For students who need help with English, math, accounting and study skills, George Brown's Tutoring and Learning Centre (TLC) is a vital source of support throughout the school year. With campuses closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this important work hasn't stopped - it's just moved online.
When college classes were suspended for a week in March, the TLC team used that time to train more than 50 peer tutors in using specialized digital tutoring platforms and to help them get ready to interact virtually with students.
Although the TLC has been offering some online tutoring for a couple of years, the team wasn't sure how students would feel about making the switch from in-person sessions to a fully digital experience. But the response has been encouraging. During the first two weeks of alternative delivery at George Brown, nearly 200 students completed 545 tutoring sessions, getting support for 90 different courses.
"It was nice to see that students thought so highly of our tutoring support that they felt it was worthwhile to work with tutors online, so they could continue to get the academic support they needed," says Kasia Dziwak, Manager of TLC Services and Assessment Services. She adds that some students who shied away from online options in the past have been stepping outside their comfort zone to give it a try.
The TLC has facilitated this transition by posting videos on how to book and access online tutoring, and by hosting a daily online web chat that allows students to ask questions about how it works.
The swift move to online delivery of services has been a true collaboration between the TLC's core team of seven college employees and their roster of nearly 80 peer tutors.
"I cannot say how grateful I am to our team for their creativity and innovation, and for pulling out all the stops to get things ready for students within a week," says Dziwak. "We're also immensely grateful to our student leaders who, during a time of great stress and uncertainty - while dealing with their own personal, financial and academic issues - stepped up to the challenge of contributing to the success of their peers."
MobiHelp for Computer Technology students
Some academic areas are also offering specialized online tutoring supports, such MobiHelp, which was created by the School of Computer Technology. Initially developed as an in-person tutoring service, MobiHelp allows students in the early semesters of their programs to access tutoring from students in their third, fourth, fifth or sixth semester.
"Students can go online, view profiles of all the tutors available during that time period and pick the classes they want help with," explains Maziar Masoudi, Professor and Program Co-ordinator for Computer Programmer Analyst (T127) and Mobile Application Development and Strategy (T430).
Over the course of three weeks, students visited MobiHelp for support 382 times, receiving 488 hours of tutoring. Not only do the peer tutors conduct one-on-one video tutoring, they also develop and post challenge questions that allow users to practice applying the skills they're learning in class. These experiences allow the tutors to enhance their own skills while helping others, and to generate part-time income in the process.
"It's a tremendous learning experience for the tutors, as well as the students receiving tutoring," says Masoudi, adding that the peer tutors can relate to what students are going through since they were in a similar position just a few semesters earlier.
Right now, MobiHelp supports students in four Computer Technology programs: Computer Programmer Analyst (T127), Computer Systems Technician (T141), Computer Systems Techology (T147) and Game - Programming (T163). But Masoudi hopes they'll be able to expand their offerings to include more programs in the future, as the service has proved to be a valuable resource for students.
