Julia #4

I was very surprised to learn about Fei’s preference for online tutoring. In my experience so far, I’ve found the face to face contact really crucial to my tutoring style, especially for identifying global issues in student work. Often, casual conversation about the work will clarify the source of a specific mistake, so create opportunity for more profound teaching and learning moments.

This is much like the difference between giving my GEL students written feedback on their papers vs having them come in to office hours to meet with me - the students that meet face to face very often have more success grade-wise than those who just rely on margin comments. I’m curious if there’s any outreach for international students who are online tutoring “frequent flyers” to encourage them to sign up for an in-person session. 

I understand the appeal, thanks in large part to Lei's case study, but I wonder if the intimidation or social anxiety of in-person support isn't a part of the hesitancy with some students. 

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 19, 2018 at 12:52 PM

    Julia, this was how I felt while reading too. Sometimes I can tell by a student’s body language or hesitance to make a suggested edit whether they’re feeling confident about or understanding the feedback I’m giving. It really does make all the difference to be in person. Social anxiety would make sense. That’s definitely a reason why I avoided tutoring in my undergrad. But I also wonder if the purpose of asynchronous tutoring could advertised in a way so students know it’s not so much a resource for having their papers edited as it is a way for them to actually be tutored.

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