Why Asynchronous?

      We believe that by taking time to absorb and analyze the work, we give a different kind of help. Students can get real-time help on campus and through several textbook sources. When we are not working against a clock, we can think more deeply about what the student has said, look at what the student has done in previous submissions or drafts of this one, and look at work on the same topic from other students in the same class. We can carefully read the teacher’s directions to make sure that the student has included all relevant information and development.

      Content and writing tutors can check for plagiarism and consult resources to recommend other/better ones than the student has used. Since many papers are looked at by multiple tutors (content, ENGL, and research), each tutor can look at what the others have said to reinforce recommendations.

      STEM tutors can evaluate the partial work a student submits, find the conceptual issues that lead to the inability to solve problems, write analogous problems utilizing the same concepts, explain the concept, and then offer to look at the student’s work after using the help from the tutor.

      A secondary, yet still important, effect of asynchronous tutoring is that students learn a bit about time management.