Peer Tutoring

Q. What do peer-tutors do?

The primary responsibility of peer-tutors is to guide students through exercises that emphasize and reinforce important concepts covered in class. They work with you to see what you currently understand and how to get you to the next stage of comprehension. And because each individual will have unique needs, we might help you with a variety of things, including interpreting assignments, understanding complex readings, brainstorm ideas to get you started or unstuck, and asking questions about your ideas.

Q. What don’t peer-tutors do?

Like all of our services, peer-tutoring should never be an alternative to class time. Tutoring sessions are not mini-lectures, and peer-tutors are specifically taught to avoid re-lecturing in their sessions. Instead they are trained to guide and facilitate student collaboration as a way of helping students review material on their own. Additionally, peer-tutors should not be treated as an answer key to proof homework or correct exams. In fact, you will need explicit permission from your professor to work on evaluative assignments like quizzes, tests, and exams.

Q.Can I be a peer-tutor?

Absolutely you can. Each position has slightly different requirements, but generally speaking each position will require a resume, cover letter, and a tentative schedule. You will also need an idea of which courses you would tutor for. Other materials like transcripts, professor recommendations, and course preferences are recommended but not required.

Q. I’m a professor and want peer-tutoring support for my course—what do I do?

First, thank you for your interest in our program. We appreciate your support and would love to help where we can. With that said, we do have a few requests for the faculty we support.

Our first request is that you are mindful of the limited resources in the department. While we would like to have a tutor for every section of every course, the reality is that a number of factors force us to prioritize certain classes each semester. With that in mind, we do try to allocate support where it will have the biggest impact on student experience, and there’s a good chance we’ll be able to work something out.

The next request is that you send us recommendations for those you think would make effective peer tutors. While we can’t hire every student that’s recommended to us, faculty endorsements help us know who might be a good fit for a particular course.

The last request is that you contact us before the semester begins. The Academic Tutoring department has a lot of moving parts, and it’s incredibly difficult to begin support for a class in the middle of a semester. Instead, please contact us the semester before the one in which you would like support. For inquiries, please reach out to our peer-tutoring coordinator—Laurie Toro.

Q. I’m a professor and want to encourage my students to visit the drop-in labs—is there a syllabus statement I can use?

You’re more than welcome to use the following statement in your syllabus.

This course is supported by peer tutors from Academic Tutoring, a free program that offers you additional resources for developing study strategies and learning course content. Our tutors have previously completed this course and understand the concepts well enough to help you work through questions you have. While tutors will not complete/correct homework for you or help you on take-home tests or quizzes, they will help you understand and reinforce concepts that you are learning in your classes.

Depending on the subject, drop-in tutoring will be in one of our five labs across campus. Additionally, for online tutoring sessions, visit uvu.upswing.io where you can find help by searching for a particular class.

Please see the professor if you have further questions regarding the peer-tutoring program, or you can also contact UVU’s department of Academic Tutoring by calling 801-863-5521.

Also, visit our faculty resource page to find out more ways Academic Tutoring can support your classes.