Notes on Tutor Meeting of 1-13-20

Each tutor introduced themselves to the group.

1.  Goals - discussion included how tutors should contact students. It was the concensus that email contact is the primary way to reach students. Giving your phone number is discouraged. In some instances you could contact a student by calling them (you can use *67 to block your caller ID). Meeting with the student "on campus" is also discouraged.

2. Early Alert System - Student Learning Assessments were completed in Spring 2009 - see http://slo-law.pbworks.com and one of the strategies to improve student success and retention is to have law faculty contact students early in the semester if they are having problems. Tutors suggested that the law faculty in grading assignments recommend that students contact their assigned class tutor.

4 Biographies - The concensus was to not provide a biography of each tutor since students then might "self select" their tutor instead of contacting the assigned class tutor.

5. Quiz Appeals - The tutors agreed to act as the "Court of Appeals" in processing appeals - see http://profj.us/appeals (provide comments on how to improve the appeals process). The tutors decided to work in teams, or together in responding to appeals to prevent students from seeking other, more favorable answers from the other tutor.

6. Guest status in moodle - Tutors and Prof J discussed and agreed that each tutor would be assigned "Guest" status in the moodle classroom they are tutoring so they can access assignments, and quizzes, etc. but not impact or participate in class.

7. Poor student writing in forum discussions - Tutors discussed the poor writing of a number of students in the forum discussions. Engllish 101 was a requirement for the certificate in the past. However, our program does not teach english, and only concentrates on teaching law content. The law faculty and our legal employers all comment on how poor the writing is with the average "paralegal". To improve writing, tutors will review the written work of students they tutor, and will recommend ways for students to improve their writing, and will also refer students to the Learning Resource Center at the school for help with basic grammar.

8. Promotion of the tutoring program - Prof J. will email each class about the new tutoring program, and post a link to the tutors in each class to promote the tutoring program.

updated: 1-16-10