March 9, 2014

3101 S. Taylor St, Apt 1671

72204 Little Rock, AR

Denise LeGrand
University Of Arkansas at Little Rock
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
2801 S. University Avenue
72204 Little Rock, AR


Dr. LeGrand,

Thank you for providing me with this opportunity to research about the potential measures to
take about the UALR MAC can maximize its services from tutoring either on site or online. The
report is titled Recommendation Report to have an Online Math Tutoring Program (OMTP) for
Mathematics Assistance Center (MAC) in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at
UALR. In this report, I recommend that a simple and text-based online math tutoring program
be introduced to motivate students on how they can constantly connect with tutors anywhere and
anytime.

If there is any other detail I can provide you with as you review this report, please dont hesitate
to contact me. I am looking forward to meeting with to hear your thoughts. I hope this report is
helpful in increase the number of students that use Mathematics Assistance Center at UALR.


Sincerely,
Moise Dukuziman





Recommendation Report to have an Online Math Tutoring Program (OMTP) for
Mathematics Assistance Center (MAC) in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at
UALR








For
Denise LeGrand
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Director of MAC at UALR













By
Moise Dukuzimana
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Department of Systems Engineering









March 16, 2014


iii

Table of Contents
Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... iv
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1
2. Background ............................................................................................................................ 1
2.1. Tutoring Program is Important to UALR ............................................................................... 1
2.2 Tutoring State at UALR ....................................................................................................... 2
3. Problem and Issues.................................................................................................................. 2
3.1 Giving a chance to approach Fears. ........................................................................................ 2
3.2 Inconsistent and Overconfidence ........................................................................................... 2
3.3 Major Issue ......................................................................................................................... 2
3.4 Workload............................................................................................................................ 3
3.5 Lifestyle in the Region ......................................................................................................... 3
3.6 Simplicity Level .................................................................................................................. 3
3.7 Declines in Motivation Curve ................................................................................................ 4
4. Solution to the Problem ........................................................................................................... 4
4.1 Fighting Fear....................................................................................................................... 5
4.2 A Call to Being Consistent and Staying Motivated ................................................................... 5
4.3 Major Issues and Workload ................................................................................................... 5
4.3.1 Google Docs and BlackBoard ......................................................................................... 6
4.3.2 Thinking Budget ............................................................................................................ 6
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 6
Recommendation ........................................................................................................................ 7
References (MLA) ....................................................................................................................... 7







iv




Abstract
The purpose for this report is to recommend beginning a program in the Department of
Mathematics and Statistics to back up the Mathematics Assistance Center (MAC). The online
tutoring program is a text-based program where students write their question and submit them
using either BlackBoard or Google Docs. In this report, the number of students that attend the
MAC are shown and compared to the total number of students enrolled for Mathematics and
Math-related courses. These statistics shows the positive impact that tutoring center has on
students that use MAC regularly. In this report, the problems are illustrated, as an example all
students cant make it on campus on daily basis. The report recommends; starting an online
tutoring program where emails will be sent to UALR students registered in Math classes and
Physics classes this will help to make students understand steps to success. By solving the
problem will help saving the work on MAC database, and will make the work simpler and very
efficient. The report concludes by saying that by Fall Semester 2014 this program be started and
the MAC will keep track of the online program to make all the necessary changes that will help
this online tutoring program at UALR. I am recommending that the UALR look into this report
to take into considerations of the advantages presented therein.




















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1. Introduction
When I first got UALR I did not know of any tutoring center until months later. Not knowing
about the tutoring program made my classes challenging. Once I did find out that UALR has
tutoring centers I got impressed on how much helpful it was to go and ask for help. People have
worked so hard during the past decades to make sure programs like tutoring were started in
schools. University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) is one of those schools that have tutoring
centers one of which is the Mathematics Assistance Center (MAC). The objective of MAC is to
instill confidence in students mathematical abilities, increase competence in mathematics, raise
students mathematical achievement and develop appreciation for mathematics. We are here to
dispel the myths and negative attitudes about mathematics and to equip students with the proper
skills necessary to succeed in mathematics (MAC Mission Statement). In this report I will show
the importance of tutoring and the need of an online tutoring program here at UALR, I will show
problems at hand and how to find solutions, I will also show the challenges and what it is I am
suggesting that UALR can do for students to get involved in going to the tutoring centers. In this
report I will identify the problem with not currently having an online tutoring program for MAC.
I will show my recommendations on how to have this online tutoring center running.

