In-person and online tutoring amid pandemic

Omar E. Zapata | THE RIDER

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck nearly a year ago, the UTRGV Learning Center quickly adapted its operation to offer students online services and, more recently, has begun in-person tutoring services.

Despite services being available online and in-person, the center has experienced an estimated 25% drop in student contacts.

Arlene Ready, associate director for The Learning Center on the Brownsville campus, told The Rider that when the pandemic started, the department had to quickly change to an online format for tutoring sessions. Last fall, however, it began conducting in-person tutoring appointments, she said. 

Michael Foster, associate director for the center on the Edinburg campus, said online tutoring is done through Blackboard Collaborative and via Zoom and that student tutors use audio and video to work with students as much as they would if it were in person. 

“We try to emulate the important aspects of a tutoring session, virtually,” he said. 

Foster said they have trained the entire staff to deal with providing services online.

“The tutors are students, just like they are students, who have taken the class and earned a grade of an A,” he said. “They have experience tutoring. We’ve trained them and so they can relate to being a student and being in the exact situation that you [students] are at this point because they took the course.  So, it’s not like we’ve hired somebody and they have no idea what it’s like to be a student at UTRGV.”

Students can choose tutoring by subject, courses or even specific tutors, Foster said. 

“If you have a tutor, [for example] Joe Smith, who you worked with before and you want to work with that tutor again, our webpage is set up so that you can identify by tutor, by course number or by discipline,” he said. 

To view a full list of subjects, courses, tutors and their availability, click here.   

The in-person tutoring services are done by appointment and can be arranged through the EAB navigate application on the myUTRGV account homepage.  

Before the pandemic, The Learning Center offered walk-in hours but due to fewer tutors on campus, students are encouraged to set up appointments, Foster said.  

“If there is no appointment set up and there’s not a lot of traffic, the tutor may not come in unless an appointment has been made and they’ll just be online,” Ready said. “Because, otherwise, they’re just sitting there and we’d rather have them working than just sitting there waiting and hoping that somebody walks by, you know. We’re eventually now heading towards more of the face to face with the [COVID-19] vaccinations and things like that. It is going to get better.”  

In-person tutoring sessions are limited to 45 minutes and it is encouraged to schedule an appointment 24 hours in advance, she said.  

Foster said in-person sessions follow COVID-19 safety protocols consisting of only one-on-one sessions, wearing facial coverings at all times, maintaining six feet social distancing and having a plexiglass shield that divides the tutor and the student. Tutors also sanitize the area before and after the appointment he said.  

Ready said the biggest issue The Learning Center is experiencing with online tutoring sessions is technological issues.  

“If somebody doesn’t have really good Wi-Fi and you’ll get glitchy or the delay, lighting, or, you know, that kind of thing,” she said. “That’s going to be probably the main issue, as opposed to face-to-face, where you’re right there, live at all times and you’re not going to have somebody that goes offline, you know, if the tutor loses connection.”  

Ready added that going into an online format for tutoring made it difficult for the non-traditional older students who are not tech savvy.  

Asked if there has been an increase or decrease in students using tutoring services, Foster replied there has been a decrease compared to what The Learning Center normally saw before the pandemic.  

“We count the number of contacts,” he said. “When students come in for tutoring, they log in and, even with EAB, they log in, so we know exactly how many students you know, have been seen. The numbers are really low as they are for a lot of online services. … We didn’t expect to have the same numbers that we had before the pandemic, but the numbers are lower.”  

Asked for the number or percentage of the decrease, Foster replied, “No, we haven’t looked at it … but it’s probably something of 25%, more or less.”  

“Part of it is that [students] don’t know that our services are available just as they were, you know, before the pandemic,” he said. “Then part of it is … We know people prefer one-on-one, face-to-face tutoring and they probably just aren’t sure what to expect with online.”  

Foster encourages students having a hard time in classes to visit The Learning Center’s website and look at the options available, whether face to face or online.  

“If you’re having trouble, don’t suffer in silence,” he said. “Come see us [and] more than likely our tutors will be able to help you.”