Smart Tutor: Combining Smart Books and Peer Tutors for Multi-media On-line Instruction

Using on-line tutoring programs to supplement tutoring centers at colleges is the focal point of this article. One university in Brooklyn in which the student body is made up of first generation college attendees that have to work in order to support their schooling is the case study we are looking at specifically. The tutoring center at the school had become underfunded and overused, and many of the students could not make it to the center for help due to transportation issues and lack of time. So they began using online tutoring to supplement the center. The program was used to help students with FAQ’s and to map their inquiries and gain a better understanding of the path they took to learning the material. The professors at the college gave feedback and worked with the tutors in order to make the website more user friendly. Much of the information in the courses is available online to the students, they now have access to the information from any place. They can fill in the gaps in their learning simply by posing a question on to the smart-tutor program and it can direct them to an answer. They can also follow links to information within the website and get a linear view of the information they have reviewed. Also tests are available to the students on any subject or material that is offered on the smart tutor site. This will allow students to see where their deficiencies are and work on them. Through a combination of on-line resources and tutoring centers the students at this college can overcome their situation and be given the resources to succeed.

My first reaction to this is “why doesn’t Western have this resource?” It seems like a unlimited amount of information can be put on to these sites and be organized and reorganized to cater to the students learning. Not only does it offer a platform for this information but it personalizes the way that students access it by giving them a cognitive map of their navigation through the site. I believe this would have made my trip through college a much easier one. I like the idea that this site is not the end all of the students education, rather it “fills in the gaps” that are left by a lifetime of missed opportunities due to some peoples financial situations. Always having the feeling like you are the one person who does not get it is something that pushes a lot of people away from colleges with the feeling that they never really belonged there. This could help alleviate that problem and lower the dropout rate of many universities.