2. Background

2.1. Tutoring Program is Important to UALR
Online tutoring is important to all students at all levels. According to the American Educational
Research Journal, eight studies reported results on student attitudes toward the subject matter that
they were being taught. In all eight of these studies, student attitudes were more positive in
classrooms with tutoring programs (Cohen, Kulik, et al., 1982). The above study demonstrates
that schools with tutoring program have a big number of students succeeding with their studies.
In addition, recently researches show that the traffic of people using the tutoring programs, either
face-to-face or online tutoring, is growing drastically. Students while at school engage in chats
that are school-based because they want to know more, students get challenged during or after
the semester because learning is a process that goes on once started. In order for them to
understand better what have been taught to them, they find it easy to start conversations over
internet media. We want that students at UALR understand how much help they can get from our
tutoring centers as well as getting to know how important it is to use online services once
provided. Therefore, we should invest in students to make sure they are taking advantage of
tutoring opportunities here at UALR.

We need to take tutoring at UALR to the next level. We can encourage students to take their
work to people that can help them and make their learning experience enjoyable. Going to class
and meeting in online classes give students an introduction or limited explanation of what the
subject is all about. Institutions should not assume that going to class is enough for a student to
be a successful future man/women.. According to American Research Journal, In 45 of 52
achievement students, the examination performance of students who were tutored was better than
the examination performance of students in conventional class (Cohen, 1984). This is about
87% success for students having access on tutoring services. Our school is going to be even more
competitive if we focus on how we can make better changes that students need to have all
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tutoring help they could possibly get.


2.2 Tutoring State at UALR
The UALR Online Writing Library (OWL) has made a step to help students who need help
outside of the OWL. The OWL can easily affect the success of those students in the Department
of Rhetoric and Writing here at UALR. From the email conversation I had with Dr. Allison she
focuses on how many people use tutoring services in both Writing Center. Allison says we can
accomplish more and get more done. The Writing Center at UALR has made a step to offer
online tutoring where students submit papers, tutors at the Writing Center take time to respond
and give feedback to the clients. Anna is a graduate students in charge of this program at the
writing Center, she clarifies that The OWL is efficient in that it gives students who cannot come
to campus an opportunity to get feedback on higher order concerns (content, structure,
organization) (Anna, Email 2014). The target here is efficiency as opposed to looking on who
can make it on campus for tutoring.

3. Problem and Issues

3.1 Giving a chance to approach Fears.
The UALR Math Assistance Center (MAC) provides tutors for Math and Physics. The problem
is that students still have mindset that Math is hard and cant be easily done. Students in general
find these subjects very hard which makes it hard to overcome fears and wrong mentalities
developed about Math and Physics. Mathematics is a nationwide disability. We cannot say that
our students are immune to fear related to Math subject. By the time the online text-based online
tutoring program starts, the UALR MAC will be able to fight fear that students develop towards
working on their math works.

3.2 Inconsistent and Overconfidence

The other group of students is that which thinks that they can do all by themselves until they
realize that they should have used tutoring offered for them. According to Globalization and
Offshoring, demand in an increasing manner external help that can guarantee more chances of
success (Alexandre et al. p. 62). In this quote it is clear that the more people you can tutor, in
this case, the more material you are transmitting and hence quick improvement of the system inn
general. Thinking that external help is only needed when students feel like they are failing can
blind those that think they are smart not to ask. The UALR Math Assistance Center can influence
students to see how important it is to ask for help.

3.3 Major Issue

The UALR MAC hours of service are limited considering the fact that UALR is a school
attended by hundreds of students. The UALR MAC has a face-to-face tutoring program that only
helps those students that can be on campus during the time the service center is open. The MAC
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is open six days a week Monday through Thursday from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, Friday from 8:00
am to 3:00 pm, and then Saturday 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Based on the on how much students have
to study this is not enough time. Tutoring online would help in this case because students will
still access work after work hours.

3.4 Workload

Most assignments are assigned through online websites. As a tutor at MAC most students who
come for help they have their work online on websites such as; webassign.com, aleks.com and so
on. Sometimes it just takes explaining them why they are getting stuck on some problems or just
providing helpful feedback to help them understand how to attack the problem. Observations I
have made led me to understanding why a lot students blame their teachers for not teaching well.
Students blame teachers because students sometimes dont know how to study. And students
should take a challenge to be competitive. Understanding details to why students have hard time
learning class material is going to help MAC improving tutoring level.

