confercaption00:19 - h1>> je want to welcome everyone who is here an online. 00:29 - (audio is very, very poor) 00:35 - will have people participating withus to introduce themselves -- and what they are interested in. 00:49 - of(off mi 00:51 - of(off mi 00:54 - would you like to introduce yourself? 00:56 - >> of(off mi
01:02 - (inaudible) 01:12 - -- looking at online -- mandate requiresevery student to be assessed. really looking at how different -- in(indiscernibl-- 01:43 - of(off mi 01:49 - of(off mi 01:55 - work closely with instructors to ensurestudents' success of(off mi -- 02:17 - of(off mi 02:18 - h1>> je can we hear from our onlineparticipants? 02:24 - >> they can chat.
02:27 - h1>> je can you give us a brief outlineof who is out there? 02:35 - >> yeah, let's see -- 02:53 - h1>> je is your school independentor part of a bigger system? 03:04 - >> of(off mi 03:09 - in(indiscernibl 03:35 - h2>> ji we have other people in chat,wwhen they are complete i will let you know. 03:47 - >> of(off mi 03:49 - >> of(off mi at foot hill -- in(indiscernibl 03:59 - h1>> je in(indiscernibl
04:02 - h2>> ji also have howard masuda (soundslike) 04:13 - interested in what is involved inthe startup including costs, and problems that you encountered and possible solutions. 04:38 - that's all we've got. 04:42 - h1>> je would you like to introduceyourself? 04:49 - >> of(off mi 04:51 - in(indiscernibl 04:56 - -- and what we are interested in iscontributing in every way possible in(indiscernibl an entrepreneur -- to further the effectivenessof online tools.
05:19 - partners with in(indiscernibl -- instarting this. 05:26 - as jim will explain. 05:30 - >> my name is jim hood, i'm with theopen doors group. 05:40 - briefly give you a little backgroundon who we are, educational, profit/nonprofit government institutions, and other individuals. 05:52 - our purpose is to prepare studentsfor the future. we work on that by open education resources, trying to reduce the costs of materialslike textbooks. a lot of work has been done on college open textbooks. 06:06 - we have additionalprojects and programshaving to do with mentoring, in(indiscernibl.
06:19 - h1>> je anybody else yet? okay. 06:24 - well, i can give a little bit of backgroundon spstar-, timeline and ideas on how we got started --- and an opportunity for questions. 06:44 - my overview will be somewhat condensed;we can go on from there. 06:48 - so, the college that i work for isthe state university of new york college at cortland. 07:04 - our main focus is education. we havechildhood all the way through high school/adolescent education programs. we have special ed, speech/hearing,and number of physical education programs including kinesiology, physical therapy thosekinds of things.
07:30 - so in 2007, when i started workingat the learning center i was also tutoring for a community college a suny sister collegein the evenings using e-mail platforms to do writing support. when i hired at cortland,i said it would be great to have a nighttime support for the students. 08:08 - i thought it would be a good thingto offer at cortland also because we did not have tutoring support from 8:30 to 4:30 forprofessional tutoring and tutoring available from 5-9. and students were struggling withpapers and stuff in the evening, it seemed to be an ideal time to work with them. 08:36 - we looked initially for a platformthat would allow us to do thisin real-time;
the tutoring program i work for -- we trainour own tutors, the model is the socratic in(indiscernibl model. the e-mail system wasnot conducive to having the kind of conversation wwith a student that allows the back-and-forthquestioning in a sleak manner. 09:05 - we looked for a platform that wouldallow us to do this. in(indiscernibl -- they were not what we were looking for. ultimatelyfound the opportunity to work with lsi ph(sounds lik -- we decided it would be compatible withour approach to tutoring. in(indiscernibl and having conversations that we felt wouldmeet in(indiscernibl -- and help students improve critical thinking skills. 09:42 - when we train tutorswe talked aboutthe idea that whatever assignment came in,
would be the vehicle for that. 09:57 - with that philosophy would move forwardin 2007 with writing support for our 100-200 level classes. we had a lot of introductorycollege composition, we were specifically hoping to add to the support options for ourstudents. we were not looking for something to substitute but we were already doing. thatwas the impetus in the beginning. 10:26 - and then, a few years later fast forwardto spring 2011, another round of state budget cuts, wondering how we would continue to offerthe service. we saw an increased demand for support, cohorts coming in. and seeing a lotof movement towards online courses and hybrid courses where students were not necessarilyon campus to access face-to-face services
that we offered. 11:04 - that conversation kind blossoms atthe new york learning skills association conference, sitting at a table with one of our sistercommunity college learning center directors talking about this problem. my colleague,teri vigars, and our colleague from the other school said, is there a way that our studentscould participate in that? who could really use to expand our service and we can't doit on our own. we cannot afford to jump into it on our own and we don't have the technologicalbackground to be comfortable doing that. 11:47 - you know, we were fortunate to havealso our -- chris at the table from lsi, said we heard about this consortium in connecticut,who have multiple ways of getting support
and services to offer to students, suggestedto other folks in our system that might be interested. that is where we jumped off andstarted in(indiscernibl -- academic resources, new york consortium. 12:31 - our start a program for that was toeach will contribute towards the -- subscription. initial buy-in was $1000 for the first year.we asked each school to contribute five hours of tutoring week; initially we had four daysa week. we offer tutoring online monday through wednesday at the time and from 7 in the eveninguntil midnight, covering the time where students are looking for help in(indiscernibl. 13:11 - and so we were able to offer initialwriting support, and expanded from that.
