All day, any day online resources available for information, tutoring

Etutoring.org is an online tutoring resource available to students attending colleges that are involved in the Etutoring consortium.

"We share our resources with Pacific Northwest colleges and institutions," said Tony Cacchione, Tutoring Center coordinator. "You can go online and work with professional tutors from all over the Northwest."

Washington State University began this program, he said.

All the participating colleges pay for tutors. Centralia College hired a former math instructor as our representative tutor.

Every Centralia College student has access to information 24 hours a day. The user name is the student identification number and the password is Centralia.

"Log in, go to the subject area and see who is tutoring. If no one is working, submit the question for the morning," he said. "It's relatively guaranteed that any time, seven days a week, you can get help."

Both professionals and students doing advanced work tutor in a variety of subject areas, said Dean of Library Services & eLearning Sue Gallaway.

These include accounting, anatomy and physiology, biology, chemistry, English, with an emphasis in writing, general science, math, including calculus and statistics, Microsoft Office, Spanish, and web development. The site also has resources to learn research methods and study strategies.

"Virtually everything is available, except maybe languages other than Spanish," said Cacchione. "The sad thing is that no one is using this resource. It's sort of a very new concept, very under utilized."

There are a few downsides to the site.

"You aren't face to face with someone," he said. "If you get on when there's no tutor online, you have to wait to get a response."

But tutors are online at later hours than the Peer Tutor Center and Writing Center are open. And, you have access to the online tutors from any internet-able computer.

"It's essentially like any other type of tutoring," he said. "Students come with their work and questions."

There are also worksheets and other materials, like outside links, available for use.

Students have used this resource as late as 1:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m.

Tutors have scheduled shifts, available for viewing on the website, for both live tutoring and email response.

"The benefits outweigh the drawbacks for any students, even if you're not comfortable using chat," said Gallaway.

Although this source is great for students, lack of interest terminated the program in the 2008/2009 school year.

"We had it last year and it didn't get much usage," she said. "It was decided that it wasn't worth the money."

Fall quarter 2009 the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges picked up the funding, she said.

"We need to work on better ways to communicate these resources to our students," said Gallaway. "They should let us know if there is any other type of support resources they need."

Other helpful online college sites students have access to are the Online Writing Lab, at Owl.waol.org, and the Ask a Librarian feature found on the Kirk Library's website at Library.centralia.edu.

During the quarter, a student can upload draft submissions through the online writing lab and receive feedback within a day or so.

"Centralia College spearheaded that effort," she said. "The project in terms of partnerships has really taken off."

Linda Foss, associate professor, was one of the people who put the most effort in to get it started.

"We have collaborated with other state community colleges to create and maintain it for the last 3 years," said Foss. "It's linked to our Writing Center page, as well as eLearning and Tutoring Center pages."

The online writing lab does more than allow for draft feedback.

"It contains a collection of writing resources and a lot of self help material on specialized writing," said Gallaway.

The Ask a Librarian portion of Kirk Library's website allows any time and any day live chatting with local, national and even international librarians.

Whether students need help choosing a subject for an essay or research paper, have questions on any given topic or need to know where to find information on a topic, the live chat is always available.

Some of the college's own librarians participate in the live chat for two hours a week. In return, the college has access to this resource.
 
"There's this recognition that students are doing their work outside of our business hours. Students should take advantage of them for sure," said Gallaway.