “A” on that test.’ For some guys, it’s their first ‘A’ in college,”
Occhipinti said.
A common problem for students, Occhipinti said, is that the essays need more argumentative focus, a clearer thesis, citations or other technical aspects of essay writing that may not be up to professors’ expectations.
Occhipinti said his free tutoring service is not an inconvenience to his schedule, and that he typically spends about an hour with each student who needs help.
| So you need a tutor? In addition to advertisements on announcement boards in the EMU and McKenzie Hall, many departments offer their own tutors to assist students in department courses. Free tutor service at Academic Learning Services covers all subjects. Drop by the ALS office in 68 PLC or call 346-3226. Also, Kaplan Test Prep, which offers test preparation for students entering college, graduate or professional programs, is located at 720 E. 13th Ave. The number is 345-4420. |
“There’s a lot of places for students to go (if they) need help, but in many regards students are hesitant to use these services,” he said. “They feel rigid sometimes for students, whereas I can just get called for help and have an informal session with
a student at Starbucks or somewhere
they choose.”
Sitting in the ALS writing lab, sophomore Allison Cody said the need for help in writing and math outweighs any hesitancy.
“When I needed math help, I really needed it so I couldn’t be shy to ask for it,” she said.
Typically, Cody uses ALS in addition to lectures because one-on-one assistance with a fellow student and the ability to work through a troublesome problem cannot be found in huge lecture halls, she said.
Engaging students in big lecture classes is exactly what Georgeanne Cooper, director of the Teaching Effectiveness Program, sets out to improve with University professors and graduate teaching fellows.
“A lot of student-learning communities at the University and around other colleges help students have an input on their course material, and sometimes students and professors work together on the syllabus and decide what will be taught that term,” Cooper said. “If students and the professor are both interested in the class material, students will learn far more than if they are simply highlighting a
textbook or taking notes.”
The Teaching Effectiveness Program works with faculty members two weeks before fall term on how to coordinate lesson plans, responding to student questions and other faculty-student interaction.
“Typically in the University setting there is an attitude that a class needs to transfer all possible information for a course in order to be successful, which does not always mean students are actually learning that material or are engaged in that information,” Cooper said. “So instead you see students sleeping in class or text messaging.”
But Cooper said professors and GTFs that engage their students in the lesson get an overwhelming amount of positive feedback. Faculty and TEP employees measure this feedback by giving out mid-class evaluations, but they are not
responsible for the University-mandated course evaluations at the end of every term, Cooper said.
Kaplan Test Prep on 720 E. 13th Ave. gives University students help with educational and career tests, and graduate- or doctorate-level students are there to assist, Director Victoria Grantham said.
“There’s dynamic and interesting students that work for Kaplan and know the subject in-depth enough to help out other students,” said Grantham.
Grantham said University students are especially adept at helping prospective students improve their college applications, get higher SAT and ACT scores and write strong
application essays.
