With Governor Kate Brown’s order that Oregonians all stay at home, we are all now navigating working from off campus as we prepare to enter week three of this unprecedented change due to the Coronavirus. Many of our students are adapting, but others are struggling with living spaces, internet access, multiple online teaching platforms, and financial resources. Increasingly, students are requesting online tutoring from the Learning Commons, but many more could likely use the social peer support that our tutors can provide. Here’s how you can help your students access peer tutoring in our virtual Learning Commons.
Inform your students that requesting appointments with tutors in the virtual Learning Commons hasn’t changed from earlier in the semester.
To access the Writing Center and Math Resource Center, students can make appointments on WCONLINE at https://up.mywconline.net.
All other appointments can be made via the usual email request lines:
Nursing Tutoring: For individual and group peer tutoring in any of the 100–400 level nursing classes, BIO 205, and anatomy and physiology courses students should send an email to nrstutor@up.edu. For biology and A&P tutoring, they can also contact biotutor@up.edu to make an appointment.
The Language Studio: Students can access language tutor hotlines at chinesetutor@up.edu, frenchtutor@up.edu, germantutor@up.edu, or spanishtutor@up.edu.
Natural Sciences Center: Students can request biology, chemistry, and physics tutoring appointments at biotutor@up.edu, chemtutor@up.edu, or physicstutor@up.edu.
Business Tutoring: Students can request for tutoring in economics (econtutor@up.edu), accounting (accountingtutor@up.edu), finance (financetutor@up.edu), OTM (otmtutor@up.edu), business law (bizlaw@up.edu), and MTH 141/Finite Math (math141@up.edu).
Speech & Presentation Lab: Students can improve your presentation skills online by requesting an appointment at speech@up.edu.
Group Work Lab: Students can meet as a group to develop their project with a Group Work Lab consultant at groupwork@up.edu.
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering: Students can access the computer science tutors at StepUP@up.edu.
All peer tutoring is taking place in a Learning Commons Virtual Tutoring Team in Microsoft Teams. We’ve trained most all the tutors on how to use this platform, and they are finding new ways to turn Teams into an excellent tutoring platform.
What happened to drop-in math tutoring?
On March 22, we held our first drop-in math support online for Sunday Afternoon Math (SAM), and then we started offering regular “drop-in” math tutoring on March 29; we will offer this Sundays through Thursdays from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM for at least the next couple weeks. Sunday Afternoon Math runs each Sunday from 3:00 PM until 5:00 PM. Students can access our drop-in math tutoring Teams page by clicking this link.
During this time of online learning during a pandemic, the Learning Commons offers your students the opportunity to connect, learn, and succeed in reaching their goals. Please encourage them to access our peer tutors by sharing the above information in synchronous meetings and on your Moodle page.
Jeffrey White directs the Learning Commons in BC 163 and is an instructor in International Languages and Cultures. Currently, Jeffrey is the president of the Northwest College Reading and Learning Association. He can be reached at white@up.edu or through MS Teams via chat.