3.5 Lifestyle in the Region

The UALR has students at stages of life with different abilities and different lifestyles; this
makes it hard to have uniformity to how students access the math help center. Students are very
busy with work, they have long drive to school, students have family to care of, and students can
sometimes have bad weather conditions from where they are from, students could be taking
online classes at UALR living out of states, and students could not come on campus during some
hours due to their own safety concerns. These are some of the limiting factors to students from
getting advantages from tutoring. We have to be aware of these challenges and speak for students
who might even not know about all services provided on the campus. According to Journal of
Policy Analysis and Management, Overall, our quantitative and qualitative findings combined
suggest that in many publicly funded, OST tutoring sessions, students are not getting enough
hours of high-quality, differentiated instruction to produce significant gains in their learning.
This is not a problem that will be resolved only by setting minimum hours standards for tutoring
providers, given that invoiced hours do not equal quality instructional time (Carolyn J. Heinrich
et al., 2014). We should take into consideration, as an institution, all students by studying their
studying behaviors, by analyzing how they use their study hours, and by making sure all that
need tutoring are accessing materials they need help in. Knowing about the issue helps finding
causes and understanding people that are affected by the problem.

3.6 Simplicity Level


In addition to preventing factors why students can easily come to the MAC, there is also a lack
of doing things in a more simple ways. The simplicity is an important key to starting a program
that can deal with helping people online. MAC has already tried to have everyone served but the
program was on large scale as explained by the Director of MAC We used to have "NetTutor".
This was a company that provided an online whiteboard and you could use your microphone or
4

telephone to talk. I manned the hours personally as well as a dedicated online tutor. The problem
was that we had hardly any users (Denise, Email 2014). As results of more text-based
communication, people are more interested in chatting. Therefore we should consider using a
basic system where any student will find it easy to use any time and be able to save their works
for later references.

3.7 Declines in Motivation Curve

I have gotten calls from people who were at their house asking for a discussion about a class over
the phone. One can understand how hard it may be trying to orally explain classes over the
phone. The emphasis here is that people that are not able to get on campus they still need
tutoring. If this problem gets fixed it may avoid students get mislead by outside tutors who may
give information that is not directly related to the curriculum being used at the school. Our tutors
play also a role of reminding students to go over textbooks to make sure they can conform to the
program being offered to the colleges. According to the British Journal of Education, computer
aided tutoring helps students to have self-discipline and it also helps channeling skills in more
comfortable manner. (Evans, Michael J., Jeffrey M, 2013). Apparently the degree of self-
discipline wouldnt be possible if students do have a mindset that one can become so good at a
class without using and consulting the textbooks as planned by instructors. I do believe that when
this online program get launched students, through comments over the chats, will be reminded
which pages or chapters in their textbooks they can study.


4. Solution to the Problem
A chart that illustrates the contribution of the online tutoring program over face-to-face tutoring
program. This chart shows that both on campus and off campus students can be tutored.
5



4.1 Fighting Fear
Starting the text-based online program for Math and related subjects at UALR will help to
overcome fears. Students will be able to ask for suggestions and discussions over the chats will
be more likely to be satisfying. This program will also help those students that are afraid to ask a
question due to their personalities. Based on todays social media, text get sent in a big number
on a daily basis, therefore this program is the right one to put all students at work and help them
to fight fears. In this part the texts are messages sent over an internet channel either using
blackboard or google docs.

4.2 A Call to Being Consistent and Staying Motivated
Even smart students they still need to give input by asking questions and contributing in an
online program such as this. One becomes smart by constantly learning. We are going to
motivate students to use our program so they can help others and improve their own skills.
Starting OMTP at UALR will help all students to always have sharp brain ready to answer and
understand the applications of math subjects. Calling students to use and check online tutoring
work will help students to be acting hence the success to UALR students.

4.3 Major Issues and Workload
Understanding the opportunities offered on the school in terms of tutoring is a major step to take
for using the resources available for the MAC. According to the Teaching Mathematics and Its
Applications, Students who traditionally may be studying in a school on their own now are
given increased opportunities to interact with other students online. There are no venue or travel
costs (Lissaman et al, p.219). This paper focuses on providing online tutoring services for math
6

and related subjects to help students that are not able to be in the math lab during the working
hours. Students who may be financially struggling are benefiting from this program. Letting
everyone that goes at UALR know about this program will help all students use opportunities.

