The Making of SLCC’s Mandatory Online Tutor

Training

(Tutor Training on a Budget)

Do It Yourself!A Workshop for Low Budget

Programs

About SLCC Tutor Training

• We have numerous campuses and sites where tutoring can take place.

• We have multiple tutoring programs.• Each program, inside the LCP and out,

have their own training initiatives.• The only standardized training we offer is

CRLA Certification for individual tutors (not a program certification).

SLCC Learning Center Data 2007

Students served 5 year mean

Unique students

Contact hours

Contacts

Learning Center

4,167 10,253 36,384

Student Writing Center

1,387 1,544 3,379

ESL Lab 258 1,130 2,466

5,812 12,927 42,229

Since then…

• We added expanded the Reading Lab• We hired new coordinators• We added a new program with 25 new

tutors and a full-time position.• We have been told to prepare for a 17%

budget cut college wide.

DIY Online Training Workshop

• What expectations do you have for this workshop?

• Why are you considering online?• Why are you considering a do-it-yourself

program?

DIY… WHY?

• Plain and simply…cost.• DIY is inexpensive.

DIY… WHY?

• But DIY is also time consuming and takes some courage.

• It makes sense to ask yourself what the benefits and costs are in time and (human) resources because you have to rally the forces toward a project that can potentially consume some of your staff resources.

Online… WHY?

DIY online is:easily duplicatedconvenientstandardized instructionally reliableresponsive to program needsresponsive to the end user

DIY Online Training Workshop

• Roll up your sleeves. • Get out your writing utensils.• Get your packets ready.• We’re ready to start.

Ten Steps

1. Get buy in2. Elect a champion3. Organize a team4. Pick a process5. Make a plan

6. Design a prototype7. Get feedback8. Review and learn9. Launch the pilot10.Revise it again

Step 1Get buy-in.

Step 1: Get buy-in

1) Be committed to a solution… no matter what.

2) Be more committed to the “no matter what” than the “what.”

Key word: FLEXIBILITY

Who’s who…

• identify the stakeholders of this project. • In our case:

• It was simple to identify those stakeholders for us because they are already members of a task force designed to address tutoring and learning support issues.

Stakeholders

• Who are your stakeholders?• Look at administrators, tutoring programs,

employees (tutors), and students. Anyone else?

Step 2Elect a Champion

Step 2: Elect a champion

Be careful what you ask for… you just might end up doing it yourself.

Championing a project

• To do it right, you don’t have to do it yourself…

• And then again, sometimes old adages are true.

We are the champions…

• Are you willing to start this ball rolling?• What if it rolls back to you?• Are you prepared to delegate?• Who in your staff is savvy or courageous

enough to do this?

If it’s less about doing it “right” and more about doing it at all…

It is by no means a solitary task, but it certainly requires initiative.

Step 3Organize a Team

Step 3: Organize a team

• At our institution, there is a formal team assigned through Distance Education for an online class.

• Marc Lundstrom

• However, a formal online classroom may not be the strategy that we take. So, a subcommittee is also a good idea.

• Ryan Hobbs, Clint Gardner, Gary Campbell

Your resources…

• Who can you call? • Distance Education Dept?• Your IT dept?• Your supervisor/colleagues?• Work study students in CIS?• A media or communications dept?

Step 4Pick a Process

Design

BuildReview

Plan

The Simplified Process

Take in feedback at every stage and learn

all you can about online teaching

Step 5Make a Plan

Step 5: Make a Plan

• The actual content may or may not need a complex planning process.

• Our content was, more or less, already determined.

• Get ready to develop some important questions to ask.

SLCC

• At this point, we have selected online training for just newly hired tutors.

• The impetus for this training is that, outside of tutor certification, we have no standardized training for tutors college-wide.

How much training?

• How much of your training do you want to offer online?

• Do you feel online training is sufficient? Or should it be a supplement to other training?

• Do you already have a live training? Will this replace or supplement it?

Step 6Design a Prototype

Step 6: Design a prototype:

• Traditional lesson plans are always a good launching point.

• Online work is generally organized into modules.• SLCC is only covering one workshop for now.

So, it’s simpler to divide the content.

What to do in drafting

• The lesson outline could be sketched out in a PowerPoint presentation like this one.

• Alternatively, create a website • Or a low-tech story board• Don’t forget you are drafting four things:

• Content, assignments, interactivity, and layout/design.

