Georgia Gwinnett College-2016--Tutoring

GGC’s investment in tutoring services has been a feature of the college since its opening. As of the most recent academic year, tutoring services are offered in a central campus location, in classrooms, online, and at a variety of other campus venues, including the campus Residence Halls. The on-campus tutoring center is open 63 hours per week and offers support for all classes and disciplines, with limited exceptions, which are typically covered in online or specialized tutoring sessions. The tutoring center, known as the Academic Enhancement Center (AEC), employs two coordinators (one for Writing, one for Math/Science), 33 professional tutors, 12 student/peer tutors, and 10 student assistants. In addition, more than 60 faculty volunteers and a small number of community volunteers have donated time to the center each academic year. In the 2015-16 academic year, the AEC saw 3489 students.

GGC offers tutoring outside of the AEC through its TIC-TAC-TOE programs. The TIC program provides Tutors In the Classroom for selected courses. During the 2015 – 2016 academic year, TICs were assigned to 4 sections of EAP (English for Academic Purposes) EAP 0080, EAP 0081, EAP 0090); 19 sections of English courses (ENGL 0989,ENGL 0099/ENGL 1101, ENGL 1101, ENGL 1102), 16 sections of MATH courses (MATH 0987, MATH 0989, MATH 0997/1001, MATH 0999/1111), and 12 sections of ITEC courses (ITEC 2140, ITEC 2150, ITEC 3150). The TAC program provides Tutors Around Campus, professional tutors who provide drop-in tutoring in a variety of well-populated locations on campus such as the library, the residence halls, and the student center. During AY15-16, 7 TAC tutors supported 65 unique students with a total of 142 visits. TAC offered tutoring in the Library, A – Building, and Residence Life. TOE offers Tutoring Online Every day through a relationship with Smarthinking (a Pearson service), which provides access any time of the day or night to online tutoring for GGC students. In the 2015-16 academic year, 522 unique students utilized 2390 tutoring sessions and/or submitted essays for review in multiple courses. 158 students used SmartThinking for assistance with more than one class. The AEC’s support of GGC’s students through the TIC-TAC-TOE programs has been recognized by a 2016 Chancellor’s Service Excellence Student Improvement Initiative Team Award—Silver level.

In addition, AEC staff offer student success workshops and maintain a strong outreach presence on campus. The workshops cover topics as diverse as exam preparation and time management techniques, to stress relief strategies and how to use learning style preferences to improve study methods. For AY15-16, 78 workshops were offered and 581 students attended. The AEC regularly participates in campus-wide events for prospective and current students such as Bear Essentials orientation showcases, Path to Success Day, Grizzly Days, Open Houses, and even the Sustainability Fair. The AEC maintains social media presence with a Facebook page and Twitter account. These efforts are worth mentioning because they are invitations to students where they are—physically or virtually—and reinforce the idea that GGC is committed to supporting the whole student, academically and otherwise. More students are likely to access the AEC’s varied offerings when they are encouraged to do so by multiple parties and in different ways across campus and online. To these ends, AEC staff additionally visit classrooms upon request to discuss AEC services and events.