4.3.1 Google Docs and BlackBoard
The described problem does have a solution. There is a way to increase number of students that
use MAC services whether on campus or off campus. Considering that today MAC has many
computers it is possible to start Online Math Tutoring (OMT). I am proposing to use the online
tutoring here at UALR on a small-scale. According to College Student Journal, synchronous
communication requires all participants to interact at the same time (Roy, 2013). Today people
use emails, Facebook, twitter, and many more other social media for communication. This
program here at UALR will help students to get be efficient in ways to communicate. Using this
method will allow tutors to directly through chats ask tutees what they think about the problem
and they will exchange idea hence enhancing what is being learned in the class.

UALR has available resources available on this small-scale, we will be using BlackBoard and
Google Docs to help students. Alexandre says that people need training and get more
comfortable with computers so that they can communicate more efficiently. Opportunities
available today have never been so real to our eyes as they appear today thus the electronic
environment can grasp the whole world (Alexandre et al.). When used for the right reasons, the
internet is one the fastest media to learn. Therefore, tutoring would be a good area to exploit.

4.3.2 Thinking Budget
This investment is on a small-scale and as of for now it should cost no money. Usually tutors can
help both online and onsite students in order every one of the students needing help came in. For
example the Google Docs has the Math tools to use, I typed this Math operation using Google
Docs

.
We need to have students registered for all Mathematics classes and Physics classes in OMPT
list, by doing this students will be notified of OMPT activities on weekly basis. We will
encourage feedback and comments. We will also motivate those students that already use the
MAC to try the OMPT, this will help us to tell the difference between the face-to-face and online
tutoring state at UALR.
Conclusion
Tutoring a small-scale level presents simplicity in terms of setting up appointments. Knowing
that someone is online seeking for help will be enough to start helping her/him. This proposal
opens doors to students to use texts/chats and get as much help as they need through this channel.
Keeping close studies and observations to how successful text-based online tutoring is will help
to know how to expand the options for UALR students. This report focused on starting an Online
Math Tutoring Program (OMTP) that has the primary purpose to help students that cannot easily
be on campus during the hours the UALR MAC is open. In this report I explored the problems
that come to play such as lack of motivation for some students, workload. The main problem is
students drive miles from campus and this was seen as a preventing factor to using the actual
tutoring math tutoring service, and many other similar cases to this are found under section
Lifestyle in the Region. In this report the calling to using a simpler method was introduced
7

which explained why we needed a small-scale text-based online tutoring. The report emphasized
how fear and stereotypes slows down the pace at which the tutoring program here at UALR
should be moving with.
Recommendation
Starting this program in Fall 2014 would be good to help students and tutors create a strong
communication medium over the internet. Starting this program will help students to be
motivated, students that cannot get on campus on daily basis will benefit from it, and students in
enrolled in Math and related subjects will be able to used Googles Docs and BlackBoard
successfully in accomplishing school duties.











References (MLA)

Alexandre, Sunhwa Jang, Ventura. "Private Tutoring through the Internet: Globalization and
Offshoring - Springer." Private Tutoring through the Internet: Globalization and
Offshoring - Springer, 01 Mar. 2010. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.

Allison, Anna. Knowing About The Online Tutoring Program for Writing Center @UALR
Message to the OWL. January 21. 2014. E-mail.

Annalae Good, Caroly J, Heinrich, Huiping Cheng, Patricia Burch, and Ruddy Acosta.
"Improving the implementation effectiveness of out-of-school-time tutoring."Heinrich.
N.p., 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 02 Feb. 2014

Asher, James J. "Fear of Mathematics." (1981): n. pag. Web. 16 Mar. 2014

Denise LeGrand Class Requiring to Make a Proposal about a Local Issue Message to the
Director of MAC. January 24. 2014.E-Mail

Evans,Jeffrey S Moore, and Michael J. "Peer Tutoring With The Aid Of The Internet." British
Journal Of Educational Technology 44.1 (2013): 144-155. Education Research
Complete. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.

Lissaman, Richard, Sharon Tripconey and Sue De Pomerai. "Using Live, Online Tutoring To
Inspire Post 16 Students To Engage With Higher Level Mathematics." Teaching
Mathematics & Its Applications 28.4 (2009): 216-221. Education Research Complete.
Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
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Kulik, Chen-Lin C., James A. Kulik, and Peter A. Cohen. "Educational Outcomes of Tutoring A
Meta-analysis of Findings." Aer.sagepub.com. SAGE, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.

Roy, Schwartzman. "Reviving A Digital Dinosaur: Text-Only Synchronous Online Chats And
PeerTutoring In Communication Centers." College Student Journal 47.4 (2013): 653-
667. Professional Development Collection. Web. 8 Feb. 2014