Everyone needs a coach's help now and then to understand difficult concepts, to organize schoolwork, or to move past a mental block. Thus, to help students succeed in their classes, HutchCC hires and trains many tutors whom students can visit for free. Our tutoring program is certified by CRLA (College of Reading and Learning Assistance). Over the 2019-2020 school year, over 80% of students who received drop-in tutoring in math or writing earned an A, B, or C in their class. Closer to 70% of students who received tutoring by appointment earned an A, B, or C (perhaps due to COVID and a higher course withdrawal rate).
What should I expect?
The tutoring process varies depending on your needs: You might need to drop by for five minutes or five hours. You might have only occasional questions, or you might need intensive help to improve your study skills and learn how to break down each concept and task into doable chunks. Regardless, tutoring is a dialog and a process that requires student participation—and it may take longer than expected to resolve the issues.
While the tutor's advice can help you improve your grades for particular assignments, the tutor's primary goal is to equip you to learn independently for any course or task. To encourage independent learning skills, they will not re-teach a class you missed, give you answers, nor do the work for you. Instead, they will advise you how to find the answers, help you identify and resolve the source of your difficulties, demonstrate how to problem-solve barriers, help clarify ideas, teach you study skills, help you manage your time and class papers, ask you questions to broaden your thinking, give you extra opportunities to practice and quiz yourself, and help you find and use resources. They can be your coaches and your cheerleaders, helping you gain the confidence and skills you need to successfully direct and manage your own learning.
How should I prepare?
Before you come for tutoring, do the parts you can independently first. You might surprise yourself with your ability—but even if you can't get far, trying will still help you identify where you struggle most and what specific issues you would like a tutor to help you overcome. This way, you can make the most of your time with the tutor. Also remember to gather all of your supplies: your class assignment, textbooks, notes, paper, pencils, and anything else you may need. Finally, to help you focus and to show respect for your tutor's time, please silence your phone—or if you must deal with an urgent matter mid-session, please excuse yourself and take care of calls and texting outside the tutoring area.
Rimmer's Academic Support Services offers drop-in tutoring for free to students and public alike—though HutchCC students will have priority when we are busy. These services do not require an appointment. Simply drop by the tutoring areas during the times posted on our Tutoring Services Summary. This summary also lists the subjects available for the current semester.
All tutors can assist with general study skills, regardless of the subject. If you need subject-specific help, however, and we do not offer a drop-in service for that subject at a time when you can attend, then during the fall and spring semesters, HutchCC students (but not the public) can request an individual tutoring appointment. If our tutors cannot assist with your course or at the times you have available, we can help you consult your instructor or department head about alternative assistance.
If you can’t come in person to RLRC, you may find help through email (in all four semesters), through web conferencing (only in spring and fall), and through independent-study weblinks in the tutors' LearningZone course (year-round).
Regarding email, send questions to tutors@hutchcc.edu. When you do so, please provide your full name, instructor's name, class, a description of the assignment, its due date, and the specific question(s) or topic(s) you need help with. A tutor will try to respond within an hour when Rimmer is open, but this is not always possible when the tutoring labs are busy or the tutor for that subject does not have regularly-scheduled hours. We will inform you of any significant delay, so if you do not hear from us in three hours during a day we are open, please contact us by phone to check whether we received your email; sometimes it has been sent to the wrong address, delayed by the internet, or overlooked or misfiled by a new student tutor. (This is the only online tutoring option available to non-HutchCC students, and then only for math- and writing-related questions.)
Regarding web-conferencing, we communicate through an easy-to-use program called Zoom, which is similar to Skype and Facetime. It permits optional real-time video and audio and includes features for text chatting, screen-sharing, highlighting, and more. During the fall and spring semesters, HutchCC students may request web conferencing tutoring appointment(s) by filling out an online request form. (Students can also use this same form to request a face-to-face appointment, though if we have a drop-in service for that subject, we will recommend trying that first.) Please request appointments at least two business days in advance to allow us time to make arrangements or to renegotiate times if needed.
For independent online study, students can use LearningZone to access the public course Tutor Services, which provides helpful handouts and web links on a variety of subjects.
While we generally recommend that students try our drop-in services first, sometimes that doesn't work out. Students may need help in a subject that the tutoring labs and SI sessions don’t cover, or perhaps those venues don’t suit the students' schedules or styles of learning, or the students may live too far away to come in person. In such cases, and only during the fall and spring semesters, HutchCC students may request a tutor to meet them by appointment in Rimmer or online—one-on-one or with classmates. They might arrange just one appointment, reserve a time for as-needed use, or set up regular appointments. If we do not currently have a tutor for the class, we will try to find one or will recommend another method for the students to get the help they need.
To set up tutoring appointments for a fall or spring semester, please complete the Tutoring Appointment Request Form.
Rimmer Learning Resource Center supports the academic success of student-athletes by teaming up with coaches to provide evening study sessions during the spring and fall semesters. This provides athletes with exemplary tutors, as well as access to a computer lab to work on assignments and online classes. For student-athletes who may need more help with certain courses, they can get additional help through drop-in and individual tutoring.
For more information, contact your coach or contact RLRC's Coordinator for Athletic Tutoring by email at FreemanP@hutchcc.edu. In the spring and fall semesters, you can also reach Paula after 5 p.m. Sunday to Thursday by calling (620) 665-3449.
Academic Support Services provides opportunities for students to be hired and trained as tutors. Students who are interested may fill out the application linked below and email it to Brad Fenwick at fenwickb@hutchcc.edu.