You may also want to find out…

• Is there anyone in your team savvy with other presentation tools like Google sketch up?

• Does anyone in your team write HTML?• Who has online teaching experience?• Who has educational and materials design

experience/training?

Some questions to ask your peers:

• How much time do you want your tutors to commit to viewing the material?

• Will you include exercises for completion during and/or after?

• Do you want to require a practicum?

Adding assignments requires extra tools

• Try printed links• Try using Vista/Blackboard or your other

online campus platform.• Try Quia (Quia.com) as an inexpensive

tool for creating online assessments.• Or do as we do and hyperlink documents

into the presentation.

Step 7Get Feedback

Step 7: Get feedback

• Like I said before, get feedback at every stage.

• Expect to change EVERYTHING… THRICE.

Getting Feedback

• During the stages of development, gather suggestions from your professional peers

Getting Feedback

Professional peers may include:• Program coordinators• Site coordinators• Experienced tutors• Faculty• Support staff• Sometimes… students (e.g. student

senate)

Goals of feedback…

Content: Organization:

Modes of delivery:

Language: Visual design:

• Meets your training goals• Make manageable and

logical chunks. “Manageable” is relative.

• Make accessible, reliable, responsive, and (most of all) affordable.

• Be clear.• On a budget, shoot for

inoffensive… or tolerable.

Gathering peer responses should be:

• Systematic• Organized• Extensive• Inclusive• Responsive

Gathering peer responses should be:

• Systematic• Organized• Extensive• Inclusive• Responsive

Collecting peer feedback validates your choices (if you use it.)

Gathering peer responses should be:

• Systematic• Organized• Extensive• Inclusive• Responsive

Publishing organized results makes the process transparent.

Gathering peer responses should be:

• Systematic• Organized• Extensive• Inclusive• Responsive

Make sure you have a majority of your peers’ responses such that no one is “disenfranchised.”

Gathering peer responses should be:

• Systematic• Organized• Extensive• Inclusive• Responsive

Make sure that, even if you are only considering your own agency’s training needs, you consider secondary audiences like programs that benefit from your tutoring.

Gathering peer responses should be:

• Systematic• Organized• Extensive• Inclusive• Responsive

Alter your training to include your peers’ responses.

Gathering peer feedback will be:

• Time consuming• Slow going• Like pulling teeth (at times)• Fraught with challenges• And absolutely essential to

developing a training program that your peers will trust.

Get your peers involved using:

• Free online surveys • Surveymonkey.com• Very specific and detailed

• Paper surveys • Meetings (esp. Department)• Fast and furious. • Focused on their priorities.

• Conversations• Focused on their priorities.

Online Survey

Benefits: -User friendly on both ends.-Professional layout.-Convenient-Extensive feedback per respondent-Easy to track/compile

Drawbacks: -Some were intimidated by the

extensive info requested.-It is easy to ignore email requests.

Survey Summary Question1 part 1

Question 1 part 2

Question 2 part 1

Question 5 part 1

Paper Survey

• Benefits• Short and sweet• Distributed and collected immediately• Reaches more people reliably• Gets more responses

• Drawbacks• Can only get at basic information

The Paper Survey

Conversations

• In person, by phone, on email, at meetings…• Benefits:

• Free, no real prep time, immediate feedback• Can be spontaneous

• Drawbacks:• Time consuming• Not easy to track or verify for transparency.

Feedback From the Audience

Sample of success: tutor feedback

• Feedback from past participants in tutor training produced measurable improvements in the training.

Sample 1

• Following is an excerpt of my original online tutor training.

• Lesson learned:• Live workshops don’t always translate

into online formats!

Introduction to Tutoring

What is a “paraprofessional”?

• par·a·pro·fes·sion·al• A trained worker who is not a member of a

profession but assists a professional.

• http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=paraprofessional

What is a “professional”?• Noun• S: (n) professional, professional person

(a person engaged in one of the learned professions)

• S: (n) professional, pro (an athlete who plays for pay)

• S: (n) master, professional (an authority qualified to teach apprentices

• http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=professional

Is a tutor a “professional”?

• Traditionally, a tutor is considered a paraprofessional. Tutors are intended to support professionals (teachers) and the students.

• While some tutors and tutoring organizations consider their work a “profession” it is still intended as a support system, not a replacement for, teachers.

So, why does that matter?

• There are certain boundaries that a tutor should consider regarding their interactions with students and teachers.

