The Tutoring Center is now holding tutoring sessions online during the coronavirus pandemic and the city’s Stay Home, Work Safe order.
Despite all appointments being held online, Pleake said not much has changed.
“Yes, our environment has changed,” Pleake said,”We have this new virtual platform, and seeing how interactive GoBoard is, it has really allowed us to maintain some of those pedagogies that we’ve always used.”
Cat Pleake, assistant coordinator for the department of Student Academic Success at the Academic Learning Center, said there are two ways to schedule an appointment.
The first is through JagWire. Click the Students tab, then Student Services, EAB – Student Success Collaborative, then Schedule an Appointment. From there students answer a series of questions that will allow them to set up an appointment.
The second way is to call the Center directly at 210-784-1332, which will then reroute students to Pleake and she can schedule an appointment.
The hours to contact the Tutoring Center are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday. Appointment times vary with each subject and tutor.
“What we ask is that students go to their EAB and then look up their tutor individually,” Pleake said in a phone interview on April 22.
Pleake said the Academic Learning Center has 14 tutors and five special interest leaders. The tutors specialize in the sciences, mathematics, accounting, business, statistics, and computer science.
“We do course-based tutoring; we don’t do just straight subjects,” Pleake said. “We tailor it to our students.”
The Tutoring Center is using the online platform GoBoard to conduct its sessions.
“The way that the system works is you get online like you would for Zoom or Webex appointments,” Pleake said. “It’s an interactive board. So, it’s not just the tutor that’s drawing on the board, tutees can also draw on the board as well and you guys can collaborate.”
To access the appointments on GoBoard, an email with a link is sent about 5-10 minutes before the scheduled session.
“All they have to do is copy the link, put it in their address bar, hit enter, select “I’m a Student,” and enter their first, last name and their student email,” Pleake said.
After the appointment, the student receives a PDF of the notes made during the session.
The appointments usually run between 30 minutes to an hour long.
“We only allow 1 hour per day, 3 times a week,” Pleake said.
For more information, email Cat Pleake at cpleake@tamusa.edu or visit https://www.tamusa.edu/academic-affairs/student-academic-success-center/tutoringservices/index.html .
