USING A VIRTUAL CONCEPT TO
COORDINATE DECENTRALIZED
TUTORING SERVICES
Dr. Dennis Krieb
Director,
Institutional
Research and
Library Services
Lewis & Clark
Community
College
Reid Memorial Library,
Lewis & Clark Community College
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Presentation outline
Academic Parlance
Plain English
1. About Lewis & Clark Community College
1.
About Lewis & Clark Community College
2. Gently Crafting a Collaborative Culture for
Centralized Tutoring Services
2.
Get on the *$%%# Bus or Get Run Over!
3. Student Usage and Characteristics
3.
Who are You and Why are You Here?
4. Assessment Methodology for Measuring
the Efficacy of Tutoring
4.
How Can We Tell If We are Wasting our Time?
5. Assessment Findings of Tutoring Services
5.
Torture Numbers, and They’ll Confess to
Anything
6. Student Feedback of Tutoring Services
6.
We Can’t be That Good??
7. Faculty Feedback of Tutoring Services
7.
Maybe We are That Good??
8. Student Success Center Implementation
Timeline
8.
How to Successfully Cram Institutional
Change in Just Twelve Short Months
9. A Few Final Thoughts
9.
A Few Final Thoughts
Lewis & Clark Community College
Godfrey, Illinois
Approximately
20 miles north of
St. Louis, MO
•Originally founded
as Monticello
Female Seminary in
1838
• Became Lewis &
Clark Community
College in 1971
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Lewis & Clark Community College
College district of
220,891 residents
8700 students
Suburban and rural
counties
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Lewis & Clark Community College
Lewis & Clark College
“End of the trail”
(historically speaking of
course)
Lewis & Clark Community
College
“Start of the trail”
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Gently Crafting a Collaborative Culture …
 So Why the Emphasis on Student Success??
Our state has a slight cash flow problem

Politician and public demands for
accountability of public funds for higher
education.

“Open Door or Revolving Door?”

Performance Based Funding coming soon (2013) to a state subsidized
college or university near you.
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Gently Crafting a Collaborative Culture …
Collision of
Institutional Goals
Enrollment vs. Success
Shift from
“Just get them in the door ”
to
“Check them first then keep them in”
Prescriptive advising for developmental students
Intrusive or proactive advising
GPA of 2.7 or better for online course registration
More contextualized math courses
Talk of restricting registration for certain “last minute enrollees”
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
GENTLY CRAFTING A COLLABORATIVE CULTURE …
“There is considerable evidence that supports the
effectiveness of tutoring services on grades and retention
of students enrolled in higher education” (Cooper, 2010).
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Gently Crafting a Collaborative Culture …
Getting the Phone Call
(Ring Ring)
Me:
“Reid Library, this is Dennis”
Voice: “Hello Dennis. Would you manage a ‘virtual’
Student Success Center that would
coordinate and track all of our tutoring on campus?”
Me: (Pause) “Ehhhh…………………………………”
Voice:
“And we don’t have much in the way of funds and we might need to take some
space from the Library . Nothing major, just moving some shelves to make
room for a few desks.”
Me: (Long Pause) “.…ehhhh……….ummm....……..errrr……..............................…sure.”
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Gently Crafting a Collaborative Culture …
5
Each tutoring area evolved on
its own. Some areas more
structured than others.
Dental
(2 years)
Math/
Science
(6 years)
Business/
CIS
(3 years)
1
6
Academic
Tutoring
(2 years)
Writing Desk
(4 years)
Nursing
(5 years)
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Gently Crafting a Collaborative Culture …
The “Virtual”
Student Success
Center
Student Success Team
headed by the Vice
President of
Academic Affairs
(August 2010)
Tethered by common
online tracking
process
Academic
Tutoring
Math/
Science
Tutoring
Tutoring
Dental
Tutoring
Writing
Desk
Nursing
Business/
CIS
Tutoring
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Gently Crafting a Collaborative Culture …
Goal
Goal
College
Mission
Vision
S
S
C
ingle method for tracking student usage.
ingle name for branding services.
eek to “Foster achievement through
dynamic, compassionate and
responsible learning experiences.”
Student Success Center
reate a “virtual” concept
for coordinating
tutoring points of
service with limited
funds and space.
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Gently Crafting a Collaborative Culture …
Now the Fun Part ; )
 Imposing a unified tracking model
requiring that all students must first
check-in with a tutor.
 Sharing the vision
 Nudging (pushing) comfort
zones
 Changing workflows
 Rearranging space
 Training tutors
 Providing a forum for students to
“vent”
Tutor: “But we prefer
using a clipboard to
track students.”
Me: “Too bad.”
Student: “Checking –
in is a hassle.”
Me: “Too bad.”
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Gently Crafting a Collaborative Culture …
“Make Room - The Student
Success Center is Coming!”
 “The more flexible the space, the
better …near a library or natural
gathering area can help increase foot
traffic.” (McClure 2009)
 Space created by rearranging the
library and our Math/Science Lab.
 And yes, there was resistance.
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Gently Crafting a Collaborative Culture …
Some “Take Away” thoughts on crafting a collaborative culture for tutoring:
• People don’t like outside people
telling them how to do things.
Particularly if the person is a library
director.
• Workflows are difficult things to
change.
• It is important to continually
remind others of the vision e.g.,
why we are making these changes.
• Never underestimate the
difference in technology aptitudes.
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Student Usage and Characteristics
In-house tracking system built with Excel