So, why does that matter?

• We can reason our way through important ethical choices wisely by asking the question:

So, why does that matter?

• We can reason our way through important ethical choices wisely by asking the question:• “Is this the kind of thing a

paraprofessional would do?”

Sample 2: New and improved

• The following was constructed under the advice of tutors who recently attended Level 1 Tutor Certification.

• They identified confusion about why we discussed paraprofessional vs. professional roles.

• They liked my explanation (and the visual) about all the programs fitting under the umbrella of tutoring… but no program is alike.

Introduction to Tutoring

Section 1: Tutoring Roles

• SLCC has many programs that fit under the umbrella of “tutoring.”

Is your program listed below?

• Student Writing Center• America Reads• Math Lab• The Learning Center• The Reading Center• ESL Lab• Focused Tutoring• Computer Lab• Disability Resource Center• Language Lab• Trio/Student Support Services• Science Resource Center

Are they all the same?

• Student Writing Center• America Reads• Math Lab• The Learning Center• The Reading Center• ESL Lab• Focused Tutoring• Computer Lab• Disability Resource Center• Language Lab• Trio/Student Support Services• Science Resource Center

Tutoring Roles

• Though they are all “tutoring” programs, there is no program at SLCC that is exactly alike.

Tutoring Roles

• For this reason, it is difficult to say exactly how you should act or what is appropriate in every tutoring situation.

In the following section:

Ask yourself “what is appropriate in my program?”

Credits…

Participants from the current

Tutor Certification program, Spring 2009,

collaborated to produce the new

“umbrella” concept.

Ask your self…

• Do you have a reliable group of experienced tutors to utilize in this process?

• Are they on your “peers” list?• How many ways can you involve your

tutors in the training?

Step 8: Review-or…Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Did your goals change at any time?

Where should you reflect those changes: content, organization, mode of delivery, language, or visual design?

Step 9Launch

Launch your pilot

Step 10Revise… again?!

Revise it again?

• The beauty of a DIY training• you design it with existing resources • you can alter the program without consulting

an outside IT • You can alter it without additional costs.

You CAN do it.I have faith in you.

Easiest revisions

• PowerPoint presentations• Youtube productions (series of 10 minute

videos)• HTML written by your employees• Webpage builders (like Yahoo)• Online “groups” (like Yahoo)• Embedded quizzes and surveys• Links to word and pdf documents.

If you don’t use video

• Scripts are great!

• http://legacy.nationalserviceresources.org/learns/web-based/emily_joyce/emily_joyce2.php

If you don’t use video

• Read and react with discussion board

• http://www.cambridgestratford.com/emastertutor/online_demo/discsample.htm

If you don’t use video

• Make your own materials in a hard copy packet.

• Traditional training manuals can accompany interactive materials.

HEADLINE – GEORGIA 44 pt

• This page and the title slide are set up in the Master Templates. Simply hit new slide and select the layout.

• Headline should be all caps.• Bullets should be lowercase and brief.• This text is Georgia 28 pt

• The second level is Georgia 24 pt• The third level is Georgia 20 pt

ANOTHER OPTION

• This slide option will need to be copied/pasted (not a Master template).

• Good option if you want to show a photo.

ANOTHER OPTION

• This slide option will need to be copied/pasted (not a Master template).

• This design would be good for photos, graphs or charts.

OPTION

• This slide option will need to be copied/pasted (not a Master template).

• Illustration slide to break up the presentation.

SECTION HEADERWith Illustrations

COLORS

To select a specific color, click on “more colors” in the font or fill menus. Then click on the “custom” tab. Fill in the RGB formulas shown below.

R: 238

G: 178

B: 17

R: 255

G: 238

B: 198

R: 103

G: 153

B: 200

R: 153

G: 71

B: 8

SAMPLE CHART

This is what a sample chart could look like:

Number of Responses

Percentage

Not at all 8 30%

Probably not 3 11%

Maybe 6 22%

I’m leaning towards it 5 19%

Definitely 5 19%

SAMPLE GRAPH

64%

14%

8%

5%

2%

1%

6%

1%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Earn degree at SLCC/ transfer to 4-year school

Earn degree/ certificate at SLCC & work in that field

Take courses/ transfer before earning a degree atSLCC

Looking for new/better career opportunity

Take courses to upgrade skills in current job

Take courses to apply for a new job

Miscellaneous

Don't know