NetTutor® Proves Decisive Role of Online Tutoring at NISOD 2009

June 12, 2009 - PRLog -- 9 a.m. EST, May 26, 2009

NetTutor® Proves Decisive Role of Online Tutoring at NISOD 2009

TAMPA — May 26, 2009 — Students suffer from it. Instructors complain about it. Link-Systems International, Inc. (LSI) wants to find a cure.
   
“Math phobia” commonly refers to a student’s disinterest in learning mathematics. It can also refer to a student’s inability to retain what he or she has learned. This was the hot topic Tuesday night at a NetTutor focus group in Austin, Texas, during the 2009 NISOD conference.

The NetTutor® Online Tutoring Service, provided by LSI, offers both synchronous and asynchronous tutoring across a wide range of subjects, including English, composition, business and accounting, and mathematics. The topic of this focus group – obtaining a 90% retention rate in college algebra – seemed fitting after a study conducted at the University of South Florida concluded that mathematics students with access to online tutoring ultimately achieve a 25% higher rate of persistence in the course than those without such access.

“Knowing they have a resource if they get stuck seems to help and encourage students,” says Dr. Gladis Kersaint, Associate Professor of Mathematics at USF who conducted the study, along with her colleague, Dr. David Kephart. In addition to being an Adjunct Professor of Mathematics at USF, Dr. Kephart also serves as the Director of Online Tutoring at LSI. “Students stay in a course if they believe people want them to stay,” he says of the research findings.

The study, conducted at the University of South Florida, consisted of 8 college algebra classes with access to the NetTutor® Online Tutoring Service. The tutoring is live, one-on-one, and facilitated through the use of the WorldWideWhiteBoard™, a web conferencing tool designed and owned by LSI. Tutors and students can type, draw, and insert mathematics onto the whiteboard, thus enabling them to work out problems together.

Research concluded that students who used NetTutor® Online Tutoring Service at least once exhibited a higher performance overall at the end of the class. “We see that there is a high rate of retention in classes using online tutoring,” says Dr. Kephart. For many of the focus group attendees, these findings offer hope – most attendees reported that the current retention level in all mathematics courses is, on average, less than 60%.

Barry Silber, an instructor at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, says that many students suffer from “math phobia”, and that a lack of preparation discourages persistence in core math courses. Jeff Holland, Chair of Business, Economics, and Mathematics at West Virginia University-Parkersburg agrees. “Performance in developmental classes has been awful,” he says. He believes tutoring – specifically online tutoring – can help ease these problems.


Holland’s institution currently uses a competitor for online tutoring. “We’re unsatisfied and looking for an alternative,” he says. Joe Helseth, Special Assistant to the President at Chattanooga State Technical College, mirrors Holland’s sentiments. “We’ve attempted it in the past, but we want to do it in a more organized way,” he says of his institution’s online tutoring experience.


“Our advantage is our tutors,” says Dr. Kephart, who was a tutor himself while completing his PhD in mathematics. “Our tutors are located in one location – our Tampa, Florida office – and they share their knowledge and experience, unlike our competitors, who outsource their tutoring.” Dr. Kephart explains that LSI sets up specific rules of engagement for each client to ensure instructor – and student – satisfaction. He also noted that they customize the whiteboard with tools specific to each course, whether it is world languages, accounting, or mathematics.

Dr. Kephart demonstrated the ease and effectiveness of the mathematics tools by posing an algebra question to a live tutor. As Dr. Rick Van Sant, Professor of Education at Ferris State University, watched the tutoring session, he noted the flexibility of NetTutor services. “It seems like the intent is to not impose any boundaries,” he said. “If I needed a tutor in nanotechnology, NetTutor would provide that.”

Dr. Kephart agrees. “We already know we can get a 90% retention rate in mathematics courses through the use of NetTutor; we hope to prove we can achieve it in other courses as well.”

For more information on NetTutor®: http://www.link-systems.com/nettutor
About Link-Systems, International:  We are a privately-held, self-funding technology, services and content development company dedicated to student success and retention in K-12, Higher Education, and Workforce Development.  Our core technologies include a very flexible online tutoring/teaching platform, an online gradebook, and Information Visibility Software (IVS) technology designed to provide real-time alerts regarding student performance, attendance, and other metrics.  Our core services include content development, consulting, and Online Tutoring.  Our customers include K-12 publishers, Higher Education Publishers, virtual high schools, higher education institutions, technology companies, and Joint Programs dedicated to providing online educational content to members of Organized Labor.  
www.link-systems.com

For more information:
813-674-0660, info@link-systems.com

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Link-Systems International is a privately held, technology services and content development company that has been dedicated to student success and student retention in K-12 Education, Higher Education, and Workforce Development Education since 1995.