Data saved to a central server
Used by all tutoring points of service
Data points collected:
• Student name
• Student email
• Faculty name
• Faculty email
• Course title
Student
Name
Student
Email
• Referral info
• Assignment
• Tutor name
• Date of visit
• Length of visit
Faculty
Name
Faculty
Email
We have no $$$ for fancy “out-ofthe-box” tutoring management
software
Course Referral Assignment
Info
Tutor
Date
Time in/out
Sample log in sheet using Excel
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Student Usage and Characteristics
5
Business/
CIS
Central
Server
Dental
Math/
Science
1
6
Academic
Tutoring
Writing Desk
Nursing
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Student Usage and Characteristics
Total and Unduplicated Tutoring Visits, Fall 2010 – Fall 2011
9000
8000
7898
7297
7000
6000
5582
5000
Total Visits
4000
Unduplicated Visits
3000
2258
2000
1000
1232
1396
26% of our
student headcount
0
Fall 2010
Spring 2011
Fall 2011
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Student Usage and Characteristics
Tutoring Sessions by Course Type, Fall 2010 – Fall 2011
Math,
19%
Dev.
Math,
36%
Developmental
Course
English,
18%
Music,
9%
Nursing,
Dev. 14%
English,
4%
Music and
Nursing have
“mandatory “
tutoring
Non Developmental
Course
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Student Usage and Characteristics
Median Time in Minutes Per Visit
28
Nursing
56
Math
16
English
Median Time in Minutes
Per Visit
52
Developmental Math
41
Developmental English
0
20
40
60
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Assessment Methodology
 How can we tell if tutoring at the SSC makes a difference?
Compare success of students enrolled in the same course by
whether they visited a tutor or did not visit a tutor
Ex. All ENGLISH 132 Students for Fall 2010
n=431
n=48
Final Grade of A, B, or C
Term-to-Term Persistence
Year-to-Year Retention
• Compare 3 indicators of success
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Assessment Findings
Indicator #1 – A Final Grade of an A,B, or C
87%
(39 0f 45) of same course comparisons showed
tutored students having a higher percentage of
28% (11 of 39) were
successful completions.
statistically significant (p<.05)
With Tutoring
11 (sig.)
Without
Tutoring
28
6
0
10
20
30
40
50
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Assessment Findings
Indicator #2 – Term-to-Term Persistence
80%
(28 of 35) of same course comparisons showed
tutored students having a higher percentage of enrolling
the following term (fall-to-spring).
were statistically significant (p<.05)
8 (sig.)
With Tutoring
23% (8 of 35)
20
2
No Difference
5
Without Tutoring
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Service
Assessment Findings
Indicator #3 –Year-to-Year Retention
76%
(16 0f 21) of same course comparisons showed
tutored students having a higher percentage of enrolling
the following year (fall-to-fall).
statistically significant (p<.05)
With
Tutoring
7 (sig.)
Without
Tutoring
5
0
33% (7 of 21) were
9
5
10
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
15
20
Assessment Findings
Here is a peek at
one page of the
“raw” data.
Anyone
interested in
looking at these
data, please see
me after the
presentation.
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Student Feedback
 Student Survey
100 surveys
completed
Generally very
positive and
grateful for
the service.
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Faculty Feedback
78% Strongly Agreed
 Purposeful Survey of Faculty
 Online via Surveymonkey
 43% (23 0f 53) responded
or Agreed that tutoring
was beneficial for their
student.
82% indicated that
tutoring was Very
Important or Important
to their teaching.
96% planned to refer
their students for
tutoring at the SSC in
the future.
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
SSC Timeline
Decision to create a
“virtual” SSC
Nursing Resource Center
sign ordered/hung
Business/CIS Tutoring &
Dental Resource Center
go online
SSC web page created
Writing Desk and
Academic Tutoring go
online
Aug
10
Sept
Oct 10
10
• Library rearranged
• Log-in sheet created
• Signs ordered/hung
• Pamphlets printed
• Desks ordered/set up
Nov
10
Nursing Resource
Center goes online
Dec
10
Jan 11 Feb 11
March April
11
11
May
11
June
July 11
11
Aug
11
Math/Science
Resource Center
goes online
Business/CIS Tutoring &
Dental Resource Center
signs ordered /hung
Math/Science Resource
Center Rearranged
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Final Thoughts
Tutoring benefits both developmental
and college-level students at nearly
the same level
Affective dimension. Tutors can serve
as advocates and mentors for
students needing emotional support.
Caveats
 Motivation e.g. overachievers
 “Students most in need of are
less likely to take advantage of
support services” (Friedlander,
1980)
 Mandatory tutoring for struggling
students
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
References

Cooper, E. (2010). Tutoring center effectiveness: The effect of drop-in
tutoring. Journal of College Reading & Learning, 40(2), 21-34.

Gregg, E. (n.d.). Torture numbers, and they'll confess... at BrainyQuote.
Famous Quotes at BrainyQuote. Retrieved February 28, 2012, from
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/greggeaste171133.html

Friedlander J. (1980). Are college support programs and services reaching
high-risk students? Journal of College Student Personnel, 21(1), 23-28.

Illinois Community College Board. (2011). District boundaries. Retrieved
from http://www.iccb.org/pdf/newmap-med.pdf

Lau, L. K. (2003). Institutional factors affecting student retention.
Education, 124(1), 126-136.

McClure, A. (2009). One-stop tutoring shop. University Business, 12(5), 52-53.
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services
Thank you
If interested in a copy of my data set, please feel
free to call or email.
Dr. Dennis Krieb
618-468-4310
dkrieb@lc.edu
Using a Virtual Concept to Coordinate Decentralized Tutoring Services