13:21 - in order to do that in(indiscerniblinterested within that group. 13:28 - some of us offered to contribute asecond tutor per week, starting with two days of math a week. 13:38 - and that is something nice about theconsortium. the schools have a sense of helping each other. there are some schools that offeredan extra tutor, even if the usage was not as high as in other schools because it isgood for everyone to have the opportunity to use the service, to do high-level mathor high-level writing. 14:01 - it's been very collegial an cooperative.d 14:12 - our 2012, we ended up with seven schools;we had to scramble, we had a couple come on
the the last minute. we are looking at 2013at 9-10 schools. it's a fairly quick growth curve. we did in the most recent academicyear come to the notice of the chancellor of our system who has created a new word, 14:54 - of(off mi 14:58 - campuses are sharing services thatwere originally provided separately on the different campuses and there is a lot of implicationsto that. one of the things we are excited about is that this came not from the administratorssaying in(indiscernibl no idea how it will work, but for professionals who in(indiscernibl,getting more students the service that they need. and that is how it has been growing.
15:40 - that's kind of the reason start overviewof how spstar- came to be. i will be happy to field any questions about any of the structuralparts. 15:55 - >> of(off mi 15:57 - h1>> je we do, yes. 16:00 - >> of(off mi 16:12 - brief 16:15 - h1>> je what we do know, we can seethe students that have signed in; we collected database. we can see that. we have a combinationof students use the data services and students who have never access the daytime servicesbut in fact come to online degree first. ffor
us on our campuses online tutoring is theonly opportunity to "drop in". 16:54 - of(off mi 16:58 - i think the other thing that we seeis that sometimesstudents will access spstar- first, we have one of these campuses in(indiscernibl- - have found that a lot of students students will access the online services first, andare shy to go into the tutoring center. once they find tutoring center to be helpful theyturn on the tutoring center. in(indiscernibl -- 17:29 - he 17:31 - it is an interesting combination ofonline which is more anonymous and these sort
of face-to-face connection. 17:42 - >> of(off mi 17:44 - h1>> je we have a survey the studentsfill out; that is the primary way that we are trying to get assistance in(indiscernibl-- what we have so far, we have been able to ask students questions about how in(indiscernibl-- and whether we helped them with that particular assignment. also adding questions about whetherthat would be applicable -- of(off mi -- the numbers are high. i do remember the percentageof the students that did take the service, 92% said they found it easy to use and comfortable;97% said that it helped him significantly with the assignments they were working on.
18:59 - we are trying to integrate them differentlyinto their tutoring centers; we don't have a uniform way to look at the specific impactof that service on their performance in class because we don't really know what servicesthey are getting. we haven't quite cracked that one yet. 19:20 - >> how about a question from online.howard from the online obvious asks, how was the training conducted? online, face-to-face,or both? how do you assess the effectiveness? how long? 19:39 - h1>> je that i can speak to. on myresponsibility was in(indiscernibl -- i'm the lead trainer.
