Tutor Training

Online Learning

Distance learning is an evolving and growing form of learning based on interaction with faculty, students, and resources such as books, journals, experts and other electronic sources. What makes it unique is the fact that these interactions can occur at any time or in any place. Three Rivers offers many classes in an online or hybrid (a mixture of online and onsite classes) setting.

Online Tutoring

TASC offers online tutoring to TRCC students (both those taking online (or hybrid) classes or onsite classes) in several forms. The online tutoring is available via “Ask TASC.” Ask TASC is a “course” on Blackboard Vista (accessible through MyCommNet) in which all TRCC students are automatically “enrolled.” Ask TASC consists of three components:

  • Students can meet with a tutor in Ask TASC’s online chat room, which has a white board. We have a drawing tablet that makes it easier for tutors to draw diagrams, write mathematical formulas, etc. We do not assign a tutor to be in the chat room on a regular basis, so, like in-person tutoring, the student will usually have to make an appointment to meet with a tutor.
  • Students can also submit a (usually simpler and shorter) question to an online discussion thread on the same site. We try to respond to these questions within 24 hours (during the week).
  • The Writing Center accepts email submissions of papers in any subject for feedback, again, usually responding within 24 hours.

All tutors are enrolled in the Ask TASC “course” as TAs (teaching assistants), and you are expected to log on to the site periodically (especially if you do not have tutoring appointments) to see if any questions have been submitted. If you can answer the question, do so. However, if it is not in your realm of knowledge, you should refer the question to someone who can answer it.

 

Online Research

As a tutor, you may very well be asked to help students with research for a project or paper. Although most students are well versed in searching for things online, online research for an academic assignment is quite different from searching for, say, the cheapest airfare to Disney World. You should be able to help the student to identify appropriate online resources and to discern those that have little or no value in an academic setting. Please take a few minutes to look over the following links: