Drop-in tutoring center model with circulating peer tutors and TutorTrac usage tracking¶

Element · All elements
Evidence · 7 claims (5 for, 1 mixed, 1 against) · 1 study (1 associational), q2 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 7 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The Tutoring Center at Western Washington University uses a model in which "students use the TC as a study area where tutors are available and freely circulate among students as they have questions," locally called drop-in tutoring. It loosely fits Topping's dyadic cross-year fixed-role peer tutoring group, with junior and senior tutors who completed a College Reading and Learning Association certified training program in a two-credit class. The TutorTrac software logged visits, hours, and tutored classes, enabling the usage-outcome analyses in this study.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Tutors complete a certified training program during their first quarter of employment
• Accurate student tracking (TutorTrac) merged with student records to assess outcomes

Constraints¶

• Accurate tracking only began fall quarter 2007, so effects on students using the center before tracking could not be assessed
• Tutoring focuses primarily on general university requirements such as pre-calculus mathematics, science, and economics

Target Learners¶

• Undergraduate freshmen at a comprehensive university

Target Learning Goals¶

• General university requirement coursework (mathematics, science, economics) and study skills

Claims¶

• Tutoring center visits showed a delayed significant correlation with cumulative GPA in subsequent quarters [+W]
• Freshmen who visited the tutoring center more than 10 times per quarter had statistically higher persistence rates than students who did not visit [+W]
• The GPA advantage of high-use tutoring visitors held across math SAT score, high school GPA, ethnicity, and first-generation status [+W]
• Tutoring center visits usually showed no significant difference in individual course performance, and sometimes tutored students performed worse [-W]
• Only the 200740F high-use group showed a significantly higher rate of good academic standing compared to non-visitors [+W]
• High-use tutoring center visitors had significantly higher cumulative GPA than non-visitors, with the main difference between >10-visit and no-visit groups [+W]
• In one university's records, minority students visit a drop-in tutoring center more often than Caucasian students, while first-generation and other students do not differ in visits [~W]

Related Elements¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Cooper, E. (2010). Tutoring Center Effectiveness: The Effect of Drop-In Tutoring. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 40(2). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ887303. doi:10.1080/10790195.2010.10850328