19:51 - wwe start out with -- i put togethera package of materials drawn from the course i teach in the fall, having to do with helpingstudents become critical thinkers, specifically two articles, one on tutoring math, one onwriting. and how do you approach that on a socratic fashion. how you follow up with questions.included materials in(indiscernibl -- different levels of questions that you ask -- in(indiscernibl-- we actually have one print material that i included as an example. also include samplequestions with annotations -- initially the tutors would get the package of materials.after about two weeks, we will have already set up a couple of training dates. that isconducted online in a whiteboard environment. 21:13 - the reason we decided to do it thatway is, i give the material ahead of time
and asked him to come up with specific questionsand think about how the materials are similar to or different from the model in(indiscernibl-- and it dovetails with what they're used to seeing. 21:41 - when i bring them online in(indiscernibl-- 21:56 - in(indiscernibl 21:58 - -- 22:02 - so once we go online i use that onlineform so they get a sense to what is it like to come into the online environment, and tryfigure out how to use it. i give them two problems, a little exercise to do just thatthey have a sense of what it's like to be
starting out in another environment. it'simportant for them in terms of creating a constructive learning environment to knowthat, to have that sense not just because you told him but because they did it. 22:45 - and then we move onto having a discussionabout the materials; one or two guided questions and then asked the students to post theirquestions. the sessions go one and a half, two hours. that is kind of our initial training.i'm accessible to them via e-mail if you have questions after that. 23:22 - the first evening they go on, i observeand i can give them, reach to them oon the phone if they get stuck. one of our favoritethings -- in(indiscernibl --
23:47 - excellent archiving system. and nowan opportunity that did not have last year, there is a way to play the entire sessiontto see not only what happened but the sequence. 24:15 - -- give each tutor some feedback.in(indiscernibl 24:34 - inds 24:34 - (indiscernibl 24:38 - -- they get a little antsy in thatenvironment. 24:43 - that's the way that we do the trainingand do kind of an onging development. 24:52 - i guess assessment is really rolledinto that in terms oof what the tutors are doing because i can give them direct feedbackin whatever direction we need to go.
25:05 - >> great, thank you. 25:09 - h1>> je welcome. 25:12 - >> of(off mi-- 25:15 - h1>> je okay. 25:18 - >> of(off mi 25:27 - of(off mi 25:30 - h1>> je we are utilizing the tool. 25:38 - i'm not from public education, isthe state university new york system. collection of schools from the state university new yorksystem of(off mi -- using the whiteboard platform
26:01 - in(indiscernibl-- 26:04 - yeah? 26:05 - >> of(off mi 26:22 - in(indiscernibl 26:24 - inds 26:24 - (indiscernibl 26:29 - h1>> je we have community colleges;we have comprehensive colleges and university centers in our system. 26:47 - and there are -- the community collegesdo placement testing. compressives are not
allowed to do placement testing. in(indiscernibl-- 27:07 - we have to, we need it but officiallywe don't. 27:13 - >> of(off mi 27:14 - h1>> je well -- 27:17 - >> of(off mi 27:20 - h1>> je well, i think the biggestpoint of agreement was the model for tutoring. everybody was looking for a way for studentsto get more support particularly in the evenings. that surprised teri and i quite a bit. weexpected that one of the most difficult points would be deciding the date and the times.in(indiscernibl
27:53 - interestingly -- i did do researchindicating that was the peak time for a lot of the 24-hour services -- a lucky coincidence. 28:11 - in terms of collaboration the ideaof helping students become independent learners focusing on building their strengths as criticalthinkers really seems to be what drew a lot of participants into our system. they likethe training that was happening. the decision was for the initial four schools, bbecausewe have a training program already in place and a lot of the other schools did not havetraining programs in(indiscernibl -- we have a two-credit course. our tutors are certifiedby the in(indiscernibl association. the initial decision with the four schools is that wehave a training program in place, works well.
we would like to continue that. that is howwe offer training is part of what we were doing to get this thing started up. trainingand administration in(indiscernibl -- that seems to be the unifying factor. 29:24 - in terms of -- we have math and writing,across the curriculum up to the 400 level in(indiscernibl -- through the 200 level,first level calculus. some tutors can help with in(indiscernibl -- one of the thingswe have to decide to do was to add a third class because we were having so many schoolscome on. 29:57 - in(indiscernibl -- different prioritiesreally came out. the decision was to offer accounting -- we had more schools that hadthat in(indiscernibl --
30:17 - >> of(off mi 30:23 - h1>> je the institutions to join theconsortium, right now the cost is $1000 a year which goes towards the subscription topurchase a platform we use. and then each institution offers a tutor for five hoursa week; we have had a number of institutions because we wanted to add more coverage adda second tutor. and that cost varies depending on what they pay their tutors. some use peer-tutorsthat are -- certified, others use adjunct professors in(indiscernibl 31:18 - >> of(off mi 31:21 - h1>> je it's the initial purchase,basically what we look at to set the price.
right now the college has rolled my trainingduties and my colleague's administrative duties into our professional obligations. 31:57 - of(off mi 32:02 - one way that we are approaching thatwith training not that we are getting bigger, and with quality control which is really importantis we are going to start a quality control in(indiscernibl -- a couple of campus supervisorshave offered to read the transcript. we may do something similar with some of the administrativeduties as well, to keep it as low in(indiscernibl as possible for students who want to enroll.we wanted to be supplemental in addition to what other services that may be able to offer.
32:40 - >> of(off mi 32:42 - h1>> je yeah, it's been really interesting. 32:46 - >> of(off mi 32:48 - h1>> je we have one of our universitycenters in(indiscernibl and one of our university centers, they don't have centralized agreelike my institution does in(indiscernibl -- the place that we joined up with, they have asupport for residents' lives. in(indiscernibl 33:26 - she's been wonderful. 33:27 - >> ofm 33:28 - (off mi
33:29 - h1>> je we do. we have either 3 or4 community colleges very interested in getting involved. 33:40 - >> of(off mi 33:40 - 34:32 - of(off mi 34:33 - of(off mi 34:44 - >> we have about 10 minutes left. 34:49 - are there any problems were studentsuse the tutoring at one institution more than others? in(indiscernibl
35:05 - h1>> je that's a great question. sofar we have not run into the issues of in(indiscernibl in terms of what students are able to do.inds 35:18 - (indiscerniblso far that hasn't beenthat problem too much. 35:25 - we noticed in terms of student usagebutit does take some time to build the usage of each of the new schools. to some degreethat is a factor of what kind of advetising that put in place; some agree it is a factorof where the link is put. one school, first year they had usage; now it dropped off. itturns out that in(indiscernibl -- we have been working with that. there's a lot of differentfactors. 36:07 - one of the best factors for buildingusage is word-of-mouth. if students have a
good experience they tell their friends. weconsistently have had a highest usage because students have accepted this as part of theservices available. it took a while for that to happen. 36:40 - >> of(off mi 36:54 - of(off mi 36:55 - of(off mi 36:59 - h1>> je it varies by institution.in(indiscernibl i select tutors that have gone through the course. 37:23 - in(indiscernibl
37:32 - some of them have students that transferin(indiscernibl -- 37:44 - and then we have people who are adjunctsor associate professors who come to this as part of the duties; they take it in tradefor credit hours, or they do some of their hours in online teach. 38:11 - >> of(off mi 38:15 - h1>> je it is, the way the platformworks now, the queue is inside the room; the tutors work with the students one at a time. 38:35 - students in the same class will comeon with similar questions; the tutor will work with one of the students and the studentswaiting in the queue -- wwere able to work
on their question watching the conversationtaking place. 39:11 - in(indiscernibl 39:15 - it is a one other time thing. thetutor will let the students know you are second in the queue, it'll be about so much time.if there is no one waiting in the want to go over that, they're on. you would just assumehave been working with somebody. 39:41 - >> of(off mi 39:43 - h1>> je -- wonderful archiving system.that has been a huge part of our training and tutor development in terms of qualitycontrol. that was one of the reasons we chose this platform. they have an archive chat log;in(indiscernibl it shows the tutor and the
tutee in different colors, the back-and-forthconversation; archive the whiteboard as image files, the student can't just go in and acceptchanges. 40:36 - we have a new feature -- i can watch a session develop in(indiscernibl 40:43 - >> of(off mi 40:44 - h1>> je we are not using video rightnow. 40:49 - >> of(off mi 40:51 - h1>> je nope, we are just using thechat in the whiteboard session. interestingly would have a number of questions from other tutors whohave used other systems that have video, and
people interested in(indiscernibl -- in partinitially when we started it was not in(indiscerniblto do that. a lot of the students don't havean up-to-date technology; they would spend more time figuring out how to get that towork than they would in doing tutoring. 41:36 - it really slows conversation down;it helps the tutor to focus on ask questions rather than just answering a barrage of questionsfrom the tutee, it paces the conversation that follows the style of our tutoring. in(indiscernibl 42:07 - >> of(off mi 42:09 - h1>> je in(indiscernibl thank youso much everyone for joining us. if you would like to sign in -- thanks to
our online participants too. is there a wayto get their contact information? so that we can -- 42:31 - in(indiscernibl 42:32 - >>those interested in sharing the contact information put it in the chat window.